Free Make You Blush by Macy Beckett Page A

Daddy parroted. “For God’s sake, Joy, don’t be so damned dramatic. It’s not like he held a knife to your throat and violated you right there on the dinner table.”
    “No,” she hissed back. “He licked the side of my face and shoved his erection on my thigh!”
    Daddy’s eyes flew wide, and he darted a glance in every direction as if to ensure nobody had overheard. “Get a grip,” he chided. “That boy’s family has more money than God, and I busted my tail to get their backing. Your idea of gratitude is shoving their son to the floor just because he was a little . . . excited to see you?” He thrust a finger toward the ballroom. “Get in there and make it right.”
    Joy’s lips parted. It took a few moments to find her voice. “What do you mean, make it right?”
    “Talk to him,” he ordered. “Apologize. Invite him to dinner at the house. Whatever it takes.”
    “Let me get this straight,” she said with a calm that amazed her. “Charles manhandled me, and you want me to have him over for dinner?”
    “It’s not the end of the world,” Daddy said. “People are drawn to candidates who make them feel good. Right now, that’s my job—to make my supporters feel good. And by extension, it’s your job.”
    “To make Charles
feel good
?”
    Daddy scrubbed a hand over his face. “Stop trying to spin this into something sordid. Just go out there and make yourself useful.”
    Make herself useful? Is that how he saw her—as a means to an end?
    “Right now,” he added, confirming her theory.
    Joy stood frozen in shock, her mind reeling. She’d heard stories about epiphanies, but she’d never experienced a moment of life-changing clarity—until now. Standing in front of her father, with his fake tanned skin and his gray hair shellacked to perfection, she understood why the spirits of her ancestors had wanted her to cut the apron ties.
    Because Daddy had changed.
    The knight in shining Levi’s who’d once wrestled a wild possum in the attic was gone. The senatorial candidate in front of her was a stranger, and his love came with a price. Joy thought of Ryan, and how he’d loved her without asking for anything in return. She’d given her loyalty to the wrong man.
    It was time to rectify that.
    “No,” she said. “I quit.”
    Daddy’s gaze hardened like flint. “Over my dead body, you quit. I’ve never denied you anything—money, cars, an education, even the roof over your head.”
    “And all you want in exchange is my dignity.”
    “Your
support
. Once again, you’re being dramatic.”
    “Give me a few weeks to find a new place,” Joy said. “Then the apartment is yours. Sell it and put the money where your heart is—in your campaign.”
    That seemed to get through to him. His brows lifted by a fraction, an impressive feat considering Botox had deadened half his face. “That’s not—”
    “Same goes for the car.” She loved her Audi, but not enough to let Daddy lord it over her. She’d rather drive a rusted beater. “Your name’s on the title, anyway.”
    “Are you done behaving like a child?” he asked, gripping his hips. “Are you ready to have a grown-up conversation now?”
    Joy refused to take the bait. “Tell Mom she’s free to call, but not if she’s going to harass me about this.” She pointed at her father. “And until you apologize, you’ve not only lost me, you’ve lost my vote.”
    If that didn’t reach him, nothing would.
    Then she turned and strode out of the banquet hall. Once she reached the dim parking lot, she released a breath, feeling lighter by a hundred pounds—the approximate weight of Daddy’s shadow.
    Now to reclaim her life. And the man who’d helped changed it.

Chapter 10
    “Dude,” Ryan said to his friend, “I never want to be this close to your bare ass again.”
    Paul was stretched out on the reclining workroom chair, his athletic shorts pulled down over both butt cheeks to display the demonic looking Smurf tattoo he