Heath

by Nikki Ash

  I walk down the hall, past Sheila, my dad’s sweet receptionist. She doesn’t notice me because she’s in the middle of a phone call and typing away on her computer, but I know she won’t mind me walking back to his office. He’s always had an open door policy when it comes to me.

  Noticing his door is closed, I raise my fist to knock, when I hear shouting. Instead of knocking, I place my ear to the door to listen. My dad never yells—not at me, and certainly not at his clients or employees.

  “I said I’m done!” a masculine voice that isn’t my father’s booms through the wooden door. “I won’t say it again. Pack. Your. Shit!”

  “Please, Heath. My daughter only has one year left of school. Don’t do this to me—to her. How will I help pay for her college? I need this job.” This time I recognize the voice as my father’s and my heart sinks. What’s going on here? Packing up to go where? And why? This doesn’t make any sense. My father is the boss of W. Heights Investments. Why would someone be commanding him to pack up and leave?

  Needing answers, I place my hand to the knob to open the door and am about to turn it, when the door swings open, pulling me with it. I fall forward and into the arms of someone. With my head in his chest, I can’t see him, but I can smell him. All masculine with a hint of musk. When I look up, it’s Mr. Heath, the other asshole who lives at Windy Hills. I’ve never formally met him, but I’ve seen him a few times in town. My father made me promise to stay away from him.

  “I’m sorry,” I blurt out when he glares in my direction.

  “Sorry for what?” Mr. Heath sneers. “Eavesdropping and getting caught, or falling into my arms?” He backs up slightly, and his dark brown eyes slowly peruse my body. If I didn’t know better, I would think this man was undressing me with his eyes alone. Suddenly feeling exposed—which is ridiculous since I’m fully dressed—I swallow thickly and bring my arms up to cover my breasts. He smirks devilishly at me and steps closer. So close, I can feel the heat radiating off his body. With an evil chuckle that sends shivers down my spine, he leans in and says, “You look just like your mother. Same perfect dick sucking lips, same perky breasts, same thick creamy thighs. I wonder if your cunt is just as sweet as hers was.”

  My body goes stiff at his words, and my eyes dart to my father, who is standing behind his desk glowering at Mr. Heath. He’s too far away, though, so he couldn’t have heard what he just said.

  “Heath, leave,” my dad demands in a tone I’ve never heard him use before.

  Mr. Heath’s smirk transforms into a wide grin at my dad’s words, but he doesn’t back up or make any attempt to leave. Instead he once again speaks softly into my ear, so only I can hear. “Your father just lost everything, but maybe you could convince me to give a little bit back to him. You know where to find me.” And with a salacious wink, he pushes past me out the door.

  It was after he left, my father told me the truth. He lost the family company to Mr. Heath years ago and now works for Heath’s company. Not only does he own my father’s job, but he also owns our home. And because Mr. Heath is pissed at my father for something—he wouldn’t say what—he’s taking it out on my father by firing him and forcing us to move out of the only home I’ve ever known. So like I said, while I should be excited for everything that is to come, it’s all being overshadowed by the thoughts of my father becoming unemployed and us becoming homeless.

  My alarm goes off once again. This time I turn it off and get up. There’s no point in avoiding the inevitable. After showering, doing my hair and makeup, and getting dressed in my school uniform, which consists of a white ruffled button-down top, a blue, yellow, and white plaid tie, a matching plaid skirt, and my favorite pair of yellow Chucks, I head downstairs for breakfast.

  Theo and my dad are already sitting at the table silently eating waffles my father made. When they spot me enter the kitchen, they both look up with a smile. While Theo’s is wide and flirty because he has no clue we’re all being kicked out of our home, my father’s is forced. I take a closer look at my dad and notice how much older he seems. There are stress lines marring his once smooth forehead. Crow’s feet have appeared in the corners of his eyes. His once light brown hair is now sprinkled with gray. He looks like a man who’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

  “Good morning, honey.” My dad stands and comes over to make me a plate of food. “Happy Birthday.” He gives me a kiss to my temple. “I was thinking we could have dinner here tonight to celebrate your birthday. I’ll even pick up a cake from the bakery in town you love.”

