He was surprised how much the upcoming wedding affected him. He should be happy for her; she loved this kid something crazy, but man, the thought that she wouldn’t be his but that little shit’s killed him inside. Phillip loved Claire more than an uncle ordinarily would, but that was because she was basically his. He was lucky to have such a beautiful, successful young lady as his niece—well, his daughter. He hadn’t referred to her as his niece in a really long time. She was his daughter. His heart. And he wasn’t about to hand that over to some little punk. Yeah, he’d agreed to it and had given Jude his blessing, but still it was a tough pill to swallow.

He’d hoped maybe she’d say no.

Taking a long pull of his drink, he groaned when his phone rang. He knew it was his wife, and while he wanted nothing more than to hear her voice, he knew he was about to get bitched out.

No reason to prolong the inevitable, he thought as he answered.

“Don’t you think you’re a little too old to be fighting? I mean, come on, he’s a kid.”

“A punk, had to shut him up,” he informed her and smiled when she let out an annoyed breath. He loved driving her insane.

“Um, he knocked you on your ass. So really, who shut whom up?”

Phillip glared. “Are you my wife or his?”

“Oh hush, if you didn’t go fighting our future son-in-law, then I wouldn’t tease you.”

“He had it coming.”

“Well, I think it is just silly.”

“Well, I think he is an asshole.”

“He’s the asshole marrying our baby, so I’m going to need you to suck it up and accept him.”

His response was a grunt, but his smile was back when she laughed. Her laugh was so airy and happy; it always hit him straight in the core. He loved to make her laugh. And scream. “I miss you, woman.”

“Aw, I miss you. Sawyer and I are making ornaments.”

Disappointed, he said, “I thought you were going to wait for me.”

“We are only doing the little ones. We’ll do our family ones together.”

“Oh, okay.”

“I think I might wait till Claire gets in. She should be home in a couple days, even though for a minute there, I thought she wasn’t coming.”

Phillip panicked a bit. Everything had already changed so much; he needed Claire to come home for Christmas. “Huh? Why?”

“Jude has a game in New York.”

“So?”

She scoffed. “Well, she wants to be with her fiancé.”

“But we are her family.”

“Phillip, come on,” she deadpanned. “You can’t blame her for wanting to be with him.”

“Yes, I can,” he said grumpily. “I don’t like this.”

“Really? I couldn’t tell.”

He glared even though she wasn’t in front of him as she said, “She’s coming home, he told her to, so she wouldn’t miss Christmas with us since he was flying in and out. He won’t even be able to see his family. They are going to do a late Christmas before New Year’s. Apparently his momma isn’t too happy, but she is dealing.”

He knew he was being selfish, but he was glad that Claire was coming home. “She isn’t happy about it, though?”

“Nope, not at all.”

He kind of felt bad. He wanted her to be happy. So swallowing his pride, he said, “Did you tell her it was okay to go to New York?”

“Yeah, but Jude talked her out of it. He doesn’t want her to miss Christmas with us.”

He grunted again. “Guess I can’t hate the kid that much, huh?”

“It would be nice if you didn’t since very soon, he is going to be our son-in-law,” she reminded him.

“Did she give you a date?” he asked quickly. “I haven’t heard anything.”

“Nope, but they are figuring it out. I think it’s gonna be June.”

“Ugh,” he grunted again.

She giggled. “It’s going to be great.”

“It’s going to be hell.”

When the stool beside him was pulled out, he looked over to see Jude and instantly rolled his eyes. The only thing that pleased him was that his nose was swollen. At least he knew they wouldn’t be getting married anytime soon.

“All right, let me call you back. The punk just sat next to me.”

Reese laughed. “Be nice and tell him I said hi.”

“Yeah, love you.”

“Love you.”

Hanging the phone up, he looked over again and said, “What do you want?”

“I was told I had to apologize to you. Apparently I am an instigator.”

Phillip scoffed. “You think?”

Jude smirked as he shrugged. “I like harassing you.”

“And I like hitting you,” Phillip said, cheersing his drink to Jude before taking a long pull.

“Yeah, so, um…how about we bury the hatchet?”

“I’d rather chop you up with it,” he said as cool as a cucumber, and Jude found that rather funny.

“Really, though,” he said once his laughter subsided. “Claire doesn’t want us fighting. We are getting married soon. You’re going to be my father-in-law. I don’t want us to be jerks to each other. We both love the same girl, you know?”

Not able to look at him, Phillip nodded. “Yeah.”

“I’m going to love her till the day I die. I can promise you that. I won’t ever hurt her.”