I wasn’t exactly sure what happened between Rosie and her father but she returned from his room happier and more relaxed than I had ever seen her. Her smile was as bright and glittering as her eyes.

As soon as she returned to the dining room, she interrupted the slightly awkward conversation I was having with Valerie with a deep kiss. Her little hands tugging a bit at my hair before she pulled away with a grin.

“What happened in there?”

From her happy expression I could only assume she and her father had reconciled. Maybe he apologized.

“Nothing.” She chuckled, reaching down to pick a room temperature green bean off of my plate, popping it into her mouth. “Dad and I just came to an agreement, that’s all.”

Valerie spoke up from across the table before I could. “What kind of agreement?”

“He’s going to stay the fuck out of my life until he learns how to properly treat me.”

Valerie’s perfectly painted mouth gaped open. “He agreed to that?”

Rosie shrugged. “I didn’t give him much of a choice.” She reached out to grab my hand. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, Dex and I are very tired. We’ve had a long day,” she said with a giggle as she dragged me from the dining room and into her bed.

I was woken up early the next morning by a soft knock on Rosie’s bedroom door. Looking down at the woman in my arms I made sure she was undisturbed before getting up to see who it was. Melissa, the young housekeeper, greeted me with a tentative smile.

“Hi, Mr. Dex.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry to bother you so early, but Mr. Reed is requesting your presence.”

I figured it would come to this. He was too weak to come to dinner and I knew I wouldn’t be leaving the Reed estate without hashing things out with him man-to-man. No matter how satisfied Rosie felt with the outcome of their conversation.

I nodded. “Sure, just give me a second to put something on.” There was no way I was going to face that asshole in just my boxer briefs.

Melissa led me up another flight of stairs and into a large room. The smell of sickness in the air making me turn my nose up slightly. The man I assumed was Rosie’s father stared over at me from his place on the bed. His pinstriped pajamas were perfectly pressed and his hair, the same shade as hers, was combed neatly on his head.

“Mr. Quinn, I presume?” The man spoke with the cadence of someone who was much more important than he looked in that moment.

I walked forward to shake his hand, tightening my grip a bit in his cold grasp. “Yes sir.”

“And what are you to my daughter?”

There was no way I was telling him I was her boss, and while the term boyfriend felt juvenile in comparison to my feelings for her, I had no other option. “I’m her boyfriend.”

Mr. Reed frowned. “What do you do, Mr. Quinn?”

I briefly wondered how long his questioning would last.

“I’m an artist. A painter, actually.”

He said nothing for a few moments, choosing instead to size me up with his steel blue gaze before letting out a humorless bark of laughter. “My daughter is accustomed to a certain way of life, Mr. Quinn. Are you telling me you can provide her with that on an artist’s salary.”

“Rosie doesn’t need me to provide her with anything. She’s perfectly capable of taking care of herself.” I hardened my gaze.

Mr. Reed snorted as if he didn’t believe me, I continued. “That woman showed up to Miami with $100 to her name and still somehow managed to survive, no thanks to you.”

“That may be, but Rosaline would have never had to leave home had she done what she was supposed to.” He sat up higher in the bed. “That girl has always had trouble seeing the bigger picture.”

I was getting angrier by the second. He knew nothing about Rosie. His own goddamned daughter was a complete mystery to him.

“With all due respect, sir, I think you’re full of shit.”

“Excuse me!” His offense was almost comical.

“You don’t know your daughter at all. The only person who has trouble seeing what’s right in front of them, is you.”

The man in front of me stopped, his breathing deepening a bit. I knew he was calculating his next move. Trying desperately to get me to see Rosie and I were no good together. Hoping my exit from her life would cart her back into his. He was pathetic.

“She has a fiancé, you know.” He folded his hands in his lap. “One who, I’m sure, wouldn’t care much to see her running after some lousy, two-bit wannabe-“

I was finished with this conversation.

“You’re a sorry son of a bitch.” I shook my head. “I’m beginning to think you’re just too goddamned stupid to get it.” I stalked closer to him, my face a mask of rage. “There’s nothing that can tear me from that woman. Not some piece of shit ex and definitely not your flimsy attempts at dominance. She’s the only one who has the power to keep me away from her.”

He smirked. “Oh, we’ll see about that.”

I leaned down towards him, forcing him to stare into my eyes. “We sure will. Especially if you even think about contacting her again with anything less than reverence and apologies on those lips of yours. We’ll see what this lousy, two-bit wannabe will do to protect the woman he loves.”

I straightened up just as Melissa returned to the room with a tray of food.

“You think about what I said, Mr. Reed.” I made for the door. “Have a speedy recovery, now.”

* * *

Rosie and I left the Reed estate with little fanfare and no goodbyes. As we made the trek home, I couldn’t help but be grateful for that son of a bitch father of hers. I wanted to kill him for his cowardice and mistreatment of her, but I was grateful it had brought her to me.

Rosaline Reed, in all her glory, was the best person I had ever known. She came into my life, burning bright and hot, filling me with more passion than I had ever felt, giving me things I didn’t know I needed.

She had helped me find inspiration and true purpose and while I knew she still felt lost, slightly adrift in a world where she wasn’t quite sure where she fit, I knew I would always be there. To help her and support her with everything I had.

Rosie changed me, from the very first time she showed up to my warehouse, her eyes full of determination. I wasn’t sure I truly believed in destiny, but as fucking sappy as it sounded, I knew she and I had been fated to find each other.

I reached over and grasped one of her hands. “I love you, Rosaline.”

She smiled over at me, her hair whipping in the wind as we drove along the California coast. “I know.” She kissed the back of my hand. “I love you too, Mr. Quinn.”