Coffee With You: Small Town Romance

Chapter Ten

**Not edited or proofread!**

Kaecee

Weeks had passed, and Autumn had settled in, the nights almost freezing, the days cool enough to always need to wear a sweater when I was outside.

And I still hadn't heard a peep from my parents, which was both worrying and relieving at the same time.

But I knew it was now only going to be a matter of time before I did hear from them.

I blew out a tired breath and pushed open the door to my car, stepping out on the dirt drive. Grayson was sitting on the front porch, a cup of coffee in his hand. He stood when I emerged from my car.

"We had come . . . unexpected guests show up today," he told me. "Think you might want to come inside."

I frowned at him. "Is everything okay, Grayson?"

He clenched his jaw. "For me, yeah, but for you? I'm not entirely sure. Depends on how much you want to see these people."

And suddenly, I knew. I knew who was waiting for me inside of his house.

They'd come for me, just as I knew they would.

I tilted my chin up and placed that perfect mask on my face. Grayson studied me. "That bad?" he finally asked.

I shrugged. "We shall see."

I stepped inside, instantly moving into his living room. My parents were sitting on his couch. Farrah was sitting across from them in the recliner, knitting a baby blanket that she'd been working on for a couple of weeks now. She was taking less and less shifts at the office, giving me more time with our patients to help better transition them and get them more used to me being there rather than her.

"Mom, Dad," I said quietly. I folded my hands in front of me. "This is a very surprising visit."

My mom looked at my dad, just as she always did. I wasn't sure she had a bone of her own in her body. Everything she did was because he told her to. She never stepped a toe out of line.

It made growing up with her as a mom very hard. I could never be creative, never figure out what I wanted. If it didn't fit what my dad wanted, we simply didn't do it. She didn't even contemplate it.

"It's time you came home, Kaecee. We've let this go on long enough. Since you can't seem to put your head on straight and put your family first, we'll do it for you. Pack your things."

This was my moment to stand up to them. I was grown. They couldn't force me to do anything that I didn't want to.

"No," I said, my voice firm.

"No?" Dad repeated, an icy edge to that single word that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. "Care to repeat that, Kaecee?"

"I believe she said no," Grayson said this time. "She's a grown woman. If she doesn't want to go home, she certainly doesn't have to."

"Young man, I don't know who you are, but this is a family matter."

Grayson stepped up beside me, his thick arms crossed over his broad chest as he stared down at my father. "A family matter you have decided to deal with in my home, on my land. This is my property, and since Kaecee lives on my property, she doesn't have to leave if she doesn't want to."

My dad jerked to his feet, his eyes glittering with anger. "I will have the police—"

Farrah laughed. "I can call them for you. The sheriff is my brother."

My dad turned his angry gaze to me. It took everything in me not to cast my eyes away from him, meekly tell him I'd pack, and rush out of the house. It was so hard not to that it made me exhausted.

Old habits died extremely hard.

"This is not over, Kaecee," Dad finally seethed.

I clenched my jaw. "It is, Dad. I'm not coming home. I'm happy here, and I'm staying here. I have nothing else to say on the matter."

Farrah grabbed my hand in hers. I hadn't even realized she had gotten up from the recliner. She looked at her husband who hadn't ripped his eyes off my parents. "Grayson, will you please escort them off our property? They've upset our tenant and dear friend, and I won't stand for that. I've already sent Chase a text."

With that, she led me from the living room and into the kitchen where I proceeded to burst into tears all while that young, little girl inside of me screamed for the love of her parents who had never loved her correctly.

And Farrah, bless her heart, held me through it all.