Chapter 18
CHAPTER 18
T ania
“Oh my god!” Liza says when I come through the door of our suite early the next morning. “I called you a dozen times and searched this entire property.”
A door opening from her suite startles me before I can answer. Out walks the tall redhead that’s been keeping my assistant company over the past few days.
“We searched everywhere for you,” Liza corrects, looking over at Keith.
That’s when I notice she’s holding two mugs of coffee in her hands. And I note her bloodshot eyes as if she truly didn’t get any sleep last night.
Keith clears his throat, relieving Liza of the mugs and setting them down on the counter.
“Are you okay?” he asks at the same time he moves to stand next to my assistant, his hand around her shoulders.
Watching them together causes my chest to tighten. It reminds me of what I had.
Correction: Of what I thought I had.
“I’m fine,” I mumble as I fully enter the suite, shutting the door behind me.
I plop down on the couch, not even bothering to remove the coat I ran out of here with last night.
“Where did you stay last night?” Liza asks, bringing me a hot cup of coffee.
I can tell she’s made one of her specialty chocolate-latte-coffee-thingys as she calls them.
Ordinarily, I would enjoy the coffee and chocolate mix. Not this morning, though.
“I got a hotel a few miles from here.” The damn thing cost me an arm and a leg to book last minute on Christmas Eve, but I was willing to pay the price. I figured my suite would be the first place Taehyun would come looking for me.
Sadness fills me as I glance around, noting that he’s nowhere to be found.
He probably got what he wanted. To embarrass me. Now, he won’t even bother to show up to apologize.
I shake my head to push those pitying thoughts aside. Of course he won’t show up. He set me up on purpose. He wanted this to happen.
“You weren’t answering your phone,” Liza says, taking a seat in front of me on the coffee table.
“Turned it off.” I pull my phone out of the pocket of my coat and show her the black screen. “Damn thing kept ringing.”
I toss it aside without bothering to turn it on. I received calls and texts from both known and unknown numbers. Friends, wanting to know if I was okay. Others wanting to know if the blog was true, was I really dropping out of next month’s X Games.
I hadn’t received a message from my dad but I’m sure he’d heard about it. He was likely somewhere doing damage control before he called me.
“Well—”
I hold up my hand. “We can talk about it later?” I look over at Keith who’s hovering over Liza, hand on her back once again. He’s got it bad for her.
“It’s Christmas morning. You should enjoy it. Not thinking about work,” I tell her. “I’m sure you would like to spend your first Christmas together,” I tell Keith directly.
“Actually,” he peers down at Liza, “I would,” he answers honestly.
“Good. Then go. I’ll hang out here in bed for most of the day anyway. Our flight leaves tomorrow evening. Take all the time you want.”
I rise from my seat on the couch and finally start to peel off my coat and snow boots.
“Tania, we can’t ignore this,” Liza says to my back.
I spin to face her. “We’re not ignoring it. It’s Christmas and I just want quiet.” For some reason my vision becomes blurred from tears.
I shake my head and blink them away, refusing to let the tears fall.
“Go have fun.”
Liza doesn’t have time to reply because there’s a sharp knock on the door. My heart sinks.
I start for my bedroom. “If it’s Taehyun, send him away. And then you two go enjoy your day.”
I highly doubt it’s him since I now know he doesn’t give a shit about me. It’s probably resort staff bringing in the holiday breakfast I purchased as part of the package when I booked this place.
My stomach sours at the thought. The last thing I want to do is eat. Or look at a beautifully prepared breakfast.
“And you can tell them to?—”
“Mr. Casey,” Liza says as she pulls open the door.
A second later, my father enters the room, filling the space with his commanding presence.
“Liza, Merry Christmas,” he says, sounding eerily cheerful.
I cock my head to the side.
He even pulls my assistant into a hug, shocking both me and her if the gasp she lets out is any indication.
When my father pulls back, he scans the room until his gaze land on me. His eyes visibly light up.
“Ace.”
Before I know it, I’m wrapped up in my father’s strong arms. I think it’s going to be a quick hug, but he doesn’t let go. Even rocking me back and forth for a while.
It’s like the hugs he used to give me as a kid whenever he returned home from a business trip.
He pulls back his arms on my shoulders, smiling down at me. “Merry Christmas, Ace.”
The tears I’d fought so hard to hold onto slip down my cheeks.
I quickly brush them away.
“What are you doing here?”
Some of the sparkle in his gaze fades but not entirely.
“It’s a shame you even have to ask that question.” Frowning, he squeezes my shoulders. “I know it’s my fault.”
His head shakes in disappointment at himself.
