Chapter 33 Finn
FINN
The week has kicked my ass in every way.
In my rush to wrap shit up in Dubai, we missed a hole in the contract.
Now, the legal firm representing my partner's former firm is threatening to wage war against us for “poaching” their clients. Then, to top it all off, I was served papers for a modification in my alimony agreement with Vivian. According to the request, the breakup caused her such emotional trauma that she couldn’t work and she couldn’t mentally live in the city with all our memories, meaning she needed to move.
The mental strain coupled with my significant increase in income due to the new business, she believes, warrants an increase in her alimony payments. Such fucking bullshit.
The only silver lining in the cesspool that is my life this week is that I'll get to see Lex during the weekend and bury my cock in her, hopefully repeatedly until I forget about fucking contracts, lawsuits, and ex-wives.
I don’t think I have ever looked so forward to helping someone move.
Fortunately, the movers will do most of the heavy lifting, but we opted to unpack all the boxes ourselves.
As excited as I am to see my daughter, I’ve been thinking of Alexis nonstop and have stared at the picture she sent an embarrassing amount of times.
I know I'll need to talk to her about sending sensitive pictures like that.
As someone in the tech sector, I know all too well how easily shit like that can get out, and just the thought of someone else seeing something meant for me makes me sick.
However, I'm very glad she sent it, risk and all, because I have been aching for her since she left my office. Hopefully, I can sneak away at some point and get her alone. It’ll be tricky between Marcee and Mr. Wayfield, who will be there too if he actually shows up.
For her sake, I really hope he does, but a selfish part of me doesn’t want yet another person to work around.
Fuck, I’m a real dick, aren’t I?
I opted to drive my Land Rover instead of my convertible so I can help take smaller loads or make runs to the store, but as the wind blows through the vehicle, I miss the freedom of driving down a long straight road with the top down.
It’s just over forty minutes from my place to their old one, and the new one is about ten to fifteen minutes further, still an easy drive, and just another confirmation that I made the right decision basing myself out of Huntington Beach.
I have to go to LA and San Francisco frequently, but I don’t mind.
My mind shifts back to Alexis’s dad. I have never formally met him.
Once, I saw him in passing at an event. I think he showed up for the Homecoming game where Alexis was named Homecoming Queen, and if memory serves me right, he left before her win was announced.
She hadn’t even seemed excited about winning.
The haunted look in her eyes when he didn’t show up for graduation sobers me.
No amount of time will erase that look from my memory.
I still looked at her as a child then and had an overwhelming pull to hold her and protect her that day, and it has only grown.
Although there is nothing fatherly in the way I see her now.
Smiling ruefully, I let my mind wander to the possibilities now open to us since she will have her own place.
Not just for physical stuff, but I can call her and not worry about Marcee finding out.
A stab of guilt floods me as I think about how Marcee would feel if she learned that we were sneaking around behind her back.
This thing can’t go on, but damn if I'm ready to let her go. It’s not like it can go anywhere, but is it really so wrong to enjoy her for a while, a little indulgence, a taste of the most exquisite forbidden fruit?
Trudging up the stairs to the girls’ apartment, I find Marcee in the living room directing movers like a drill sergeant.
I stand in the doorway admiring her. Marcee really is the best of both me and Vi, as much as I hate to give any credit to that shrew.
She’s calm, steady, always organized, and not afraid to step up and take charge. She smiles when she spots me.
“Hey, Dad! Thank you so much for coming. The first truck with just Alexis’s stuff left a few minutes ago and the crew is starting to load all my furniture.
Once they’re headed for the new place, we can load both of our cars with the boxes I don’t want on the truck.
There aren’t a lot, so I'm sure it will only take one trip. The plan is to have this place mostly cleared out today so we can clean it and hand the keys over on Monday.”
“Whew, did you even pause to take a breath, Marcee?”
Laughing, she looks at her list again, checking off something.
Shaking my head, I glance around the place, moving to get out of the way of a mattress leaving the flat.
I poke my head into each room, looking for Alexis.
She isn’t here. I wonder if she's at the new place, probably, that would make sense. It’s on the tip of my tongue when Marcee finds me peering into Alexis’s room.
“Oh, big news. Mr. Wayfield actually showed up! He called from the parking lot and I thought Lexie might pass out; she looked completely overwhelmed. It’s great he came, but after missing literally everything else in her life, I don’t know if she knows what to think or how to act. I actually feel kinda bad for her.”
Every instinct is telling me to check on her, but between Marcee and her dad, I know it will be hard.
I decide to start carting boxes down to my car to help speed things along so we can get to the new place as soon as possible.
Maybe I can’t talk to her, or get a moment alone, but I can at least lay eyes on her and gauge how she is holding up.
Two hours later, I'm carrying my first load of boxes into the new building. It’s a secured building with someone at the front entry at all times. I love the added security, especially now that they will be living separately.