  I don’t point out that our yearly tradition has always been to have dinner with my friends at Madison Café, my favorite French restaurant. All of their entrees are delicious, and they have the most delectable Crème Brûlée. While the restaurant is expensive and my father isn’t the kind of man to eat at extravagant restaurants, ever since he told me Madison Café was one of my mother’s favorite restaurants, we’ve never missed a birthday dinner there. The fact we’re not going there this year tells me just how bad it is for my father—for us.

  “Sounds good, Dad.” No longer hungry, but also not wanting to offend my dad since he did make these for my birthday, I sit down and cut up my waffle.

  “Happy Birthday,” Theo says. “Do you feel older?”

  “A little bit.” I laugh softly, but even to my own ears, it sounds strained. Theo gives me a concerned look, but I avert my eyes to my food, stabbing a piece of my waffle with my fork and shoving it into my mouth. Usually the waffles taste sweet and delicious, but today, they taste bitter and depressing.

  After we’re both done eating and say goodbye to my father, we head to the garage to my car. It was a gift from my father for my sixteenth birthday. A Ford Mustang GT. It’s not a BMW or Mercedes like most of my friends drive, but it’s the car I wanted. It’s black on black with a convertible top and a V6 engine. She’s sexy and I love her…and I wonder if I’ll have to give her up now that my father has lost his job.

  Pushing my negative thoughts aside, I click the garage door opener and wait for it to go up. Once it does, I back out of the drive and then peel out down the dirt road, dust kicking up behind us.

  “Everything okay?” Theo asks. After my father told me about our situation, he asked that I not tell Theo. He wants to speak to him himself.

  “Everything’s fine.”

  “Doesn’t seem like it. The past week you’ve spent your time in your room playing angry music. Is it something I did? Our kiss?”

  I glance at him quickly then back to the road. “No, but that does need to stop. Everybody at school knows you’re my cousin. If they find out you’ve kissed me, they will destroy both of us. I don’t know how it was at your boarding school, but here at Heights Academy, you’re either in or you’re out. I’m in, and it needs to stay that way.” I’m already about to lose everything else. I can’t lose my reputation at school as well.

  “Who said anything about them finding out?” Theo’s hand lands on my bare thigh and moves up my leg. “I can keep a secret.” His fingers reach the apex of my thighs and ghost across the top of my panties.

  I swat his hand away. “Stop or you’ll be walking to school.”

  He chuckles but doesn’t argue.

  School is school. I thought it would feel different being my last year, but it’s all the same. Same kids I’ve gone to school with my entire life. Same friends. Same teachers. My first period is Calculus, which flies by, followed by English. Then it’s lunch. After getting a turkey wrap and a soda, I sit down at my usual table, where two of my close friends and cheer mates, Anne and Charlotte, are already eating and gossiping over whatever they’ve heard in the rumor mill. We’re only back to school for three hours and from the sound of it, two girls are knocked up, one of our friends was cheated on, and some sophomore guy had an affair with one of the teachers. Same shit, different year. At least this will be my final year here, and then I will be off to Yale. If you can afford it.

  Once a few of our
other friends join us, Anne tells everyone all about her summer in Italy, and Charlotte brags about how she almost lost her virginity to an older guy while she was in Europe.

  “Guess who I had first period with? Theo Lincoln.” Anne’s brows waggle up and down. “That guy is fine. Is he single?”

  “Ewww! That’s my cousin,” I say, pretending to gag. “And yes, he’s single.”

  “I call dibs!” She tilts her head to the side and shrugs with a smirk.

  “Whatever,” Charlotte says with an eye roll, “I’m not about to waste my time with the boys here, now that I’ve experienced a real man.”