“I’ve failed you in so many ways.” His voice sounds so heavy that the little piece of my heart that wasn’t already broken cracks.
“Why are you saying these things?” I ask, taking his hands in mine.
“I’ve had a lot of time to think on the flight on my way over.” He shakes his head. “Really, more than enough time. My first flight was delayed, which caused me to miss my connection. That landed me in the Dallas airport for hours.”
He snorts.
“But that’s not the point. The point is while I was there, I thought about all of the ways I’ve failed you.”
“Daddy, you haven’t,” I insist, squeezing his hands.
“My Ace always wants to keep the people around her happy.” He smiles wistfully. “You get that from your mother.”
My eyebrows spike because my father never brings up my mother. He used to tell me all of the time I reminded him of her.
After she died, he stopped mentioning her.
“She was a people pleaser, too,” he continues.
“Why … why are you talking about Mommy?” I ask in a whisper.
He wipes a tear away from my cheek.
“Because you loved her and you deserve to remember her. Just like I do. I’m sorry for not …” He inhales deeply before releasing a shaky breath. “I’m sorry for not being the father you needed me to be after she died.”
I shake my head, but he continues.
“She was the one to always remind me when to slow down when it came to work. She would insist on us taking family vacations and holidays to make sure we all had beautiful memories.
“After her passing, I threw myself into work because feeling the pain of her loss was too much.”
His glossy eyes meet mine. It’s then I realize we’re both crying at this point.
“I know I should’ve dealt with it better. I should’ve let you talk about your mother and cry in my arms whenever you missed her.
“Instead, I pushed you and pushed you until you thought you needed to lie to me so you wouldn’t let me down by walking away from snowboarding.”
“What?”
“I’m so sorry,” he says again before pulling me into a tight hug.
Though his next words are muffled from our hug, I understand him when he says, “It’s okay, Ace. If you want to quit snowboarding and do something else. Don’t worry about sponsors or the X Games or anything else. I will always, always be your number one fan.”
This time it’s me who releases a shaky breath as my dad and I cry in one another’s arms. I don’t know how long we cling to one another, but it feels like hours and no time at all.
But it’s exactly what both of us needed.
A part of me, deep down inside, needed to know that my dad would love me no matter what. If all of the sponsorships, competitions, dreams of another Olympic gold went away, I needed to know that I would still have my daddy.
“It’s okay, Ace,” he says, pulling back and brushing the tears away. “We’ll be okay. Don’t worry about anything. I’ll handle any fall out that may come. We’ll announce your retirement sometime?—”
“Wait, wait.” I hold up my hands, finally regaining my ability to speak. With a shake of my head, I tell him, “I don’t want to retire. Where did you get that idea?”
His forehead wrinkles as he looks down at me, confused. “I … the Collander blog,” he replies. “I read it while waiting for my flight.”
“No, he was wrong. Well …” I correct before pushing out a breath. “He was right about me lying about my ankle. It was never sprained. I just twisted it a little on that fall. Within a couple of days, it was back to normal.”
My father looks even more confused.
“I didn’t lie to get out of the X Games or any other competition. And absolutely not to retire. I just needed a break. Some time off to enjoy the holidays and remember … Mom.” My voice shrinks a little on the last word.
He squeezes my shoulders again.
“I don’t want to retire. I want to win the X Games next month and I damn sure want to return to the Olympics in two years,” I say adamantly. “Nothing about that has changed. I also just wanted a real Christmas.”
His eyes grow even glossier, and it pains me to see the tears running down his face.
“I’m sorry for lying. I didn’t mean?—”
“You have nothing to apologize for.” He pulls me into a fierce hug again. “This is my fault. I should’ve known. Should’ve been more aware. Not as your damn manager but as your father.”
I hate the guilt and self-blame I hear in his voice.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
He pulls back and cups my face, smiling down at me. “Merry Christmas, Ace.”
A genuine smile sprouts on my lips. I love being his Ace.
“Merry Christmas, Daddy.”
He kisses my forehead, but then I pull back as a new question emerges.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Can I ask what brought about this sudden change? I mean, I’m glad you’re here of course, but just two days ago when I asked you to come …” I trail off because I don’t intend to bring down the mood.
Even if my heart is still heavy over other matters.
But my curiosity gets the best of me.
Sadness invades my father’s eyes. “I had a little push in the right direction.”
“A push?”
“From someone you know, apparently.” My father steps to the side, and that’s when my heart constricts.
It’s only been around twelve hours since I last saw him and I can’t believe how much I missed him.
But then I remember the reason why we didn’t wake up to one another on this Christmas morning.
“Get out,” I tell Taehyun, turning my back on him.