Twenty-Two
Branwen
I didn’t look or speak to Linc during dinner, but Stevie was busy telling him about her day. His eyes felt like lasers locked on me at times, and I almost met them, but didn’t. I was strong. The bastard had gone too far, and I refused to be some form of amusement for him.
My plan was to excuse myself after we finished eating and go to my room instead of joining them for movie night. Let them bond over Moana , and I would call Hudson.
When Linc stood, chuckling at Stevie’s excitement over dessert being in the great room while she watched the movie, I did the same, taking my plate, then going over to pick up Stevie’s.
“Jayda will clean the table,” Linc told me as I collected the flatware that Stevie hadn’t used.
“I’m not leaving my plate at the table. That’s rude. She cooked the meal.” My words were clipped.
I could see Stevie pulling on his hand in my peripheral vision.
“Come on. Let’s go,” she urged.
Normally, I would correct that behavior, but he had promised her an ice cream sundae, and she loved ice cream.
“We need to wait on your mom,” Linc told her.
With my hands full, I made my way to the sink. “You two go ahead. I’m going to make a phone call after this,” I said with my back to him now.
“That doesn’t sound like fun, does it?” he asked.
“Nope,” Stevie replied. “You gotta come too, Mommy. You love Moana .”
But I did not love her father. I actually wanted to stay the hell away from him and his arrogant smirk. I began cleaning what was left on the plates into the disposal while trying to think of a way out of this.
“I’ll join you after I call Hudson,” I told her, glancing over my shoulder and giving her an apologetic smile. Please just go along with this , I silently begged her with my eyes.
“Come on, Ringlets. I have a bowl full of cherries waiting for you. I know how much you like to do that little trick where you tie the stem with your tongue.”
The plate I was holding clattered loudly as it slipped from my hand, and I stared down at it. I was suddenly lightheaded, and I had to grip the edge of the sink to steady myself. Sucking in a breath as the thud of my heartbeat filled my ears. Stevie was saying something, but I couldn’t hear it.
“You—” I choked out the word, my throat tight. I swallowed and tried again. “You know.” My words sounded like a raspy whisper, but that was the best I could manage.
He knew who I was. Which meant that he knew that I had known who he was and said nothing. What did this mean?
I tried to calm my racing heart and trembling body so I could think.
A small hand touched mine. “Mommy, awah you okay? You just dwopped the plate. Wemembah that accidents happen,” she said, as if to soothe me.
I stared down at her sweet hand on top of mine and inhaled deeply. I could not do this in front of her. He’d chosen this moment to confront me when he had several other options.
“I’m fine,” I assured her, doing my best to smile.
“I’ve got plenty of plates.” Linc’s voice made my back stiffen. “Now, ladies, let’s go have our movie night.”
Stevie grabbed my wrist, pulling my hand away from the edge of the sink, and beamed. “YAY!” she said while tugging me to come with her.
Giving in, I turned around, and my eyes met Linc’s. The amusement in his gaze didn’t seem angry. He was enjoying the reaction he had gotten out of me.
How long had he been holding on to this? Had he known all along? When he had read my name on the marriage certificate, had he realized who I was then and just said nothing?
“Let’s go!” Stevie let go of my hand once I was moving in the direction she wanted and ran ahead of us.
Once she was out the door, I wanted to chase after her to save myself from being alone with him. Even if it was for a second.
Keeping my head down so as to not have to look at his face, I followed behind her. The sound of his boots on the hardwood seemed to be all I could hear. My steps quickened, and a deep chuckle rumbled in his chest. I didn’t react to it, but continued the ignoring him bit and almost caught up with Stevie.
Her loud squeal startled me, and my head snapped up to see her dart into the great room. What had he done now? Hopefully, he hadn’t bought every Moana toy ever made.
When I stepped into the room, I stopped and took in the table, where Stevie was currently scanning the items that filled it. He’d had Jayda set up an ice cream sundae bar. There were at least thirty toppings, arranged in clear containers of every shape and size. The centerpiece was a chocolate fountain. It was Instagram-worthy.
A hand slid around my waist and flattened on my stomach. The warmth of his body closed in behind me. I was frozen, except for my gaze as it dropped to stare at his touch. His large hand almost covered the entire area.
