Dirty Daddy (A Single Dad Romance) (The Maxwell Family)

by Alycia Taylor

  I groaned. What an idiot I was. Why had I not noticed this before? “Oh darling, I didn’t realize. I’m so sorry. I’m sometimes not very good at all this. But I am trying, and I’m glad that you told me. I have an idea. Why don’t we go shopping tomorrow? That way you can have a brand new dress for the banquet. And we can get you a few other things as well that you need.”

  She brightened up. “Really?”

  “Of course. And you must just tell me when you need new clothes. Goodness, I had no idea. I thought Linda did that stuff with you. I asked her to take you shopping about two months ago; didn’t you go?”

  She shook her head. “No, she said she was too busy that day.”

  Linda, as I was slowly discovering, had not been as into her job in the past few months as she was before. She obviously knew that she was going to leave way before she had told me. She wasn’t a bad person, but I wish she had at least told me that she was losing interest. She should’ve told me that she hadn’t taken Trinity shopping. Although, truthfully, I probably should have realized myself.

  “Ah, you should’ve told me. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. That’s not important anymore. I’m glad that I know now. A morning of shopping sounds like fun. And it’s a nice excuse for the two of us to spend some time together, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, thank you, Daddy,” she said.

  I looked at her and smiled. How did I get so lucky? After everything that she had been through, she was still the happiest and sweetest girl alive.

  The following morning I took Trinity to go shopping, and she was delighted with her purchases. She came home with two new dresses, two pairs of shoes, three shirts, and a pair of jeans. It was only when rummaging through her closet that morning I realized how few of the clothes hanging inside it actually still fit her. I felt like an awful father, but at least she was happy again. I promised that I would take her again the following month too.

  “Can I get ready now, Daddy?” she said. It was about the fifth time she had asked me the same question since we’d gotten home. All she wanted to do was put on her new dress.

  I looked at my watch and smiled at her. “Yes. You can get ready. We’ll leave in half an hour.”

  She ran with excitement up to her room to get changed, and she came back down half an hour later in her new dress. She gave me twirl and giggled.

  “You look like a princess,” I said.

  “And you are my handsome father.”

  “Wow, I could get used to these kinds of compliments. Come on, let’s go and get Kennedy. She is going to love your dress.”

  I’d called Kennedy earlier that day to let her know what Trinity would be wearing and to see if she had something similar or at least in the same color. I figured Trinity would be delighted if they matched. I smiled when she came out of her apartment dressed in a pretty pale yellow dress that basically looked like the adult version of Trinity’s. She was absolutely beautiful. With her dark red hair and pale skin, she looked like something out of a fairy tale.

  Trinity gasped when she saw Kennedy. “Kennedy! You have the same dress as me.”

  Kennedy winked at me before looking at Trinity. “What? Oh wow, you’re right. That’s crazy. We must have the same great taste. You look absolutely beautiful.”

  “So do you,” Trinity said. Then she turned to look at me. “It’s the same color! I can’t believe it. We’re like twins now.”

  “Amazing. Well, you both look wonderful,” I said. “And I’m very proud to be taking you both with me today.”

  I walked into the banquet feeling proud of two beautiful women with me. I hadn’t felt that way in a long time. I’d gotten used to going everywhere alone.

  “Daddy, look! Look! Wow!” Trinity said as we walked into the banquet hall. I had seen the hall before it was done up and it was hard to imagine that it was the same place. It had been transformed into something that looked almost magical. It had a bit of wedding feel to it, and so naturally Trinity was in her element. She kept pointing at all the small décor details that I wouldn’t have even noticed myself. At six, she really had an eye for things that most people didn’t. Perhaps she really would end up working for Camille one day. But I tried not to think of that. Thinking of her working meant imagining her all grown up. I preferred to be of the belief that she was going to stay my little girl forever.

