“What the hell is going on?” she asked. I pressed my lips together as my mind tried to come up with the words, but I didn’t think she would appreciate me saying, ‘Ruby, I’m in love with your dad.’
“Honey, why don’t you take a breath. We can talk about—”
“We can talk about this right now,” Ruby pressed.
“Ruby, I was going to tell you,” I said, and she flinched like I’d struck her.
“Hey, there you guys are.” Daisy smiled and frowned, feeling the tension. “What’s going on?” she asked, standing next to Ruby, her hand on our shocked friend’s shoulder. “Ruby? Mr. Titan?” How does she know Frank? Was I the only one who hadn’t met him?
“Ruby, we need to—”
“Karina and my dad are… I don’t even know. What is going on with you two?”
“Ruby, let me explain,” I tried and swallowed hard, but Frank’s hand in mine gave me courage. “Frank and—”
“So, there is something to explain?” Her eyes went wider as she cut me off. “You had a taste of an older guy and got addicted?”
“It’s not like that.” I shook my head.
“Beech Grove is filled with forty and over men. Why my dad?”
“I didn’t know he was your dad!” I exclaimed, nervousness and panic spinning around me.
“What?” she asked, frowning. “Wait…” Her eyes went wide and then filled with disgust. “Are you saying… Oh, my God! He was… Oh, my God, this can’t be happening! Coffee Daddy? Jesus, Dad!”
“Ruby, let’s talk about this calmly,” Frank tried to calm her, looking at the people behind us. We had definitely attracted attention. A lot of it.
“I don’t want to talk about this or whatever the hell you two are doing. At all.” She turned, Daisy stepping out of her way, and I moved.
I didn’t think.
I let go of Frank’s hand and took a step, placing my hand on her shoulder, trying to stop her.
I needed to explain. I needed her to understand I hadn’t known.
“Ruby.” But I couldn’t say anything. If looks could kill, I would have died on impact.
“Go to hell,” she hissed venomously, so much I stepped back, my hand dropping to my side.
“Ruby!” Frank spoke up, but I didn’t miss the amount of space he’d set between us. He hadn’t reached back for my hand.
Jesus, what had I done?
Why had I gotten so in over my head with him? I should have known better!
“What, Dad? Seriously, I … I have no words right now. For either of you!” With that last blow, she left, and I had to lean against the wall behind me or I would have fallen to the ground.
“Karina, I have to—”
“Go after her,” I interrupted with a nod. “She needs you.”
“I’m not picking sides.” Daisy looked torn, and she shouldn’t.
I’d messed up.
Ruby needed her.
“Go. I’m fine.” I faked a half smile. “I’ll take care of the check.” I waved as I crossed my arms around me and watched my other friend walk off. Damn. I’d messed up.
Frank
I’d messed up.
Royally.
I’d pushed the envelope showing up to their girls’ night to begin with, and I was a fucking idiot. Trying to slyly sneak a moment in with Karina. I hadn’t been able to stop myself, though. Not as Enzo had looked at me like I had three heads when my assistant, Joanna, had brought me a change of clothes she’d picked up from the mall. Faded Levi’s and a baseball tee and hat for the local minor league team of Beech Grove. He’d warned me I was overstepping as I looked at the shirt, something I would probably never wear, not out at least. I’d ignored his warning. I’d simply thanked Joanna, right before handing her the disposable camera from the weekend to get it developed.
I’d kept picturing the sports bar and Karina there with men, younger ones. Men wouldn’t miss an opportunity to try and hit on her. If I had been a good man, I would have let her. Not that they would have appreciated her like I would.
But at the end of the day, I was a complication she didn’t need.
Hell, I didn’t need a relationship.
But the heart wanted what it wanted, and mine more than wanted. It needed her. But damn, it was complicated. Her friendship with my daughter was now on the line because of me. Hell, my own with Ruby was in trouble. Not that all those things stopped me. The idea of other men sniffing around my girl made me feel like a fucking caveman.
When I’d seen that guy talk to Ruby, her other friend nowhere to be seen as Karina had walked toward the bathrooms, I hadn’t been able to resist. Without a thought, I’d hopped off my stool and gone after her. I’d only planned on sneaking one tiny kiss, something to soothe the nerves that seemed to be on edge since the moment I’d left the pool house that morning to go to work. Something small to tide me over before she came home, and I would show her exactly who she belonged to. I’d tell her exactly what I was feeling when it came to her, because I was too old to play childish games.
Go to hell. Ruby’s words felt like a slap, and I needed a moment to figure out what to do next.
“Let me take you home.” I looked at Karina, who was still staring in the direction where the two others had disappeared, and she nodded.
“I have to close our check and get my bag,” she said without looking at me, walking to their table, and I followed. Reaching over her shoulder where she stood at the table, I took the bill, went to the bar, and settled my tab and the bill.
I went back and didn’t miss the way Karina wouldn’t make eye contact with me. When they did for a split second, the guilt and worry that clung to her usually bright gaze made my stomach feel like it was filled with lead.
I’d seriously messed up.
_______________
She didn’t say one word to me on the way back to the house. Not one.
She didn’t cry.
She didn’t pout.
