Chapter 28
The wrong Lindstrom
Kazimir
Ishouldn’t be on edge like this. Chett isn’t on the guest list, but Harley’s been gone a long time. The conversations at this luncheon skew heavy on hockey, and it was obvious she was nodding to be polite.
We’ll have to give her a crash course.
My clever fake girlfriend should easily keep up.
I check my watch again.
Fuck it, I’m going to find her.
As I part the crowd, guests who hadn’t seen me until now make it a point to come and greet me. After patting a few shoulders and shaking hands, I step into the restaurant and head toward the bathrooms.
When I turn the corner, I freeze.
My eyes drop to the floor and I catch a glimpse of dainty toes painted in red and strappy nude-colored heels I’m familiar with. My gaze scans the back of the tall man hovering over Harley. His height and width hide her from view.
Who is the fucker?
I eat up the floor underneath me until I’m standing right behind him.
I tap him on the back.
He turns around, and my face falls.
Heat creeps into my ears, my heart pounding at the sight of a man I haven’t seen since Nana’s funeral.
What the fuck is he doing here?
“Kazi,” my father says, “how are you?”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
My gaze slides to Harley.
Her mouth stretches into a thin line.
I shoot her a questioning frown.
She rolls her eyes.
What did he tell her?
I return my focus to my father. “You received an invitation to this event?”
“Bessie Johnson invited me as her date.”
I screw up my face. “Who?”
“She’s a golf equipment empire heiress who happened to be vacationing in Bangkok and renting the villa next to mine.” He smirks. “We became fast friends.”
I bet.
“When she needed a plus one for this event, we hopped on a private jet a couple days ago and landed in New York yesterday.” He smirks. “I know what you must be thinking.”
I doubt it.
“Bessie is all grown up.”
“So, she’s of legal drinking age?”
My father lifts his chin. “She’s in her mid-fifties.”
My head jerks back.
He’s dating an adult?
“Don’t look so shocked, son, some women don’t let themselves go after a certain age.
It’s a welcome change not to have to deal with the temper tantrums of girls who haven’t hit twenty-three yet.
Thanks to a skilled plastic surgeon, you’d never know Bessie has three adult sons.
All that work ensures she looks good, hanging from my arm. ”
He almost had me convinced he had changed his ways, but no, he’s still the same conceited prick.
“Hold up.” Harley lifts a hand. “Let me get this right.” She narrows her eyes at my father. “You show up at an event with your fifty-something girlfriend-slash-vacay-hookup, but you hit on me?”
My eyebrows shoot to my forehead as I swing my gaze toward my father. I have zero interest in playing this stupid game with him. “When is it going to end?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
My lips flatten.
He’s a shitty actor.
“Bessie and I got here not long ago,” he says. “I spotted you chatting with three guys and noticed you holding hands with this bombshell. When I saw her coming out of the bathroom, I thought I’d introduce myself.”
“Maybe greeting customs are different in Thailand,” Harley says, “but ‘You, goddess on legs, are hanging from the wrong Lindstrom’s arm’ sounds more like a come on than an introduction.”
I do a double take. “He said that?”
She nods.
I focus my attention on the man who has my eyes and my fucking suit. Of all the possible choices, he had to dress like me, making it impossible to deny I share DNA with this piss poor excuse of a father.
I stare at him. “Allow me to repeat my question, father, when will it end?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Kazi—”
“Since you figured I had talent on the ice, your modus operandi has been to bring me down a peg––or ten––––and it extends to that idiotic nickname.” I slide my hands in my pants pockets.
“You don’t say it out of love or affection.
You say it to remind me that you were the big name in hockey before I was even born.
You didn’t approach my date in a gesture of politeness.
You approached her because you intended on seducing her, like you’ve done with so many other women I’ve dated in the past.”
“Maybe if I had seduced Devlyn, it would’ve saved you from a nasty divorce with that overbearing drama queen.” His expression is so fucking smug.
Even though he pegged my ex-wife for who she is, I still shoot daggers at him.
“As for your previous comment, it’s not my fault if those women fell in love with me.” He scoffs.
You never take responsibility for shit, condescending fool.
I stick a finger in his face. “You went behind my back and wheedled your way into Shella’s bed because you knew she meant more to me than the other women I had been with.
” This is long overdue. I should’ve confronted him years ago instead of brushing the backstabbing under the rug.
