One Night Baby - A Romance Compilation

by Tia Siren

  My phone rang, and I grimaced, seeing my father’s name pop up on the screen. Part of me didn’t want to answer, didn’t want to talk to the man who was making everything so hard for me and Scott. I knew, though, if I didn’t answer, he would keep calling until I did.

  “Hi, Daddy,” I said. “What’s up?”

  “Where are you?”

  “I am out in town running some errands I have been neglecting,” I said. “Everything okay?”

  “I wanted to let you know that I called in the team for the weekend,” he said.

  “I figured you would have,” I replied. “I’ll be there with them in the morning.”

  “There is something else,” my father said, a stern tone in his voice. “I got a message from Carl, one of the crew members at your site. He said it was urgent, that he needed to talk to me about you. I’m not sure what he would have to tell me about you, but I figured I would ask you first, and maybe you can shed some light on what is going on. It’s not often I get a call directly from the crew.”

  “God, not that guy,” I said, my nerves shooting up. “Daddy, I want you to listen to me. You cannot trust anything that man has to say. Please, don’t even call him back. I will take care of whatever issue he has when I go to work tomorrow. He should have come to me in the first place, but he doesn’t seem to understand what his place is and what mine is.”

  “Well, he already called, so I might as well hear him out,” he said.

  “Dad, please, I’m asking you not to. Do this for me,” I said.

  “Why?” he asked. “What is it that he has to say that you don’t want me to hear so badly?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “But this guy is nuts, Dad. Really. He has been constantly hitting on me, making me uncomfortable, and causing a scene with me since the day I started. There was even a time when he put his hands on me, and one of the other guys had to step in and stop him. He doesn’t know what no means, and he degrades me for being a woman at every turn.”

  “That’s interesting,” he said.

  “What is?”

  “Just that he said you would say that,” he said. “I lied, Cassie. I already talked to Carl, and I was testing you to see what you would say. I know about Scott. I know about everything. I don’t know why you thought you could keep something like this from me, but you have seriously had a lapse in judgment.”

  “Daddy, he really is an asshole,” I said.

  “Asshole or not, he had some interesting things to tell me about Scott and you,” he said. “Things that I am shocked, to say the least, to have heard.”

  “Daddy, you need to hear me out,” I said. “I am not a child anymore.”

  “No, you are not,” he said. “Which means that you should have known better than this. I want you to turn that car around, wherever you are, and come home. We have some things to discuss.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it right now,” I said.

  “I don’t care what you want to talk about or how old you think you are,” he said. “You are to come home immediately. You can’t run away from this, Cassie. You involved my company, my crew, and my reputation in your careless and thoughtless actions. I have never been this angry with you before, and you need to face the music. I will see you shortly.”

  “Dad,” I said, but he hung up the phone.

  He was so angry, angrier than I had ever heard him. Carl had told him everything, and right on the heels of the argument Scott and I had had about the whole situation. I hadn’t even had any time to think about it. Now I had to go home and face the music, not even knowing if I had something to fight for.

  I sat there watching cars zoom past me, thinking about the mess I had made. Maybe Scott was right. I didn’t even think about how this would affect him. I just wanted my freedom from the clutches of my father. He was an impossible man to reason with, and there was no way he was going to let Scott get away with this and still work for his company. It felt completely hopeless. I picked up my phone and dialed Scott, needing to talk to him. I was starting to feel panicky.

  “Hello?” he said emotionlessly.

  “Scott, Carl called my father. I tried to tell my father what kind of man Carl is, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He wants me to come straight home, and I’m hoping I will be able to reason with him.”

  “Doubtful,” he said.

  “Have you heard anything from him or Carl?”

  “Nope,” he said, not saying much.

  “I don’t know what to expect,” I said. “I don’t know what all of this will mean for you or for me. I don’t know how I am supposed to fix this. It’s such a mess.”

  “Take a deep breath,” he said. “It is what it is at this point, and there is nothing we can do to change that. Go face your father. He is not going to wait on you forever.”

  “All right,” I sniffled. “I’ll call you later.”

  “Yeah,” he said, hanging up the phone.

  He was so short with me, so shallow in his words, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what he was thinking. I figured that was probably the least of my worries at the moment. I had to face my father and attempt to get him to change his mind. I pulled down the mirror in the car and wiped the tears and mascara from my face. I looked terrible, like I hadn’t slept in days. I shook my head and put the mirror back up before starting the car. I pulled out into traffic and headed toward the house. The entire way there, nerves bubbled up in my stomach. I wondered what he was going to say, what he was going to tell me about what Carl had said. I knew he didn’t know the whole story. There was no way he could.

  When I got to the house, my father was waiting for me in the office. I walked in slowly, putting my purse down and shutting the door. We were the only ones in the house besides the housekeepers, but I figured it was best no one else heard our conversation. I walked over and sat down in the chair, opening my mouth to talk.