“You didn’t think I wouldn’t figure it out, did you, Ringlets?” his voice, close to my ear, said in a husky whisper. “You oughta know better than that. Keeping things from me isn’t possible.”
I shivered as he took a lock of my hair and twirled it around his finger.
“That sweet little girl…she’d have told me.” His voice was heavy with disappointment. As if he had the right to that.
He had been the one to disappoint me. If he wanted to play that card, he needed to get in line. I was there first.
“She’d have done anything for my attention,” he told me as his lips brushed the edge of my ear, causing me to shiver. “Why not now? Hmm?”
“Mommy! Look at all the chocolate!” Stevie cried out with glee, spinning around to look back at us.
He was gone so quickly that I had to grab the doorframe to steady myself. My smile was wobbly as I nodded my head. His scent was still wrapped around me with each breath I took. The spot on my stomach where his hand had been felt as if he had branded it with a hot iron.
“I reckon all you need is a bowl,” Linc said, stepping around me and heading in her direction.
Her eyes stared up at him with complete adoration. It hadn’t taken him long to win over his daughter—not that he would have had to work at it as hard as he had with extravagant gifts, a private plane, and now this. He might as well be Daddy Warbucks, and she’d be his Annie.
My phone vibrated in the pocket of my leggings, and I ignored it. I knew who it was, and right now, I wasn’t going to be able to talk to Hudson or respond to his text. I had a movie to get through with a man I didn’t know if I trusted or not.
“Which ice cweam is oat milk?” Stevie asked him as he handed her a bowl.
There were three different ice cream flavors—chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla—displayed in a serving piece that seemed to also be a freezing unit so that it didn’t melt. Stevie was on her tiptoes, peering up at them with interest.
“All of them are. Take your pick,” Linc informed her.
“Weally?” she asked in amazement. “I want all thwee!”
Linc grinned down at her and went to scoop her some from each vat. I would normally say something about the portion size, but right now, that was the least of my worries. The less I had to talk, the better.
As soon as she had three scoops in her bowl, she went to the chocolate fountain. He went behind her and showed her how to hold her bowl. I watched them for a moment. Memories I had repressed, not allowing myself to dwell on them, hit me, one right after another.
It was only when he did things like this that I saw a glimpse of the guy I had once known. Because the man he had become was someone altogether different.
Twenty-Six Years Ago
The chaos around me felt a thousand miles away. My chest ached with every sob that racked my body. I heard a siren in the distance. The smell of hay, horses, and cigarettes was the only constant around me. The rest…the rest was my world tilted on its axis.
No one was telling me what had happened or why my daddy had collapsed on the ground.
I’d run to him, but never made it, Kenneth—had stopped me. His hands clamping over my shoulders and holding me back as others began to call out and rush to Daddy.
One of the stablehands, Patrick, was doing CPR on him. I screamed for him, but Kenneth held on to me, telling me it was okay. That I needed to let them work on my daddy. It wasn’t okay though. My wails tore from me as he continued to lie there, not moving.
This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. My daddy was larger than life.
Just this morning, he had come into my room at five, like he always did, singing “Wake Up Little Susie” by The Everly Brothers. I groaned and threw my pillow at him. The full belly laugh from him had been followed by him telling me the bacon was going to get cold.
He wasn’t sick. Why was he not sitting up?
The siren was louder, and the roar in my head, along with more voices yelling, began to pull me under.
Then, I heard him. Not my dad, but Linc’s voice. When I turned around, Kenneth let go of me, and I saw Linc taking long, quick strides toward me. I let out a loud sob, then broke into a run. He would make this better. I just had to get to him.
When I reached him, he opened his arms, and I threw myself into them. He held me against his chest, and my tears soaked the front of his T-shirt. “I got you. Shhh,” his tone was meant to soothe, although not even Linc could do that. Not when my daddy wouldn’t get up off the ground.
“He’s gone,” I heard someone say, and I fisted Linc’s shirt in my hands.
“Fuck.” Linc’s voice was laced with pain.
I knew. He didn’t have to tell me; I knew it.
My daddy was never going to get up. Linc’s arms tightened around me as he rocked me back and forth. He didn’t lie to me and say it was going to be okay, like Kenneth had. He said nothing, just let me cry. While the grief engulfed me, Linc kept me from going under with it.