  I looked at the board to see where we were seated and quickly made our way over to the table. I spotted Warren and wondered what Kennedy would think about him. Warren had always been much better around women than me, so I hoped that she didn’t instantly fall in love with him. It had happened to me once before, and I’d never really gotten over that feeling. Warren was beaming at me when he saw us approaching, and I could immediately tell what he was thinking. I had already told him how pretty Kennedy was, but it was clear from his face that he was now assessing her. And it was even clearer that he found her as beautiful as I did.

  “Hey, Warren,” I said.

  “Hey, Reed. Hi, Trinity. You look so beautiful today,” he said, and Trinity smiled at him. Then he looked at Kennedy and beamed. “And you must be the lovely Kennedy that I’ve heard so much about.” I groaned. Why did Warren have to always charm the woman while at the same time making me look like a fool?

  “You’ve heard about me?” Kennedy asked in surprise.

  “Of course, I’ve heard nothing but the name Kennedy these days,” Warren said and flashed me a smile. I narrowed my eyes and sent daggers his way.

  Kennedy chuckled. “Well, that’s always good to hear. It’s a pleasure to meet you. And you must be Warren. I’ve also heard a lot about you.”

  “Only bad things I hope,” Warren said.

  “Naturally,” she replied, and they both laughed.

  We took a seat, and Warren winked his approval at me. Moments later, the ceremony started, and we were served drinks and snacks in between the speakers. Trinity was excited by all the little plates of food that kept coming our way. She was an adventurous eater for someone her age and took delight in every morsel that was served. She did, however, still take the time to tell Kennedy that her food was better.

  When my name got called out, both Trinity and Kennedy gasped beside me. I went up to collect my award and saw them smiling happily from the table at me in excitement. Little Trinity was up on her feet clapping, and I felt a surge of happiness run through me. When I got back to my seat, Trinity gave me a huge hug.

  “You got a prize!” she said.

  I showed her the trophy and the certificate. “Cool, huh?”

  “So cool.”

  “Wow, I had no idea you were getting something today,” Kennedy said. “This is amazing Reed. And well deserved.”

  “Thank you,” I said with pride, and we turned to watch the rest of the speakers.

  It was nearing the end of the night, and I was having a great time sitting with Kennedy and Trinity. They were surprisingly really interested in all the talks, and Trinity asked me a multitude of questions as the evening went on. I’m still not sure why I turned around when I did. But it was as if I felt someone staring at me. For a while, I couldn’t quite figure out who the woman in the doorway was. She was looking around, clearly looking for someone in particular, and something about her seemed familiar to me. And then it hit me. It was Angela. I felt the entire room start to spin out of control, and I steadied myself by holding onto the table for support. Kennedy gave me a curious look. I supposed the shock was written all over my face.

  “What’s wrong?” she whispered.

  I gulped. All I could think about was the fact that my daughter was sitting next to me. I leaned in toward Kennedy so that Trinity wouldn’t overhear us.

  “Angela is here,” I said.

  “Who?” she said, frowning back at me.

  “My ex-wife. She’s here.”

  “What? Where?” Kennedy asked.

  “She’s at the door, and she’s looking for me.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Kenn
edy

  I turned to see a woman standing at the door. She was a small woman, with dark brown hair. Slim, bordering on skinny. It was hard to tell from where I was sitting, but she looked like she was pretty, but stressed. I could imagine her with nicer clothes, a little bit more weight, and a happier demeanor. But right now she just looked anxious. Her eyes were darting around the room, and she looked like she might run at any moment. I looked at Reed. His eyes were round in surprise, and I saw that his hands were trembling in his lap. A sheen of sweat had broken out along his brow.

  “What? Are you serious?” I said. Was I really just looking at his ex-wife? What on earth was she doing here and where had she been all these years? I had a million questions, but we were in the middle of a banquet hall filled with Reed’s work colleagues and other important medical people. Also, most importantly, Trinity sat next to us. Thankfully, she seemed entranced by one of the speakers and wasn’t paying us much attention.

  Reed nodded. “Yeah. It’s definitely her. Oh my god, Ken, what is she doing here? I’m freaking out.”