  “You mean almost experienced a real man,” Kelsie, another friend of ours who is also on the cheer squad, says, and everyone but Charlotte snickers.

  “Cheer practice is still happening after school, right?” Anne asks.

  “Of course,” I say, “Why wouldn’t it?”

  “Well, it is your birthday, so I thought maybe your dad would be taking everyone to Madison Café like he does every year.” The girls all look at me, waiting for the invite they usually get.

  “Madison Café is so last year.” I roll my eyes, trying to play it off. “I’m eighteen now. I don’t want some big spectacle for my birthday like a child,” I scoff. Thankfully, the bell for third period rings before anyone can say anything.

  The next two periods fly by and then it’s time for cheer practice. We go over several of our routines and discuss some new ones. Next Friday night is the first football game of the season, so everyone is excited. Since Theo is on the football team, he meets me by my car after both of our practices are over, and we head home.

  I’m not even through the foyer when I stumble over several boxes in the doorway. One of them reads Cat’s closet and tears prick my eyes. This is really happening. We’re really being evicted.

  “What’s going on?” Theo asks, opening one of the boxes that has his name scrawled across the side.

  “We’re moving,” my father says, making his presence known. “I’m sorry, Cat.” He gives me a chaste kiss to my forehead. “I was hoping to prolong this until after your birthday, but Heath has demanded we leave in two days.”

  “Heath? The guy that the maid mentioned by the lake?” Theo shoots me a confused look, and my dad’s eyes go wide.

  “Cat, tell me you didn’t go over there.”

  “I’m so sorry, Dad,” I say as my dad’s fist comes down onto the box in anger.

  “It’s my fault,” Theo cuts in. “Cat told me she wasn’t allowed, but I insisted. If anyone is to blame, it’s me. I’m sorry.”

  “Dammit, you two.” My dad’s fingers come up to his hair and he pulls on the strands in frustration. “That explains how he found out.”

  “Found out what?” Theo asks, his eyes bouncing from me to my dad. I watch as my dad struggles with what to say, how to answer Theo. He lets out an exasperated sigh, as if he’s finally given up.

  “Heath is your father.” My dad closes his eyes and shakes his head.

  My eyes dart to Theo, whose mouth drops down in shock. He doesn’t say anything for a minute, almost as if he’s trying to process what my father just told him. His mouth opens and closes a few times, but words don’t come out. My dad and I stay quiet, waiting for Theo to speak. I can’t even imagine just finding out that my parent really is alive. Too bad soon he’ll learn his dad is an asshole.

  When Theo finally speaks, his words come out in a disgusted hiss. “Are you fucking serious? She told me she didn’t know who my father was.” He swipes his box of belongings onto the floor. “She fucking lied?”

  My dad shakes his head and sighs, ignoring Theo’s outburst and remaining calm. “Your mom did what was best for you. She left him when she found out she was pregnant.”

  “So this entire time, I could’ve had a father? I could’ve been getting to know him. Who the hell did she think she was to make the decision as to whether my father should be in my life?” Theo kicks the box of his stuff that he knocked onto the floor, and it flies across the room and hits the wall.

  “He’s not a good guy, Theo,” my dad says. “As parents, we try to make the best decisions we can for our children, and your mom felt it was best to raise you on her own. It’s why she never came to visit over the years. She didn’t want to take a chance of him finding out about you.” My dad moves slowly toward Theo in an attempt to comfort him, but Theo raises his hands up and my dad stops in his tracks.

  “I thought you said she disgraced the family and so she was cut off?” I ask, confused. Ever since I was old enough to know we had long-distance family, I was told my aunt Isabel never visited because she wasn’t welcome. We would take trips to Florida to visit my grandma and grandpa, and they would refuse to even discuss her. It was as if she was no longer a member of our family. That was until she passed away last year and my dad became Theo’s guardian. He was away at boarding school, so aside from meeting him once for his mother’s funeral, I didn’t see him again until he moved in with us for his senior year.

