“Will you be satisfied with the job you’ve done as a parent if Noelle gives up her dreams?” Rene leaned forward. “I outfitted this town to make her life easier. I didn’t do it so she would never leave and you wouldn’t ever have to worry about her again.”

Would he be satisfied if Noelle never tried? What was his job? Since the accident it seemed like it had been about protecting her from everything and anyone who might possibly hurt her. Was he protecting her from a future, too?

“You seem to think Lila was pushing her out,” Remy said, his voice softer than before. “But what if she was merely trying to push you all forward? You’ve been looking for someone who would get along with your daughter, someone who would make your life easier.”

That wasn’t what he’d been looking for at all. “I just wanted someone I could care about.”

“You need to want more, brother,” Remy replied. “You need to want to love a woman, and that is neither comfortable nor easy. When it’s real love, it’s hard and you’re going to fight, and if you’re in love with a woman like Lila Daley, she’s going to push. You should want a woman who loves you and your family enough to put it all on the line, and that’s what she did. I’ve known my sister-in-law for a while. I knew her before she was nearly killed in that ER. Trauma like that can make or break a person. Lila chose to move forward. She chose to change, but in ways that made her stronger. I’m proud to be her brother-in-law. And what she’s trying to do for Noelle isn’t selfish. It’s the opposite. If you can’t see that, then you’re the one with the problem, and that’s my tough love for you. We’ve been friends for years, Armie. I knew the minute Lila decided to take over the clinic here that you and she would spark off each other. I knew you would either hate each other, or you might find something special. You both went through something terrible, but she’s ready and you’re not.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you’re still stuck in that moment when you realized you could lose your daughter, and now you’ve wrapped a cocoon around her and she’s going along with it, but that cocoon is either going to stifle her or hold her back. Sometimes you have to be tough with the ones you love so they can reach their full potential. That’s what Lila was trying to do. She wasn’t being a bitch, man. She was being a mother.”

Armie’s heart seized up at the thought. Was he holding Noelle back? Was his guilt costing them the one woman who might make both their lives complete?