“Then, you married her. Too bad for you, she turned around and cheated on your sorry ass and ended up pregnant with your personal chef’s twins. Karma is a bitch, ain’t it?”
He narrows his eyes. “So, what, you won a few more Stanley Cups than me––”
“And a gold Olympic medal, during which I was captain and led Team USA to an embarrassing win against Canada. Don’t forget the silver Olympic medal.
” I keep on enumerating on my fingers. “I was also Captain when we won. We didn’t beat Russia, but we made it such that Canada had to claim the bronze.
And last, but not least, I’m a member of the Triple Gold Club.
Only a handful of hockey players will ever be able to claim such an accomplishment.
” If he’s going to pull out the sharp knives, so will I.
“You think that makes you better than me? Think again.” His tanned skin turns to the color of an eggplant. “It’s my blood running through your veins. I’m the one who made you the hockey player you were––”
“In that case, you should’ve been proud of me.
You used to push me to excel at the game you loved, and as I was rising up the ranks, you became a foe.
From the day the headline ‘LINDSTR?M VERSUS LINDSTR?M: THE SON IS DESTINED TO SURPASS THE FATHER’ made the front page of every sports publication, you made it a pastime to dissect mistakes I made during games to the press.
” I stare down at him long and hard. “Only a traitor would do that.”
The rage that was burning in his eyes now flares.
“You had the best parents on the planet.” I’m on a roll.
“You’re a self-centered prick who couldn’t handle it when the spotlight was no longer on you, because you were so high on the admiration of your fans and the endless attention of puck bunnies.
Thanks to that vasectomy you had after I was born, you could fuck and duck without repercussions. ”
He takes a step back, and his mouth drops open.
Even after my grandparents died, I kept turning the other cheek every time he came after me with his insults and put downs, but it all ends today. He wants to air our dirty laundry? Bring it fucking on.
Harley places a hand on my forearm. “That’s how narcissist parents operate.
It was all fun and games when you were his mini me, but when you started shining on your own merit, that was no longer acceptable to him.
” Her lips twist. “And that’s when Operation Destroy Kazimir at any cost begun.
He had to find conniving ways to ruin your accomplishments and your relationships to inflate his ego. ”
I’m stunned by Harley’s assessment. She just met the man and she was able to figure out what took me years of therapy to understand and accept.
“You hope and pray that someday,” she says, “things will change, but they never do, no matter how much effort you invest—or how much you bend over backward.” She shakes her head. “It’s not normal behavior. It’s toxic.”
Her words hit hard.
I bite the inside of my lip as emotions surge through me.
Myriad scenes of my father eviscerating my self-confidence when I was a kid during practice, flash through my mind.
She turns to my father and points a finger at his chest. “You’re toxic.”
“This is outrageous.” My father looks down at Harley from over his nose. “I won’t let this piece of trash talk to me like this.”
“Fuck you for talking about my girlfriend like that.”
He flinches.
Harley crosses her arms, extends a leg in front of the other, and offers a slow nod.
“One second I was a goddess on legs, and now I’m trash?
” Another slow nod. “Typical of a narcissist. You lash out when you can’t get your way or when people see through your bullshit.
” She sticks a finger in his face. “Loving parents aren’t jealous of their children’s achievements. That shit is fucked up.”
My father blinks.
My eyebrows are hanging out in the vicinity of my hairline.
My feisty little blonde bombshell is a pocket-sized powerhouse.
“Oh, and one more thing,” Harley says. “Small minds are often attached to big mouths.” She looks my father up and down. “Case in point.”
Oskar Lindstrom’s head jerks back as if she had slapped him across the face.
The spitfire of a woman laces her fingers into mine. “Come on, Kaz, the air around here stinks. One would think it’s because we’re so close to the bathrooms, but it’s… the company.”
With that, we leave my father standing there with his jaw on the floor.
I let her pull me to the restaurant.
She parts groups of people by dropping excuse me here and there.
She stops at the terrace’s threshold and turns to face me.
“I should’ve kept my mouth shut. It wasn’t my place to tell your father off like that, but how he’s treated you makes my blood boil.
I couldn’t hold my tongue. The man is a certified douchewaffle. ”
Expectant green eyes stare up at me.
I’m too shellshocked to speak.
She grimaces. “I was out of line. I’m sorry—”
I cup her face in my hands and claim her mouth in a hot, possessive kiss.