  “She did,” my dad says, answering my question. “She took off with Heath and married him after knowing what a terrible person he was…still is.” He places emphasis on the last two words, looking Theo right in the eye. “We warned her, but she wouldn’t listen, and she was cut off. It only took a short time of being married to him before she was begging to come home, but we felt she needed to learn her lesson. Then she got pregnant.” Dad frowns with a soft sigh.

  “I shouldn’t have cut her off. I felt so guilty when I found out she was pregnant. Not that I don’t love you, Theo. I do. You’re my nephew. But you have to understand, I never wanted that for my sister.” Dad steps closer to Theo, and this time, Theo lets him. He places his hand on Theo’s shoulder. “You don’t know Heath like I do. He would’ve destroyed your mother. I blamed myself for not convincing my father to take her back before she got pregnant and did the only thing I could do. I gave her enough money to leave.”

  “And now he knows about me?” Theo questions.

  “He does, and he’s not happy that I’ve kept you from him. He’s fired me and is kicking us out of the house. He’s insisted you go and live with him.”

  “Like hell!” Theo hisses. “I don’t even know this man, and if what you’re saying is true, that my mother ran away to keep him from knowing about me, why the hell would I want to live with him? And what about Cat?” Theo’s gaze meets mine momentarily, concern evident in his eyes, before he turns back to my father. “Where is she going to live?”

  “I’ve found an apartment to rent in town. It’s not much, but if I sell my vehicle and Cat’s, it will be enough for us to get by until I find another job.”

  My car…I knew this was coming, but it still hurts. Not because I’m losing my car, but because we’re losing our life. Our home, our cars, everything is being taken and all that will be left are our memories.

  “There has to be something we can do,” Theo says.

  “I wish there was, but knowing Heath, his mind is already made up. The only thing we have in our favor is that you’re still seventeen and I’m your guardian. I’m hoping that will hold him off for a little while, giving you time to turn eighteen and be able to make your own decision as to where you want to live.”

  “I’ll talk to him,” Theo insists, but my dad holds his hand up to stop him.

  “You will do no such thing. Heath is not a man you make deals with. He’s worse than the devil himself.”

  Just then, Mr. Heath’s words come back to me: “…maybe you could convince me to give a little bit back to him. You know where to find me.”

  “I just remembered I left my textbook at school. I need to get it before the janitor locks up.” Not wanting to chance either of them catching me in my lie, I head straight for the door.

  “I’ll come with you,” Theo says, following behind me before I can make it out the door.

  “No!” I shout. When I glance at my father, I see his brow is raised in concern. Shit!
“No,” I say again, this time softer, more controlled. “I need to go by Anne’s house as well, and her mother doesn’t like boys over.”

  “What about dinner and birthday cake?” my dad asks.

  “As soon as I get back, we’ll celebrate my birthday.”

  And hopefully we’ll have more to celebrate.

  When I arrive to Windy Hills, the gate is open, so I drive right in and park next to another vehicle. The house is huge like ours and just as beautiful. Only while ours is more modern with white walls and black shutters, this home screams classic beauty with its old wooden shutters and wrought iron window boxes. It’s obvious the home needs to be updated, but for some reason, it only adds to its charm.

  I knock on the massive, mahogany door and notice my hands are shaking. What am I doing here? I know what he wants…well, what he insinuated anyway. Can I give him that? I have to. If it means my father will be able to keep his job and our home. If it means Theo won’t be forced to live with this man—Theo might drive me crazy at times, but he’s still family—I have to at least try.

  I hear someone yell, but it’s muffled, and then the door creak opens and standing in the doorway is none other than Mr. Heath himself.

  “Well, well, look who it is. Little Catrina. Come to make a deal?” His devious smirk causes me to visibly shudder. I can do this, I chant to myself.