by L. A. Fiore
“I’m going to shower, call me when they’re done.”
He was going to shower, of course he was. I wanted to say there was a perfectly usable hose right here why go inside and shower? I’d even hold the hose for him. Instead, I waved at him in a noncommittal way because I was about to expire from raging lust. No need for him to see that. “I’ll give a holler.”
Give a holler? Where was Nat’s deadly knife when I could actually use it?
“Looking forward to tasting…your scones.”
Oh I didn’t imagine that hesitation, the emphasis he put on your. Being me and not knowing when to say when I replied, “Looking forward to you tasting them.” And then I thought of Melody and Rafe’s penchant for flirting, having witnessed his banter with Mrs. Milner. It was all in good fun for Rafe, for me it skirted too close to the danger zone. My raging lust evaporated like I’d been doused with a bucket of ice water.
My tone turned neutral, a fact not lost on Rafe. “I’ll leave a few on the counter in your kitchen.”
He stopped walking, his upper body twisting as his gaze searched mine. “What just happened?”
How did I answer that? It was the perfect opportunity to tell him about Melody, but I didn’t. A part of me wanted him to broach the subject of her first, especially since what we were doing was so much more than flirting and he knew I knew about her. So instead of answering him, I went with the time-honored classic. “I’m getting a headache.” Yep, I used the old headache ploy. A strategic genius, I was not.
He didn’t buy it; I could practically see the bubble over his head. Instead, he said, “Do you need anything for it?”
You. I almost said, but bit my lip and shook my head no.
“Night, Avery.”
“Night, Rafe.”
He’d just reached his door when he called to me. “Oh, and Avery?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m not with Melody anymore.”
Oh my God, he could read minds. And as I mentally recalled every thought I’d ever had when in his company, he added, “I really want to taste your scones.”
And then he winked at me before disappearing into his house. I stood motionless as the full impact of his statement hit me. He wasn’t with Melody anymore and he wanted to taste my scones. Oh, hell yeah. And even riding that high, I couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t with Melody anymore then why the hell had she been at his gate?
I was on a break when I noticed I missed a call, but it was whom the call was from that had me staring at the screen in disbelief—my father. He hadn’t voluntarily called me…ever. I couldn’t lie; I was tempted to ignore his call, since he was so very good at ignoring mine, but rudeness didn’t come as easily to me.
He answered on the second ring. “Avery.”
So like him, no greeting. “Hi Dad.”
“I’m sorry to call you out of the blue, but I wondered if you had time to talk today.”
Talk was code for wanting something; unease moved through me because the request was likely coming from Dolly and still I heard myself saying, “I have a dinner break coming up at four.”
“Okay, I’ll swing by and we’ll grab a bite.”
As surprised and apprehensive as I was, excitement sparked too because we were going to dinner.
“I’m working at Clover.”
“I know. I’ll see you at four.”
He clicked off before I could reply.
At four I stepped outside and my dad was there, working on his phone. His head lifted and he smiled. “Avery.”
“Dad.”
Nat shared his coloring, blond hair and blue eyes. Tall, fit, my dad was a good-looking man. “Do you have any preference on where we eat?”
“No.”
“There’s a great deli just down the street. How about we go there?”
“Sure.” It didn’t escape my notice how awkward our conversation was and how terribly uncomfortable I felt around my own dad.
“How’s the job?” he asked.
“Wonderful. I love the freedom and the creativity that’s encouraged.”
“I’m happy to hear that. I’ve a business associate who mentioned he dined at Clover the other night and the raspberry rum tart was, his words, out of this world.”
Pride gushed through me not only at the compliment but that my dad was the one to tell me. Rafe had been right, even as adults, children still sought the approval and praise of their parents.
Reaching the deli, we ordered our food and settled at a table. “So your mom and Harold are on their trip?”
“Yeah, she’s having the time of her life.”
“That surprises me, I’d never have thought your mom would enjoy something like that.”
“She didn’t either, but it isn’t so much the activity but the person she’s sharing it with that she adores.” Yes, it was a little dig, but he had it coming.
He brushed right past that when he said, “I’m happy to hear that. And you’re staying in Riverdale?”
My stomach twisted because I hated that I was right. Whatever this was, Dolly had put him up to it.
“I’m renting the carriage house of a friend of my boss’s.”
“Nice.”
“So what’s new with you, Dad?”
He looked up from his sandwich and it was the first time during our reunion that he looked nervous. “Well, actually I do have news.”
My stomach squeezed.
“Dolly’s pregnant.”
My pastrami on rye soured in my stomach. Working to control my reaction to that news was hard, but I sucked it up and pasted a smile on my lips. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks. It’s a bit daunting becoming a father again at sixty, but Dolly really wants a family.”
Again? Well yeah it kind of was again since he stopped acting like a father years ago. Bitterness burned through me. Instead, I just smiled and nodded.
“Anyway, to the reason why I wanted to see you. Dolly’s hope is that you’ll have an active role in our child’s life.”
Irritation and annoyance lit through me, as if I was the one who’d been keeping my distance. “As your daughter, it’s kind of a given I’ll be a part of your child’s life.”