She didn’t place blame on anyone.
She didn’t do anything but look out the window lost in her own thoughts.
I couldn’t blame her.
I parked in the driveway, and she reached for the door, but I placed my hand on her knee, and she froze.
“We need to talk.”
“Frank—”
“Talk to me,” I urged.
“What do you want me to say?” she asked, turning to look at me, her brows furrowed.
“Babe.”
“Why were you there, Frank?” she asked. I straightened in my seat. I had been there because I was a jealous asshole.
“I wanted to see you,” I admitted, hating how childish I sounded.
“You were going to see me in less than three hours. I wasn’t going to stay long. You knew that.”
“I didn’t want Ruby trying to fix you up,” I mumbled under my breath, and she scowled.
“Who cares if she had?”
“What?” Now, I was the one frowning.
“Frank, I was coming home to you,” she stressed, and my heart rushed with emotion at her words. She was coming home to me. I was home. “I like you. I can’t stop thinking about you,” she kept explaining, and I knew I’d screwed up.
“I’m sorry.” And I meant it. “I messed up.”
“No.” She shook her head, and her eyes went glassy. The lead in my stomach turned molten. “I did.”
“Babe.”
“I shouldn’t have gone there again.”
“What?” She wasn’t insinuating what I thought, was she?
“The first time we hooked up, fine. That was accidental. But the second?” she questioned, and I felt helpless. “Or the days after? Or this last weekend?” she rubbed her face.
“Karina, we just need to take a moment.”
“You’re right,” she agreed too easily. Space was the last fucking thing I wanted. What the hell was happening? “I think it would be better if we put some space between us. I already messed up my friendship with Ruby. I don�
�t want to be responsible for your relationship with your only daughter imploding.”
“Karina,” I strained, but I couldn’t say anything else. Fuck. Would Ruby really be that mad at me? Do I really have to choose?
“I think you know I’m right,” she whispered, clearly holding on by a thin thread. “That night by the pool, Frank, when I found out you were Ruby’s dad?”
“Yeah.” My voice sounded like gravel in my own ears.
“I should have gone right in and packed all my things and moved out,” she said so damn softly, if I weren’t straining to hear every word, I would have missed it.
“Moved out?”
“I think… I really think I should now.”
“Are you serious right now?”
“You told me yourself, Frank.” Her voice cracked, and I wanted to hold her. “What kind of future would we have?”
A beautiful one, I wanted to say but clenched my jaw.
“Two workaholics who run off and travel anytime we can find a spare moment? You don’t want a family,” she pointed out, and my heart went into beating triple time. I had never regretted those words more.
“You said you were fine with that,” I reminded her. How the hell had that only been a couple of days ago? Every day I spent with her erased years that had existed before her.
“I am. I was. I don’t know.” She put her hands on her lap and looked out. “I just know I don’t want to the door completely shut on the idea of something more.”
“Are you telling me we’re done?” I rasped, my hands now off her knee and clenched at my thighs as I looked away from her and toward the house in front of me.
“I’m saying we should, I don’t know.” She took a moment, and I could hear the blood rushing through my ears. “I think we should really think about things. Life. What we want out of it. What we mean to each other at the end of the day.”
Rejection spurred and burned a hole through my chest. Was she breaking it off gently? Forty-two and dumped for the very first time. Jesus Christ, I was freaking pathetic.
“I see.”
“Frank.” She touched my shoulder, but I didn’t turn to look at her. I couldn’t. I clenched and unclenched my jaw, looking at the house as a coldness swept through me. I didn’t do relationships. There was a reason for it. They complicated your life. Not that I considered Ruby a complication, but more of a wrench that was thrown in the road of my life.
Karina had been a curve in that road.
One I hadn’t seen coming.
One I’d driven on, and now it was time to take the exit and get off the scenic route.
“You should go home, Karina.”
“I don’t know what to do, Frank. This isn’t easy. You have to believe that! Ruby hates me. I don’t want her to hate you as well.”
“Go home, baby.” I turned to her. “We’re over.” The words burned as they left my tongue, but they had to be said. “Done,” I added, and the shock in her eyes slammed my chest so freaking hard, I felt it down to the soles of my feet.
“Done,” she whispered, unshed tears filling her eyes.
“Baby—” Any other words were lodged in my throat. Her beautiful face was distraught in front of me, and I couldn’t console her, not when I was the one who was hurting her.
“Okay,” she finally said, and my heart slowed like it was beating in mud.
Was I really ending it?
Was I really letting her go?
A million things rushed through my head, but that didn’t stop time from ticking away. Karina silently grabbed her purse and slipped out of the car without saying a word.
I watched the back of her disappear into the property, and I knew I’d fucked up. I was supposed to go with her. I was supposed to be walking beside her. I was supposed to be slipping into bed next to her, whisper sweet, dirty nothings.
You’re doing the right thing, I reminded myself before exhaling a shuddered breath. I rested my head on the back of my seat and laid the back of my palms against my eyes.
What the fuck had I done?
Chapter Ten
Frank
I WATCHED THE SUN RISE THROUGH THE window, but I couldn’t get myself to get up. Sleep had been elusive, and anytime I had shut my eyes, I’d thought of nothing but Karina.
