Chapter 25
Rya~
“Will you hand me the oil pan on the second shelf?”
“You know, I could have done this myself,” I said as I did as he’d asked. “I came over here to hang out with you, not have you change the oil in my car.”
“Two birds with one stone, honey,” Dad replied easily. “I’m all about efficiency.”
That got a smile out of me. “Oh, well...don’t let me stand in the way of your efficiency.”
“Besides, just because you know how to do something doesn’t mean that I can’t do it for you,” he went on. “I’m your father, and it’s my job to take care of you, grown or not.”
Unknowingly, he just gave me the opening for why I had stopped by. Now, granted, I always enjoyed visiting my father, and I tried to visit him often, but today I’d come here with a specific purpose in mind, and that’d been to tell him about Koen.
“Well, what if I told you that you didn’t have to worry about taking care of me anymore?” I asked, waiting for his reaction.
After a few quiet seconds, my father rolled out from underneath my car, and when he sat up, his green eyes looked way too serious for this early in the day. Of course, being the dedicated father that he was, I probably could have chosen my words more carefully.
“First off, as much as I trust and respect Dalton, he will never be wise enough to fill my shoes,” he said, and he sounded serious as hell.
“Now, maybe later down the road...you know, when he becomes a father himself, then he’ll be able to take the reins some of the time, but it will always be my job to take care of you, Rya. Always.”
While there was so much wrong with his reasoning, that was a conversation for another day. “I wasn’t talking about Dalton, Dad.”
His brows immediately perked up. “You weren’t?”
“No,” I sighed, suddenly feeling nervous. “I...I met someone.”
He gave me a small nod as he let out a deep sigh. “You did, did you?”
For whatever reason, emotion hit me hard and quick, but I did my best to hide it, lest my father freak out. “Yeah, I did.”
“Okay...so, tell me about this young man,” he said as he stood up from the roller, then came to sit down next to me on the work bench.
“He’s...he’s Koen Wilder, Dad,” I confessed as if Koen was the gatekeeper to the underworld. “Like...Wilder Technologies, Koen Wilder.”
“I see,” he muttered. “And is that a problem?”
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I mean...even though he makes me happy, we’re from two very different worlds.”
“Honey, we live in only one world,” he replied sweetly.
“It’s more than that, Dad,” I said. “He’s rich, gorgeous, intelligent, driven...and all the other adjectives that make him perfect, and then...and then you have me.”
“And what is so wrong with you that you feel as if you don’t measure up to all those adjectives?” he asked carefully, and I knew that this was delicate territory.
“Honestly, when we’re together, I don’t feel as if there’s anything wrong with me,” I replied softly. “He has a way of making me feel like...like the moment is enough.”
“That’s probably because he’s seeing you through his eyes, Rya,” he said. “Plus, why is it ok for you to place this perfection on him, but he can’t feel the same about you?”
“Because that perfection is fact, Dad,” I pointed out.
“But it’s not,” he countered. “Firstly, looks is a matter of opinion. While two guys might spot a beautiful blonde walking down the street, if the second guy is into brunettes, then he definitely sees something entirely different from the first guy. Now, as for being intelligent and driven...well, you’re those things, too.
If you weren’t, then you’d still be living at home off your father. ”
“Holding down a job and paying my bills is hardly comparable to running a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, Dad.”
“True,” he agreed. “However, had you been born into a family that had a multi-billion-dollar legacy, then you would have also been groomed from birth to take it over, and with that kind of upbringing, how much of a challenge would it really be?”
“Dad, it’s not the same.”
“Oh, but it is,” he chuckled. “You’re just scared, Rya. You’re scared, and I don’t blame you because love is the scariest thing out there when you’re not loved in return. So, let me ask you...do you feel loved in return?”
I couldn’t lie about that. “I do. Even though he hasn’t said the words, he makes me feel like I’m all that he’ll ever need in life, and...yeah, that’s scary as hell.”
“Rya, honey, the life that Koen Wilder has was set up for him by his parents years ago,” he went on.
“Now, while he might be doing all that he can to be worthy of his blessings, he didn’t do anything miraculous to earn them.
” He shrugged a shoulder as he added, “As for looks, those fade, and anyone interested in just the surface is a waste of time anyway, honey.”
“I just...some days, I feel like the luckiest girl on the planet, and then there are other days when I have no idea what I’m doing,” I confessed. “This is the first time that I’ve ever had a guy chase me, catch me, and then swear that he was never going to let me go.”
After a few seconds of silence, he asked, “And when will I be meeting this young man?”
“That’s why I came by,” I told him. “When’s a good time for you?”
“As soon as possible,” he chuckled. “If this boy scares you, then that’s enough to tell me that you’re probably already in love with him, and so I’d really like to meet him soon.”
“It’s only been a little over a month, Dad,” I said, trying to downplay my feelings.
“Honey, love doesn’t work like that,” he replied seriously. “I fell in love with your mother almost immediately.”
“Yeah, and look how that turned out,” I retorted a bit bitterly.
“If you ask me, it turned out perfectly,” he countered. “She gave me a beautiful, kind-hearted, wonderful daughter, and then was decent enough to bow out of our lives peacefully.”
My brows furrowed in confusion. “How do you figure that was a good thing?’
His face softened. “Had she stayed, miserable and unsatisfied, can you imagine what kind of toxic household you would have grown up in? I would have spent all these years trying to make her happy when I couldn’t, and you would have grown up seeing that.
Yeah, we both have scars from how she abandoned us, but I’d like to think that us being happy made up for it a bit. ”
“I love you, Dad,” I said before I threw my arms around him, holding on tight. “I love you so much.”
“I know you do, honey,” he chuckled as he hugged me back. “And I love you more than you can ever imagine.”
“She didn’t deserve you,” I whispered, tears clogging my throat.
“She didn’t deserve you, either.” I pulled back to wipe my tears, and it was to see a sweet smile on his face. “We’re okay, Rya. We will always be okay.”
Yes, we would be.
Just then, my phone chimed, and when I pulled it from my pocket, I saw that it was Koen. “It’s him.”
“Well, maybe now is a good time to ask him when he’s free because I really want to meet him, Rya,” my father said. “I’d like to make my own assessment of the man.”
Koen: Working late, but only an hour or so. Ur place or mine?
Me: I should b home, so mine works
Koen: Ok...c u then, baby
Me: B4 u go...my dad wants 2 meet u. When’s a good time 4 u?
Koen: Fuck work...I can meet him now
Tears immediately sprung to my eyes as I turned my phone towards my dad. “I told him that you wanted to meet him.
After reading the texts, he said, “I think I’m going to like this young man.”
“I hope you do,” I replied honestly. “Because I already do a whole lot.”
In fact, I was pretty sure that I was in love with Koen Wilder, and for once in my life, that was fine.