“No, I realize that. What I mean to say is she wants to have a baby shower and she’s hoping that as the sister, you’ll throw it.”
It took me a minute for understanding to dawn and I couldn’t lie, hurt hit first knowing that had he not this request to make of me, my dad never would have called. Anger quickly replaced hurt that my dad could be such a blind fool when it came to his scheming bitch of a wife. “And does she have a preference for where this shower should be thrown?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. She’d like to have it at Clover and knowing how hard it is to get in there, she was hoping you could set it up.”
My voice turned deadly quiet; Mom would have known I was just barely holding onto my temper, so would’ve Nat, hell, even Harold would have picked up on it, but my dad hadn’t a clue. “So she’d like for me to ask for special treatment from my boss, whom I’ve only just started working for, so she can show off to all her friends at Clover. Am I getting this right?”
Dad’s brow furrowed, he was seriously living in a hole when it came to his wife. “I don’t think she’s being that calculating, Avery. It’s just an opportunity.”
“And if I worked at say, Applebee’s, would she still like for me to have an active role in my sibling’s life and host the baby shower? What about Nat, not interested in having the shower in an OR?”
Temper, I saw it rolling over his features. This little chat wasn’t going the way he wanted. “I think you’re being unfair to your stepmother.”
That was it; I lost it. “She is not my stepmother. She’s your new wife. I have a mother whom I love dearly. As far as your wife, the only one who doesn’t clearly see your wife’s actions is you. I will not be hosting her shower, in fact as soon as I get back to Clover I will do everything in my power to make cer
tain it will be a cold day in Hell before Dolly gets to strut her low-class ass in my place of employment.”
“Avery!”
“You haven’t called me in years, you haven’t been a father for even longer, but you call me out of the blue, playing on my emotional need to have you in my life, to get your new wife what she wants even if that means using me to do it.” I stood, my body just shaking with rage. “Good luck with baby number three; you sucked being a father with Nat and me, maybe you’ll have better luck with this one.”
Tossing a twenty on the table, I walked out with my head held high until I reached the corner and then it all just crashed down on me. How badly I wanted my dad in my life and how he’d only ever been one huge disappointment. I cried, big fat tears because I’d finally had reached my limit, had finally come to the place where Nat was. I was done trying. When I returned to Clover I looked like a puffer fish, a fact not lost on Trace.
“Avery, what’s wrong?”
Wiping at my eyes, I took a few deep breaths to seek the calm I needed before I said, “I just saw my father. This is out of line, but I’m going to say it anyway. If you should get a request to host a baby shower for a Dolly Collins, it would be a huge favor to me if you turned that shit down.”
“A relation of yours?”
“My father’s new wife.”
Understanding moved over his face. “Consider it done.”
“Just like that?”
“For you to come back looking like that, knowing what I do about you, yeah, just like that.”
Even wallowing in misery, Trace’s opinion of me had a smile breaking over my face. “Thank you.”
“No problem. I’m even prepared to throw them physically from the building.” He offered that tidbit with a grin.
I laughed at the thought of Trace chucking Dolly out the front door of Clover, pregnant and all. “I don’t think it will come to that.” Even though there was a part of me that really wished it did.
I didn’t go right home after work, went to Allegro and bellied up to the bar. Signaling for a drink, I downed the first glass of wine and ordered a second. Feeling the alcohol in my blood was nice, took a bit of the sting out of the emotions stirred by the conversation with my dad.
I had tried, really had tried to see the good in him, but I was done. He hadn’t even seen it; the manipulation his wife was pulling on him and his daughter and here the man was talking about becoming a father again and with that woman as the mother. Unbelievable.
Tara approached; she must have been working the other side of the bar. “Avery, right?”
“Yeah. How are you, Tara?”
“Good. Staying busy.”
“Are Darcy and Lucien here?”
“Nah, they skipped out early, had some preschool thing for Emily. Oh, someone’s signaling me. I’ll be back.”
As she made her leave, a man settled next to me. Glancing over, my eyes collided with his. He was hot, kind of like Elijah from The Originals.
“Hey.”
He had a nice voice. “Hi.”
“Can I get you a drink?”
The point of being here was to forget the situation with my dad. If a sexy man wanted to help me with that, who was I to argue? “Sure.”
“What are you drinking?”
I had been drinking wine, but I wanted something more potent. “A mind eraser.” They were good, tasted like liquid sweet-tarts.
He signaled the other bartender working with Tara and placed my order before he turned his dark eyes on me. “I’m Marco.”
“Avery.”
“Did you just get off work?”
“Yeah. I needed to unwind.”
“Where do you work?”
“A restaurant not far from here.”
“With a face like that, you must be the hostess?”
He was a good-looking man and he was trying, but in my head all I saw was Rafe. His laugh, his smile, the way his eyes twinkled when he was being mischievous. This poor guy didn’t stand a chance, but conversing with him would keep thoughts of my dad at bay. “Pastry chef.”
“Really? Is that job as interesting as it sounds?”
“And then some. It’s like art with sugar.” Liam’s description of my job was very fitting.
He chuckled and it was a nice sound.
