AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And my responses to the texts were the same as if she’d sent me her nudes.
Mason: Damn, I’m drooling already.
“What’s this your mom says about us taking Finley again tonight?” My dad asked, walking into the living room carrying his reading glasses and a book.
I’d been attempting to get some rest on the living room couch while Finley watched a movie, but Finley was simply too chatty that afternoon. And I could never fully relax with my dad prowling around. “Uh, yeah,” I said, sitting up. “I’m having dinner with a friend.”
While my mom had a dozen questions about this dinner with a “friend,” I knew my dad wouldn’t concern himself with the details. “I figured it would be another school function,” he said, walking over to the window to watch the birds on the feeder. “You seem to attend a lot of those.”
As though that were a bad thing. I couldn’t remember my dad volunteering at my school a single time when I was a kid. That kind of thing was beneath him—he had more important work. “Nope, just dinner,” I said. “Sorry to put you guys out two days in a row.”
“You’re not putting us out. I was only curious.” He turned from the window to look at me. “When does your work with Owen start?”
This question came as a surprise, considering I hadn’t mentioned the job to my dad. Of course my mom would have brought it up to him by now, but his sudden interest in the job struck me as odd. “Not until they’re back from Cancun.”
He just nodded. “I’d love to know how much money he’s bringing in annually.” No congratulations. Nothing positive. Just obsessing over Owen’s success and wealth, as usual.
I sat there twiddling my thumbs for a second, considering how I might respond to that. Ultimately, I decided I could no longer bite my tongue. “I’m not sure, Dad, but I’ll be sure to ask him for you.”
He blinked. “That won’t be necessary.”
Giving Finley a brief glance, I rose to my feet and started to walk out of the room. I suddenly had an unpleasant taste in my mouth and needed to get far away from my father.
“What’s the matter with you?” he called after me.
“Nothing, Dad. Nothing.” But I paused and turned around, taking a few steps toward him. “Actually—you’ve been hounding me about getting a ‘real’ job for months, yet when I manage to put myself out there and get one that I’m really excited about, you can’t even congratulate me or throw a single ‘attaboy’ my way? All you want to know is how much the golden child of the family makes. No matter what I do—it’s never going to compare, is it?”
He hooked his glasses to the collar of his shirt and stared at me, completely dumbfounded. “I’m sorry. I thought you were just doing this as an excuse to goof off with your cousin.”
I cracked my knuckles. “Yeah. That sounds like me. A big goof-off.”
“Son—”
“Save it.” I didn’t care to hear whatever excuses he had. It didn’t matter that I was raising a little girl alone. Didn’t matter that I was about to make a potentially life-changing career move, working in the very field I’d studied—which was more than I could say for a lot of my peers. Those weren’t wins in his eyes. I didn’t know what it would take to finally earn praise from the man, and quite frankly, I no longer cared.
Kendall: I think I might finally be ready to confront my dad today.
Mason: It’s a good day for that kind of thing.
chapter forty-one
kendall
“Dude. Why are you torturing yourself? Are you a masochist or something?”
“I’m starting to think I might be,” I said, carefully placing my pecan pie in its container. I snapped the rubber lid on top and looked at the clock on the stove. Mason would be here to take me to my dad’s any minute now, and I still needed to find my boots.
I was questioning every decision, from the pie I’d made to the rust-colored jumpsuit I was wearing. It looked good on display at the boutique, but that mannequin didn’t have curves like mine. It was too late to change my mind about my outfit, though. I had to commit.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this. And you’re taking Fabio? You’re out of your mind, Blondie,” Jamie said. She was leaning against the counter and watching me like she was about to witness a sitcom play out. She’d probably like to be a fly on the wall for this entire encounter. But unfortunately for her, the only way she could witness this event would be to attend it herself—and that was out of the question.
“I just want to see what he has to say,” I said, carefully wiping the sweat from my forehead with a folded paper towel. “And I don’t know, I kind of miss the rest of the family. I mean, those girls are our sisters and we barely freakin’ know them.”
“Right. Send Anastasia and Drizella my love.”
“That’s mean.” Rylee and Paislee had done nothing to deserve to be nicknamed after Cinderella’s step-sisters. Before I could say anything else in their defense, the doorbell rang, and Titus started in on his yapping. “Shit. Where are my boots?”
I bravely allowed Jamie to answer the door while I searched for my shoes. A few minutes later, I emerged to discover Mason sitting on the couch with Jamie, scratching Titus’s ears. He jumped to his feet when he saw me, taking the pie from my hands so I could grab my purse from the hook by the front door.