Her smile.
Her voice.
Her touch.
I turned in bed and hated how empty it was. My jaw clenched, and my heart twisted slightly in my chest. I’d done the right thing. It was what I did, after all, and this time was no exception.
I’d had to do what I had.
It was too rash, my heart complained, and I sat up.
Maybe.
But even if at the end of the day, Ruby figured out a way to deal with me dating one of her best friends, Karina needed more. Karina Castillo deserved more than an old guy with the emotional capacity of a teenager. She deserved someone who would put the world and everything it had to offer at her feet. You could do that, my heart stubbornly chimed in, but I ignored it. I was numb and disoriented as I went to shower, hoping it would somehow make me feel more alive.
The pressure of the water hit my tense muscles, and I closed my eyes as it dripped down my body. The coldness seeping through my body had nothing to do with the temperature of the water and everything to do with the fact it was the first of many days I would have to endure without looking into the face of the woman who owned my heart.
_______________
Her car was gone.
Two days after I had seen her last, and it wasn’t there, and even though I didn’t check the inside of the pool house, I knew she’d packed and left.
Where was she?
Was she safe?
I hadn’t heard a word from her since the night she’d walked away, and I hadn’t reached out. I had reached out to Ruby, though. My calls had gone to voicemail, and my texts had been marked unread.
My kid was pissed, and she was allowed to be angry. But I wasn’t as stressed. She was a good egg, and she would come to her senses. I knew her like I knew the back of my hand, like most parents knew their children. I knew she would come around. Probably later than sooner, but she would. And if she didn’t, I’d go over to her place to talk it out.
With a sigh, I walked into the house, dropping my suit jacket and briefcase on the couch. Looking around, I could see Karina and me cuddled on the couch, and there was a pang in my chest, so I went to the kitchen to figure out something to cook.
Since having had to watch her walk away, the house had felt too quiet.
Too big. Too lonely.
The loss of Karina resonated and echoed through the walls of the place like a ghost haunting the place. It had only been two days, and I was a mess over the woman who, quite frankly, owned me heart and soul.
_______________
My phone rang, and I answered without looking. “What?” I barked.
“Well, good morning to you, too,” Enzo’s voice chimed over the line way too cheerfully, and I frowned. “I see we woke up on the right side of the bed this morning.”
“Shut up. What the hell do you want?”
“Well, I love you, too. You seriously are a charmer, Frank Titan,” he teased, and my eye twitched. I was in no mood for his shit this morning.
“Enzo,” I warned. The small amount of patience quickly slipped away.
“I was calling to let you know I hired Karina,” he calmly shared, and I closed my eyes at the sound of her name, my head dipping down.
“What the—”
“Before you say anything, she was the best for the job, Frank. Her rates are amazing and her work incredible. The mock-ups she made up for that new farm we’re investing in are spot on what we need.”
“Fine,” I clipped. It might have been Ruby’s idea for her to submit a bid to the company, but I had been the one to tell her and put it in front of Enzo. And if we wanted our investment to pay off with West Farms, Enzo wouldn’t blink.
Neither should I.
“You or Jas are her contact person for the job,” I bit out.
“Yes, boss,” E quipped with a hint of sarcasm, and my jaw clenched.
“That’s how it would have been regardless of the situation.” He knew everything that was going on.
“I know.”
“You talk to her?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me as I stared down at the pool house, wishing she were still there.
“I did.
“Good.” My voice cracked. Fuck, I missed her. It’d been less than seventy-two hours, but it was like my soul knew. Knew I’d never have her in my arms or her lips against mine again.
“She sounded okay, Frank,” he gently broke the silence. “She actually tried to back out of the job.”
“What. Why?”
“You really have no idea?” Of course, she would do that. I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“I shouldn’t have touched her.”
“You didn’t know. How could you have known a random woman from a coffee shop—”
“Girl. She’s a girl,” I spouted off knowing it wasn’t true.
“She’s a woman, Frank. A grown woman. I know it’s hard to see, since your kid is around her age, but she’s a grown woman in her mid-twenties. She knows what’s she’s doing. That day, she knew what she wanted. Which kudos to you being smooth enough to bag that. I would have never guessed you had skills like that.”
“Shut up,” I growled and sighed. “I still… What was I thinking?” I asked out loud, one hand on the phone to my ear, the other on my forehead.
“You love her,” he said like he was telling me the sun shone every day. He wasn’t wrong, but I couldn’t get myself to say it out loud. It felt wrong saying it to him before telling Karina first.
“Talk to her, man. Work it out. Ruby’s a good kid. She’ll move past this, and you two can move past it.”
“She’s gone. Moved out. I don’t even know where she is.” I chuckled darkly. “I didn’t even need that fucking clause in the lease.”
“If only you knew, let’s say… her best friend, who could maybe help you out.”
“Asshole,” I mumbled.
“Look, I’m the first to admit that I’m no Einstein when it comes to relationships, but as an outsider looking in and as your best friend, you know I gotta lay it to you straight.”
Quite Frankly: Dilf Mania (Beech Grove Book 5) Page 10