  “What are you going to do?” I whispered back.

  He shook his head. “I have no idea. I guess I better go and talk to her. Ken, uh . . . I’m worried things are going to go bad. Can you sit with Trinity? And if I’m not back before it’s over, can you just meet me at the car with her? Just tell her I was called away to deal with some urgent work but that everything is fine.”

  “Of course! You go. We’ll be fine. Good luck,” I said. It wasn’t my place to ask anything else. Anyway, from the looks of things, Reed seemed to be just as confused as I was right now. He didn’t seem to know that she would be there, either.

  “You sure?”

  “Of course, go, go.”

  Reed quickly got out of his chair and bolted quickly to the back of the room. I saw him walk out while the woman walked after him. At that moment, Trinity turned to look at me.

  “Where’s Daddy?” she asked.

  “He got a message from his work. He just had to go in quickly to do something. He’ll be back soon. He said we must just wait for him and enjoy ourselves.”

  She nodded. “Okay. This is fun.”

  My heart broke for her. I nodded. “So much fun. Oh, here comes the next speaker,” I said, and she quickly turned her attention back to the front of the hall.

  I sighed. There were still another two speakers to go. I listened to them without hearing a thing. I saw Warren frowning at Reed’s empty chair, but I pretended not to notice him looking. I had no idea how much Warren knew about Reed’s life, and it wasn’t up to me to fill him in. For now, the only thing I could really do was to pretend as if everything was normal. Nothing to see here, folks.

  Half an hour later and Reed wasn’t back. The last speaker had just finished, and we were told that the event was over.

  “Daddy is still gone,” Trinity said to me.

  “Oh, I’m sure he won’t be long. Come on, let’s go and wait for him in the car. You can fill him in on everything that missed out.”

  We stood up, and I saw that Warren was still looking our way. It would be rude for me to ignore him completely, and I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye, so I finally turned to look at him.

  “It was nice meeting you, Warren.”

  He smiled. “You have? Well, I’ve heard a lot about you too,” he said. He was a charmer, and I had a feeling that if Trinity wasn’t there, he would be saying a lot more to me right then. I was grateful to have her by my side because all I wanted to do was to get away.

  “Well, we’ll see you around,” I said.

  “Where’s Reed?” he asked.

  “Uh . . . .”

  “Daddy went to help someone at work. He fixes people. He’ll be back soon,” Trinity answered for me.

  “He went back to work?” Warren asked and frowned.

  “Yes,” I said quickly before he asked anything else. “He should be back any second now,” I said. Then I gave him a look that I hoped read please don’t say anything else in front of Trinity. Thankfully, he seemed to understand.

  He nodded. “Your father is a hard worker. And yes, he’s always busy fixing people.”

  Trinity beamed.

  I flashed him a grateful smile. “I’m sure Reed will tell you all about it on Monday,” I said.

  I took Trinity’s hand, and we made our way to the car. Reed wasn’t there, so we climbed inside. I wanted to keep Trinity busy, so we came up with a game to play while we were in the car. My heart wasn’t in it, but I don’t think she noticed. She just kept laughing and telling me how much fun she was having. Hurry back, Reed. Where are you? I pleaded in my head. I decided that I’d give him ten more minutes and if I still hadn’t heard from him, then I’d call him.

  With only moments to spare, Reed came back. He forced a smile when he looked at Trinity but I could see that he was struggling to remain upbeat.

  “Daddy, you missed the end!” she said.

  “I’m so sorry, my darling. I had to go to work.”

  “By the look on your face, it wasn’t an easy case,” I said. “You must be exhausted.” I wanted to put it out there that if Reed looked upset, it was only because of ‘the case’ he just had at work. I didn’t want Trinity to think it could be anything else.

  He sighed. “It was. A very hard case. Come on, let’s go home. Trinity, did you have a nice time?”

  “It was so cool, Daddy. I tried to understand everything so that I could tell you when you got back. But now I don’t remember. They gave some more awards and told some jokes. I didn’t understand most of the jokes, but I tried. I just laughed when everyone else laughed.”

