“My doing,” Emmitt said. “He lives and works on the other side of the country. I didn’t want to worry him.”

“Dad. This is something we should be worried about.”

Emmitt shook his head. “You had enough on your plate, son. With Rowan, and then getting called out to God knows where this past month. I didn’t want you out there distracted.”

Yeah, there’d been a lot going on, but this was something he should have known, no matter what, and he had to work at banking his frustration. “We can talk about it later.”

“Only if it involves alcohol.”

“No alcohol,” Piper said.

Cam nearly laughed at his dad’s expression. “You know,” the guy said, “you two are a pair of fun-suckers.”

Piper packed up her things and bent to give his dad a kiss on the cheek. “See you tomorrow.”

Emmitt grumbled, but he hugged her. “Thanks, cutie.”

Cam followed her to the door, intending to walk her out to make sure she got home safely, but she stopped him with a hand to his chest. “I’m good.”

“It’s a mess out there.”

“Nothing I haven’t dealt with before. Go deal with your family stuff.”

Yeah, she was definitely annoyed that he hadn’t known about his dad’s medical condition. “We’re on the same side in this,” he said, wanting that to be clear.

“Then take care of him. And don’t let him walk all over you.”

Cam had to laugh. “No one walks all over me.”

“Hate to break it to you, but your dad just did.”

Shit. True story, born from not knowing each other that well, something they were working on fixing. Another truth—he liked how Piper wasn’t intimidated by him in the least, and he mentally added bossy and sassy to her list of positive attributes. “His name should be Emmitt Stubborn-Do-Everything-on-My-Own Hayes.”

She snorted in agreement, and he liked that too, but he wanted to make sure she understood something about him. “Listen,” he said. “I try to call or text him daily. I specifically ask him what’s happening and how he’s doing. He’s damn good at evading when he wants to be. But he should’ve told me.”

“Hell, yeah,” she agreed. “He should have.” She cocked her head. “You’re hurt because he didn’t tell you.”

Hurt? He’d long ago closed himself off to that particular emotion. To all of them.

“I shouldn’t have broken it to you like that,” she said with genuine regret. “It hadn’t occurred to me that you wouldn’t know.”

“Apparently, I don’t know a whole hell of a lot.”

“You two aren’t close.”

“Not geographically, no. I thought we were working on emotionally.” He shook his head. “Is he going to be okay?”

“He should be. Assuming he follows the plan regarding exercise and diet.”