  “No,” my father said, putting up his hand. “I have heard quite enough bullshit for one day. I give you everything you could ever need or want. I put you through college, make sure you don’t have to work, hand you your internship on a silver platter, and I will the company to you, and what do you do? You go against the very fiber of the morality of this company. I didn’t give you any rules for when you came here except that you were not to sleep with anyone who worked for me. That was my only rule. And what happens? You go shacking up with the first guy you meet on the site. You weren’t even careful about it either. The most notoriously big-mouthed asshole in the company knows about it.”

  “Dad, if you will just hear me out—”

  “I raised you with a silver spoon in your mouth,” he said. “You had the best upbringing and educational background, better than most, and a family name to make you proud. You could have any man you want, and you pick some roughneck construction worker from the slums. You are too good for him, point blank. He does not fit into this world, Cassie. He is not the man you should be giving yourself to in any shape or form.”

  “It wasn’t like that,” I said. “I didn’t just jump into bed with Scott. On one of the first few days I was on your job site, one of your crew—Carl—accosted me by the bathrooms. He had his hands on me and wouldn’t let me go. Scott came over, saw what was happening, and rescued me from the situation. He was the hero. He took care of me because one of your men thinks he can put his hands on whoever he likes. That was when I realized I had feelings for the man. Real feelings.”

  “Feelings in your pants,” my father said, scoffing. “How could you possibly have feelings for a man of that caliber? Good for him, he saved you from Carl. I appreciate that fact, but his consolation prize should have been a bonus, not you. I have taught you better than that. What have you been doing out there at that school? Whoring yourself out to every man you thought would piss me off? Is that what this is? Payback of some sorts?”

  “That’s ridiculous,” I said, shaking my head. “I am an adult, not some angry child trying to get back at her father. It is
my choice to see whoever I want.”

  “You’re right. I can’t control who you see, but I can control who works for my company,” he said. “Scott will be fired. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. He will not come into my world, charm my daughter, and make her think life in the slums is something romantic. He will not take advantage of the good things my company did for him and his family after his father passed away. It is disgusting to me that you would even think you could be happy in that kind of life. Get yourself together.”

  “Father, no,” I sobbed. “Please, if you love me, if you want me to be a part of this family, you won’t do this to Scott. This is my fault. I charmed him, not the other way around. Punish me but let him keep his job.”

  “You will always be a part of this family,” my father said. “You have no control over that. And whether you were the charmer or not, he was the one who failed.”

  “Please,” I cried.

  “I think it’s best that you don’t come back to work until Monday,” he said.

  I got up and ran from the room, throwing my bedroom door open and falling onto the bed. I sobbed loudly, knowing there was nothing I could do to change his mind. Scott really was a good guy, and I actually and truly loved him.

  Chapter 19

  Scott

  I stood at work, staring at the beams, thinking about Cassie. I was sick with worry having not heard from her since the morning before when she called me about Carl. I had no idea what was going on with the whole situation, and Cassie hadn’t shown up for work this morning. The only person I had paid any notice to was Carl, who gave me a sickening smirk as he passed. It took everything in me not to punch him right in the face, but I figured he would get what he deserved in the end. He was a thorn in my side, and now he was not only messing with my life, but he was messing with Cassie’s life too.

  I walked over to the breezeway and looked up at the trailer, watching Bill walk out of the office on the phone. Cassie was still nowhere in sight. I needed to know she was okay, that she wasn’t hurt or hadn’t been shipped off somewhere by her crazy father. I walked out into the open area and pulled out my phone and dialed her number. I listened to it ring over and over again, but she never picked up. It wasn’t like her to not answer my calls, even when we were upset with each other. I left a message.

  “Cassie, please call me back. I haven’t heard from you since you called yesterday, and I need to know that you are okay. Whatever happened, you can tell me. We can work through it. Just call me back.”

  I hung up the phone and put it back in my pocket, sighing and kicking at the dirt. I made my way over to the trailer to grab a cup of coffee. I went inside and poured a cup, dumping some sugar in it and taking it out to the table. I sat down and ran my hands through my hair, staring down into the cup. I couldn’t understand how everything had gotten so messed up in so many ways. I looked up as a truck pulled through the entrance to the site and parked in front of the trailer. Mark, Cassie’s father, got out of the truck and looked around, stopping when his eyes fell on me. He walked part of the way over and pointed his finger at me.

  “I have something to take care of inside, but don’t go anywhere. I want to talk to you,” he said.

  I nodded my head and watched him walk into the trailer. I knew exactly what he was going in there to do. He was going in to tell Bill that he was firing me. I had worked for his company for fourteen years, and this was the thanks I was going to get for it. Fired in the middle of a project because I fell in love with his daughter. If she wasn’t answering her phone, and Carl had told him what I’d said, there was no way I was keeping my job. All those years, struggling through, giving up so many things to chase my dreams, and it was all coming down on me in the blink of an eye.

  I felt like crying, or screaming, or doing anything other than sitting there on that seat, waiting for him to give me the ax. I was the best guy they had out here, but he didn’t give a damn. All he wanted was revenge for what he thought happened with Cassie. There was no way he knew the whole story, and if he did, he was a worse man than I thought. I looked up as he exited the building, Bill walking behind him. Bill looked over at me sadly and tipped his hat in my direction. Mark looked at me and waved me over to his truck. He climbed into the driver’s seat, and I climbed into the passenger’s side.