  Poor Reed did his best to listen to his daughter when she was speaking, adding in the appropriate comment here and there, but I could see that he wasn’t really taking it in. I tried my best to keep things light but my head was reeling too. Pretending like everything was okay was actually very hard work.

  Trinity was on a bit of a high from the day and kept talking about how Reed had won an award and how happy she was.

  “When I get back to school, I’m going to tell everyone about it. I bet you nobody else has a father that wins awards. I’m just the coolest. Daddy, your friend Warren told us that you were the hardest working man ever. Is that true?”

  Reed didn’t say anything. He was looking at his phone and barely registering anything.

  “Daddy?”

  He looked up and blinked as if suddenly realizing where he was. “Oh, sorry, my love, I was just looking at something on my phone. What did you say?”

  “Your friend Warren said you were hard working.”

  “Well, he’s not wrong,” Reed said. “Did . . . uh, did he ask where I was?” Reed asked me.

  I nodded. “Yeah. I told him had to go into work. I said you’d explain everything to him on Monday.”

  “Okay, thanks Kennedy. All right, Trinity, I think it’s time we get you into bed.”

  “Can Kennedy do it?”

  I smiled. “Of course I can.”

  “Are you sure?” Reed asked.

  “Absolutely,” I said and took Trinity’s hand. I was sure the last thing that Reed wanted to do was to carry on pretending as if everything were fine.

  I helped Trinity with the usual bedtime rituals that I was now accustomed to, and I put her in bed. I tucked her in and talked to her for a little while. I knew that the fastest way for me to get her to sleep was to read her a book. I took one of her favorites and began to read, and by the time I was on the second page, she was already fast asleep. I kissed her gently on the forehead, grateful that she had come away from the situation unscathed, and switched off the light.

  I walked down stairs and found Reed in the exact same spot as where I had left him, staring into space.

  “Hey, you,” I said as I walked back up to him. “She’s asleep.”

  He smiled at me. “Thank you for helping with that. It means a lot. I’m not sure I would’ve been able to do it right now.”


  “That’s okay. I enjoy it. Is everything okay? How did she know where to find you?”

  He shook his head. “She heard about the award that I was winning tonight. I guess she’s been keeping tabs on me all these years.”

  “But how did she know? I thought the award wasn’t public knowledge?”

  “Who knows? I guess she’s still in touch with some of the people. I never thought about that, actually. I wonder how long she’s been watching me like this. I had no idea.”

  “Wow, that must’ve been a huge shock. What did she want?”

  “Probably the biggest shock of my life. It still doesn’t feel real. I keep thinking that I dreamt the whole thing up. Well, she wants me back.”

  I sat back. “She wants you back? All of a sudden?”

  “Looks like it. I . . . I don’t even know what to say right now. It’s all so crazy.”

  “Do you want her back?” I asked. I practically forced the words out of my mouth. They weren’t easy to say.

  He shook his head. “Not a chance. Not after everything she did. Anyway, she’s only here for the money. My guess is that she ran out and has come looking for more.”

  “Is that what she told you?”

  “No, she would never admit to it. But that’s why she’s here. I know it. In fact, that’s why she was with me in the first place. It always just boils down to money, doesn’t it? It’s sickening. She never loved me. She never loved Trinity. If she did, she would never have walked out on us the way she did. It breaks my heart to think that she lied to me all those years. I might have been a sucker once before, but I won’t be one again.”

  I sighed. This was a lot to deal with right now. I hadn’t even wanted a relationship with Reed, but I’d fallen into it without being able to stop. I knew that I was letting myself into troubles because of Trinity, but the last thing I expected was to also have to deal with an ex-wife who wanted him back.

  “Reed, are you sure you want to carry on with me? I know we’re not anything official right now, but there is something going on. And I don’t want that to get in the way of you and whatever is happening with your ex. I don’t want to get in the way.”