Authors Note, Ok, now I realize I have probably turned this into a damn soap opera, so every few chapters I'll have a explanation chapter like this, it kinda explains shit and stuff, and shows where everything is at, so I don't confuse anyone else. Sorry about that. Hope this helps. If it doesn't just review and I'll work at it.

It was around nine when McKnight returned, minus the burnt lasagna.

What the man did with it I didn't even want to know.

I sat on the couch with my feet on the coffee table, a unopened cold beer between my legs while I finished looking through the wedding chapels, while "Married with Children" was on the tube, the irony.

Diana was sound asleep across my lap. Hence the reason for the unopened beer, she would have moved into the lazy-boy if it were open. So I had an ethical dilemma, beer, or beautiful woman asleep in my lap.

Hard choice, yeah right.

She was very tired. After all she had worked a twelve hour shift and been up all night, but she was squeaky clean, that I was positive of. McKnight came in the living room and sighed, he walked over to Diana and leaned over the couch, giving her arm a gentle touch, "Hey sweetie, why don't you go up to bed?"

Personally I didn't care if she continued to sleep with her head on my crotch, but it probably bothered her father, even though I had jeans on. The man was picky about silly little things. She could swear like a sailor and drive like a maniac. But if she fell asleep on the couch with her head in my lap, the man got upset.

Diana lifted her head and blinked, I never moved. She looked up at me then her father to see who woke her up. A button mark left imprinted on her cheek from my jeans.

Again McKnight added, "You'll sleep better in a bed." I knew the man had a smile on his face for her, you could tell, it sounded as if it were a forced confession in a communist prison. But she was too sleepy to even notice. Dressed in a pair of my boxers and t-shirt she patted my bare stomach then slid from the couch, half awake. I risked a look up in time to see her rich brown hair fall around her face, it hid a purple hickey on her neck.

The sudden desire to follow her ass up the steps and go to bed crossed my mind, but from McKnight's tone I doubted he'd let me up those steps anytime soon.

"Good night daddy," Diana mumbled as she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

McKnight gave her a kiss on the cheek, "Good night, I'll see you in the morning."

"Ummm," Diana moaned as she sleepily climbed the steps. Only when she hit the top step did McKnight stop his good behavior, the man belted me upside the back of the head and almost knocked me off the damn couch.

"You know it's bad enough you two go at it like fucking rabbits whenever I leave the damn house, could you at least not touch my baby when I'm home?" he bitched, then took a seat beside me on the couch and stole my beer.

Bastard.

But I didn't say anything, it was warm anyway.

"It's bad enough I know what you're doing to her, I don't want to see any fondling or her head in your lap. What the fuck do you think pillows were invented for? They were invented so fathers didn't have to see that. I'm gonna have to burn my fucking eyes out now."

As he opened my beer I grew more annoyed, "I ain't even begun to fondle her so quit your damn bitchin."

McKnight let out a groan and let his head fall back, he pulled his legs up beside mine on the table then nursed the beer. "This is hell. Fucking Grimes, the bastard should have warned me we were both getting off."

I rolled my eyes and tossed the fourth from last wedding chapel on the table, there was no way in hell I was getting married by a man with thirteen names, eight of which I couldn't pronounce, that just screamed CULT.

"Where's the pizza?" I asked, now that I though of it I was hungry. Well, Diana and I had eaten after the shower but he was still sent out to get a pizza.

He groaned, "I knew I forgot something."

McKnight forget something? God forbid! I looked over at him, "S'cuse me?"

"I got pulled over by the damn cops."

I laughed at that and he smacked me again, but I couldn't help but grin, "They finally caught your ass Mario?"

McKnight took another sip of my beer, "Fuck you."

That made me laugh even more as he pulled the ticket from his pocket, which turned out to be a warning.

"It's good to be me," he grinned.

I looked at the next Chapel that was in the "Shady Oaks" trailer park. Where the hell did Diana find all these?

McKnight looked over my shoulder, "You find a chapel yet?"

I shrugged, "I kinda liked the Cathedral thingie in Savannah."

That surprised McKnight, "I didn't see you as a religious man, Hoot."

"I ain't, but if I get married I wanna do it right, plus your daughter wants a priest, a real white collared one too," I told him.

McKnight nodded at me, "Her mother was very religious." McKnight didn't really talk about his wife that much, so I looked over at him. That was all from him so I told him, "You got any suggestions?"

McKnight thought about it, "You may want to handle all the family problems you have."

That confused me, "Momma won't get that mad bout a Catholic weddin. I'll just tell'er if she don't like it she don't have'ta come, she can come to that reception thingie."

McKnight rolled his eyes at me, "Not that side of your family."

It took me a minute then I shrugged and looked back down at the "Shady Oaks" trailer chapel. "Well that ain't a problem."

"You know Diana treated your father last night?"

My head snapped to McKnight, I was gonna have fucking whiplash, "What?"

He nodded, "You gave him a black eye and split the eyebrow in half, hell Hoot you fractured the bone around his eye. You're lucky that man didn't want to press charges and that he has the power to call that shots like that, you could have gotten your ass arrested for battery."

"Why'd Diana have to go down? For him?"

McKnight nodded, "She specializes in Emergency Medicine, no one else wanted to stitch the man up with those orbital fractures. Well no one wanted to stitch up a former superior court judge running for public office, Diana doesn't care who the hell she sews up."

That I knew and I probably should have felt bad about breaking that bone, but I didn't, which was probably a bad thing, hell if I told Albert he'd probably send

me a congratulations card and prize money.

McKnight took a sip of his beer, "Well I got a hold of some of my friends and asked about your father. Apparently the man has a…..colorful past. So his father, your grandfather, has been covering his ass. Paying off a few strippers, a few mothers of illegitimate children, making a few tickets and criminal charges from his young and stupid days go off his record. Trying to make him a better candidate or whatever for the conservative party."

"And Thad has no idea what good ole dad has been up to?"

McKnight corrected me, "Thad had no idea what daddy dear was up to. Your father apparently thought the colorful past would aide him in his political aspirations."

I thought about it then just had to ask, "So what'd he want from me? The grandfather ain't never called me."

McKnight tipped his beer bottle at me, "Your father is truly sorry for all the hell he has put you, your mother and brother through, and wants to reconnect after a heart scare he had a few months ago."

I stared, "Your cannot be fuckin serious."

McKnight nodded, then so helpfully added, "He also doesn't like Catholics and is a strong opponent to the NRA."

Oh good God, I looked back down at my chapel list.

Maybe if I ignored him he'd go away, or I'd get shipped out. It damn well figured, the one fucking break I get in years, when I actually have a woman, and I have a shithead to deal with, it never failed.

I didn't realize I had muttered some of that out loud till McKnight corrected me, "A conservative shithead."