  I shut the door and took a deep breath. Mark took off his hard hat and turned down the radio before leaning back in his seat. He stared out the window silently for a moment, making the situation even more awkward.

  “Carl called me,” he said. “He told me everything. I know what you have been doing with my daughter.”

  “With all due respect, sir, Carl couldn’t possibly have told you everything. He is the scum of the earth and only heard what he knew he would want to tell you,” I said.

  “Nonetheless,” he said, “none of that matters. The fact of the matter is, you have been sleeping with my daughter. I don’t know what went through your head to make you think that was a good idea, but you seriously fucked up. I don’t want to see you anywhere near this company again. You’re fired.”

  “That’s it? After fourteen years, after my father gave his life for this damn company, you fire me? You think your money for my mother’s hospital bills made up for my father’s life? And now you fire me?”

  “It is what it is,” he said coldly.

  “You have no idea what it is,” I said. “I have given everything I have to your company, and you are stomping on that and my parents’ memory like they meant nothing. Maybe to you they didn’t, and maybe up there in that mansion of yours you can’t understand how things work, but I love Cassie. No matter what you do, you can’t take that away from either of us.”

  “Shut your mouth,” he yelled, turning toward me angrily. “You need to watch the way you talk to me, boy. You say you love my daughter, but there is no way in hell you can. You barely even know her. You are in love with the idea of her, the rich girl, the daughter of a huge company’s owner. You don’t know what love is. Besides, she is too good for you. She has a bright future ahead of her. She needs someone on her level. You will only hold her back. You got your rocks off with her; now stay the hell away from her. That isn’t a request.”

  “You’re wrong. You are the one who doesn’t know your daughter. You are the one who has no idea how to love someone. You are the person who is holding her back from having a beautiful life. You are the one she will someday resent, and the only person you will have to blame when that day comes is yourself. There is no hiding from this, Mark. You are the poison that is keeping your daughter down.”

  “Get the fuck out of my truck,” he said. “We will mail your last check.”

  “Keep it,” I said, opening the door. “I don’t want any more of your blood money.”

  I got out of the truck and stood back as he took off, turning around and speeding down the path in anger. Bill walked up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder. I breathed deeply, looking up at him.

  “I’m sorry, kid. You didn’t deserve that,” he said.

  “Thanks, Bill,” I said, handing him my hard hat. “I’ll see you around.”

  “Hey, if you need anything, you let me know,” he said. “I promised your mamma I would do what I could to look after you.”

  “Thanks, man,” I said. “I’ll be all right.”

  I walked over to my car and climbed in. I sat there and stared at the site. That had been my life for so long, and now it was over. Everything was over. My dreams for the future, my time with Cassie, my career—all gone in the blink of an eye. I felt even more crushed than I had that morning, and I shook my head, putting the car in drive and heading toward my house. My heart was sunk, completely unable to come back up to the surface. I had worked so damn hard for so long for it all to be gone just like that. Sure, there were other companies, but who would hire me after Mark got a hold of them? He would make sure I never worked in construction in that state again. It was a lost cause.

  I got ho
me and tossed my boots in the corner, figuring I wouldn’t need them anymore anyway. I walked over to the couch and sat down, opening my Uber app and canceling my route for the night. There was no way I was going out that night. I could barely keep myself together just sitting on the couch. Instead, I sat there in the silence, calling Cassie over and over again. I didn’t know if she would ever pick up, but she owed it to me. We were supposed to go through this shit together. She wasn’t supposed to hang me out to dry. But no matter how many times I dialed her number, she never picked up. I sat there staring at the blank television screen for a few minutes, wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I didn’t have enough to start my own business, and there wasn’t a company that would give me a loan without a job. I needed to use my savings to tide me over until I found something else.

  Still, through all of those thoughts, all of that despair, I couldn’t get Cassie off my mind. I wanted to talk to her, hear her voice, tell her it wasn’t all her fault. I picked up the phone and called her again, and again until I knew she was ignoring my phone calls. I filled her mailbox up, and when I got the rejection message that it was full, I screamed out in anger, throwing my phone across the room. How could she have done this to me? She’d left me out to dry. I was so frustrated that I didn’t even know what to do with myself. I got up and walked over to the kitchen, grabbed the bottle of whiskey, and took a swig from it. It burned on the way down, but it felt good. It felt real, just like what I had done to myself.

  I had risked everything when I met Cassie. I knew it was a bad idea to be with her, but I fell in love, and I made the choice to take the risk. Now I was feeling the burn from it all. And what did I get out of it? Absolutely fucking nothing. I had risked everything in my life for a woman who didn’t even think I was worth it. A woman who wouldn’t even pick up the phone. This was exactly why I should never let a woman in. They did nothing but wreak havoc and ruin everything. Cassie had ruined my career, and worst of all, she had ruined my heart.