The entire experience took most of the day, but Rhys had been adamant he wanted it done before the wedding.
She took a gulp of coffee trying to settle her nerves as they turned into the private drive. A large gate loomed in front of them and was quick to open the second their car pulled up to it.
A few deft turns and Rhys parked in front of an intimidating fortress. The structure reminded Jo of a prison from the outside. “Bio-dad knows how to roll out a welcome.”
“I think it’s more about security. There are no blind spots.” Rhys gestured to each corner where cameras perched on the roof. “No windows that would allow someone to breach, except the small ones at the garage and front door.”
Jo’s gaze swept the entire area. Other than the front door and garage there weren’t any other distinguishing features. An expanse of green stretched at least a hundred yards to the left and the right but there were no bushes or trees to mar the view. The gray and white four-story building loomed over them. Jo stepped from the car and met Rhys at the sidewalk. Lacing their fingers together, they walked to the door.
Before they touched the doorbell, Joseph was there. “Come on in. I thought you two would sit in the car for another hour.”
“We weren’t in there that long.”
“Not yet.”
He turned on socked feet and headed deeper into the house while Jo shut the door behind them and then followed Joseph. It was odd to see him so relaxed. White socked feet and his salt and pepper hair sticking up in tufts as if he’d run his hands through it repeatedly.
“Do you want something to drink?” Joseph asked stopping in an archway separating the kitchen from the den. “Wine? Beer? Cola?”
“I’ll take a beer,” Jo said, taking in her biological father’s home.
“Same.” Rhys settled on the couch.
The inside was vastly different from the outside and nothing like Jo expected. There were no weapons in sight, just warm and inviting earth tones with splashes of mustard yellow and deep burgundy. Masculine while not being overwhelming. Floor to ceiling glass faced an inside courtyard that was full to bursting with flowers, a Japanese cherry blossom tree, and other greenery. Paths wound into the middle with arching bridges over a small pond. Unable to see much as the sunset and shadows draped the garden in darkness, it looked like a place to explore later. If she were invited back. Turning back to the den, a gas fireplace taking up the entire wall between the front door and the den drew her eye. The large mantle held row upon row of pictures. Curious, she moved closer, wondering what photos Joseph would showcase.
“Rhys,” she barely pushed the gasp of breath past her constricted throat.
Her fiancé was there immediately. “Holy cow, Jo. Are those of you?” He lifted the frame that held a picture of her between her mother and Pop as she held up her high school diploma. The next was of her graduation from the police academy. A few when she was younger. One at her kindergarten graduation and another at a birthday party.
“I never knew he was there.” She touched each frame as they stood amidst her half-sisters’ pictures. There were several of a woman resembling an older version of Juliette.
“You weren’t meant to know,” Joseph said from behind them.
Rhys set the picture down, took his beer, and headed for the archway. “I’ll go help Jenna with dinner.”
Jo turned to face her father. “You were at all of these events, but you never came to congratulate me? Or give me a hug?”
“My job was dangerous. I never wanted you in the line of fire.”
“And yet you have three daughters that live with you. Grew up with you.” She gestured at the other photos.
“Not by choice.” He dragged a hand over his shadowed jaw. “Karma didn’t come to live with me until she was eleven. Jenna’s only lived with me off and on until the last few years.”
“Juliette?”
Joseph lifted his glass of deep red wine and sipped. The silence stretched before he finally answered, “I married her mother, and when she died, all I had left was Juliette.”
She saw the devastation in Joseph’s gaze and winced. That had been her when she’d learned Rhys was shot and hanging by a thread in ICU. Jo remembered nothing after those words were uttered. It was if her world had imploded until he had woken up and looked at her. “You must have loved Juliette’s mother a great deal if she was the only one you married.”
“More than life.” Joseph swallowed another mouthful of wine. “I tried to forget her a few years after she died. It’s how Jenna came into this world. It didn’t work. Luckily, Patricia is smarter than both of us. She’s a lot like Maddy. But hearing all this isn’t what you came to talk about.”
She moved to the overstuffed leather saddle-colored couch and sat. “No, I wanted to ask if it bothered you that I call Carl, Pop.”
It wasn’t all she wanted to ask but one of the top questions that had bugged her. But she’d been worried about the answer and of hurting this man’s feelings. Stoic and cold though Joseph was he wasn’t unfeeling, she only had to watch him with Rian and Evan to see how much he cared. Now seeing pictures of her growing up mixed with his other family pictures hit home how much they’d missed by not connecting before.
“Nah, he’s been more of a father to you than I ever was and I like him. Maddy chose well. Don’t see why you needed to drive three