I show my pass to the attendant and make for the elevator.
When it opens, I find Alexis and Mr. Wayfield inside.
My eyes instinctively roam her body. She’s wearing black yoga pants that hug her curves and a loose off-the-shoulder pink crop top.
Her perfectly tanned and toned stomach is peeking out, begging to have my lips on it.
She tops the outfit off with a pair of Converse and a baseball cap.
It doesn’t matter what she wears, she is stunning.
“Hi, Finn. Have you met my dad?”
Finally peeling my gaze off her, I hold out my hand to her dad. His handshake is firm.
“Dad, this is Finn, Marcee’s dad.” His eyes narrow on me, his grip going tight enough to hurt before releasing me. Flushing at the realization that he caught me ogling his daughter, I avert my gaze before he finally speaks.
“Nice to meet you.” His curt tone says the opposite.
“Yeah, you too, Mr. Wayfield. Exciting seeing where our girls chose to live. Must say, I love that this building is so secure.”
“Uh-huh.” If you didn’t know it, you would never guess he and Alexis are related.
His hair is dark brown, with gray peppered throughout.
His clean-shaven jaw is square, and in general, his features are hard.
His eyes, which I note are a similar shade of brown as Alexis's, are scrutinizing me. He’s probably only an inch taller than me, but pinned under his judging stare, it feels like he has a foot on me. A fact that rattles me.
He may be imposing in stature, but I’m not some young buck with nothing to offer. I’m a successful businessman who has brokered multimillion-dollar deals and created a successful tech consulting firm. I won’t allow him to make me cower. So, I hold his stare.
Alexis’s eyes are ping ponging between us like she's trying to piece together a puzzle.
“Is Marcee here yet? We were thinking about grabbing a pizza or tacos for us and the movers. Want to have a little picnic on the floor?” Her words effectively halt the pissing contest her dad and I were having.
“Oh, what?” She’s giving me a questioning look, and I know I need to get a grip. “Sorry, my mind wondered. Marcee is right behind me. She needed to finish checkbox one thousand before heading over. But lunch sounds good.”
“That sounds about right!” Her laughter fills the hallway.
“You know, she made me a copy too in case I wanted to use it. I think my moving style hurts her brain. Anyways, we’ll call when it’s ready.
See ya.” I’m momentarily transfixed by the gleam in her eyes and the wide smile spread across her face.
She looks so happy that her dad is here.
Turning, she heads in the opposite direction.
Stepping into the elevator, I watch her walk away. Her perky ass swaying as she walks, her toned legs in perfect stride. A harsh cough sounds, and fuck me, her dad is staring daggers at me. I press the close button multiple times, needing to get away before I do something else stupid.
Lunch is awkward, to say the least. The girls do their best to keep conversations going, but Mr. Wayfield seems to be brooding and angry.
Alexis constantly darts her gaze around the group, tugging her hair nervously.
I want so badly to grab her hand and reassure her, but I can’t.
After lunch, I announce I’m making a Target run for hanging supplies.
Entering the elevator, I finally relax a little.
Mr. Wayfield hates me, and I can’t blame him one bit.
If I caught someone his age looking at my daughter like that, I would knock his teeth in.
The door barely closes before bouncing open.
I shift to the back to make room for whoever is joining me.
When the doors open to reveal Alexis’s dad, I straighten, standing tall.
Suddenly, I feel like a teen caught making out with someone's daughter.
Nerves fill my stomach like a million butterflies.
He nods before turning his back to me. Releasing the breath I was holding, my shoulders slump in relief.
“How long?” His deep voice echoes in the closed space.
“Excuse me?”
“How long have you been crossing a line with my daughter?”
Turning to face me, his face flushes in anger.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” It’s a stupid and weak lie. He saw the way I looked at her.
“I’m talking about a man twice her age. The father of her best friend, taking advantage of her and being, I assume, physical with her.”
Trying to think of something to say, I open my mouth, only to close it.
“Tell me, Finn, was this your plan all along? All those years of her at your house? Were you grooming her, preying on her, just waiting for her to be legal so you could fuck her?” His voice rises with each word. Each one a punch in the gut, flaming my temper and pricking at my conscience.
“You are way off base. And who the fuck do you think you are coming at me like this? You, who has been so absent from her life that you don’t even know her.
If you see me watching her, it's with the care of a father, something you know nothing about. Don’t think for one second that you can waltz in here and pretend to be a dad and everyone will just forget the way you abandoned her to be raised by others.
” My chest heaves as I suck in air. His fists are clenched at his sides.
The doors slide open, and without another word, he steps out of the elevator and walks out of the building.
I sit on the bench by the elevator, my body shaking.
How did things get so messed up? How did I let things go so far? How can I look my daughter in the face when I'm having sex with her best friend? I struggle to breathe, my chest locked and throat thick.