“What about you? What do you do?”
“Security specialist.” He must have seen the question in my expression when he added, “I work for a firm installing security systems.”
“I bet you have a huge client-base in this area.”
“Our biggest. So you said you were here to unwind, is that code for a bad day?”
“Not a bad day, just a bad situation.”
“How bad? On a scale from one to ten, ten being totally shitty.”
“An eleven.”
“Oh man, I’m sorry.”
“Sadly, it comes as no surprise. I have become entirely too used to bad situations of this kind.” I flashed him a smile as I finished off my mind eraser, “A little help forgetting, always a plus.”
“How are you getting home?”
“Cab.”
“Then I’ll get us another round.”
I woke face down on my bed, still dressed in yesterday’s clothes. My mouth was dry, I had to pee and my head was pounding. Damn those mind erasers, had the name for a reason. Climbing from bed, I realized the pounding wasn’t my head but someone at the door.
“Stop pounding.” A sharp pain stabbed my aching brain, which only served to spark my temper.
Pulling the door open, Rafe stood there and he looked dangerous.
“It’s too early for this. Come back next week.” I tried to close the door, but his foot stopped that action.
Focusing on his foot was hard since I was still slightly drunk. “Could you move that?”
“Who was the guy?”
“What guy?”
Now he looked both dangerous and really freaking mad. “The one who saw you home at three in the morning.”
Someone saw me home? Wait, my car wasn’t here? Moving past Rafe, I peered over to the drive and, yep, my car wasn’t there. Well, that was good; I didn’t drive while drunk.
“Avery?”
Focusing on the question, the night started coming back to me. Marco. Right, we shared a cab. I had been so far gone he’d hadn’t been comfortable with me in a cab alone.
“Marco.”
“Who the fuck is Marco?”
Surprised at the anger coming from him, I didn’t answer immediately. He didn’t like my hesitation because he got up in my face, so close his breath fanned out over my cheeks and as hard as I tried to bite down on the moan, it couldn’t be stopped because he smelled so good. Edible.
“Who’s Marco?”
My thoughts were a bit scattered because instead of answering him I asked a question. “How do you know someone brought me home?”
“I saw it on the cameras, the alarm buzzed when the gate opened.”
Ah, good to know.
“Who’s Marco, Avery?”
“A nice man I met at a bar.”
I was still in a bit of a haze, so I wasn’t picking up on the subtle nuances coming from Rafe. “Were you on a date?”
Bile burned the back of my throat, damn mind erasers…wait, what? A date? And even feeling like death, I couldn’t help the grin because Rafe looked jealous. It was tempting to tease him a bit, but then had the roles been reversed I wouldn’t have found the situation funny in the least. “No. I went to Allegro to drink my troubles away. He was nice, didn’t want me in a cab alone in my condition. Come in, I’ll put on some coffee, since I didn’t set the machine last night, but first I have to pee.”
I didn’t wait for him to accept my invite and disappeared down the hall to take care of business and to change from my work clothes to my comfy sweats. When I returned, Rafe was already brewing the coffee. I settled at the counter, Rafe leaned over it, right in my face.
“Call me the next time
you find yourself needing a ride.”
“But it was late. You—”
“Avery, don’t fucking argue. You call me the next time. Understand?”
High-handed, absolutely, and still every part of me loved that he was being high-handed. “I’ll call you.”
“How about an omelet?” Gracious too, Nat would have ridden my ass for an hour on my poor judgment. And I could admit that I’d been reckless last night. Luckily for me it all ended well.
My stomach growled in answer. “Please, I’m starving.”
As he walked to the fridge, he asked, “What troubles were you drinking away?”
“Just stuff with my dad.”
“What stuff?”
“He called me out of the blue yesterday and invited me out for a bite to eat. Foolish little me thought he was finally reaching out, but he was there at the request of his wife. They’re pregnant and they were hoping I could arrange to have her baby shower at Clover since I work there. The sad part is he doesn’t see it, her manipulation and worse how her manipulation hurts Nat and me.”
“Assholes. What did you tell him?”
I didn’t answer right away, just took a moment to appreciate Rafe’s outrage on my behalf. “I told him it would be a cold day in Hell before Dolly had her baby shower at Clover. I even asked Trace to decline the request if one should be made.”
“Good for you.” He stopped beating the eggs, his focus completely on me. “Your car, it’s from him isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
Understanding looked back at me, but he tried for levity when he said, “There had to be a reason you kept that ugly piece of shit.”
And despite feeling melancholy, I felt my lips turning up into a smile. “My car is not ugly.”
“Baby, your car is hideous.”
“It’s vintage.”
“Vintage shit.”
“I don’t have words.” And even as I smiled, my heart hurt because it was an ugly car and I had kept it for far longer than I should have, I had kept it for him. But after his latest parental failure, even that memory didn’t improve my opinion of him.
Rafe touched my chin, lifting my face to his. “I’d like to say one day he’ll realize what an ass he’s being, one day he’ll man up and be the father you deserve, but it’s likely he’ll never get there. The happy memory you have when you look at your car, that’s what makes your car beautiful.”