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Holy fuck.
Many phone calls and one DNA test later, I’m a dad. Arianna’s mother and I dated briefly. Things were moving too fast, I’ll admit I got caught up, but after a few weeks I knew it wasn’t right. I didn’t want to lead her on. I didn’t really care about the sex and being with someone just for the physical release didn’t sit right with me.
I did what I thought was right. I told her the truth. Face to face. It wasn’t right for me. The next day, she’d packed up her little studio apartment and disappeared. I didn’t go looking and never heard from her again.
Arianna was sixteen when she contacted me. Annie had met some new guy. Rich. Old as dirt. Who wanted nothing to do with raising a teenager. Arianna didn’t get along with the new husband and during a big fight, Annie gave her my info and told her if she wanted to go live with her father, that was her option.
Long story short, she took her up on it and gave me a call. Annie’s been living between houses on Grand Caymen and Dallas ever since, and there I was with an angry adolescent girl and no fucking idea how to be a father.
We muddled through though, in no small part thanks to Carter and Layla.
Carter was living in Ohio at the time. We talked on the phone a lot, both of us thrust into roles for which we were completely unprepared. But, somehow, we rose to the occasion. It was close to two years later we finally got together and Arianna and I met Layla.
Holy shit.
She had just turned eighteen, and my obsession hit me like a bolt of lightning. I tried to push it away but I was done.
The girls took to each other like chocolate and peanut butter. It wasn’t five months later Carter moved himself and Layla an hour south of Cherry Falls for a new position with the Rogers fire department, finally completing his plan to become a fire jumper.
As for me, I followed my own crazy dream. Running a fishing charter business might not be everyone’s idea of the high life, but to me it was freedom. Rescued a dilapidated boat before it was broken up and scrapped, and worked on it in the time I had between building the house and working odd jobs for cash.
Then, when the business started doing better than expected, I added on one more boat, then kept going. I began leasing out my boats for events, private parties and day trips. I have seven total now, two are restored classic sailboats, two are fishing charters and the remaining three are various sizes of cruisers from thirty-six feet up to fifty-seven feet.
I employ and contract crew, catering and the multitude of other bodies it takes to run the business. It’s a life I never knew I wanted, but it’s perfect.
Almost.
I should be proud of what I’ve done, and I am, but none of it means a thing without her.
If Carter only knew how I felt about his sister-slash-daughter, how I stalk her in my own shadowy way, I know he’d not only never speak to me again, he’d cut my fucking dick off and then choke me with it.
He’s protective as hell of Layla, barely lets her go anywhere but here without an escort, usually himself. I know she feels stifled, but fuck if I can’t say I’m happy he keeps her on lockdown. The thought of other men catching sight of her brings up a rage within me I didn’t even know I had.
Layla is everything.
She’s smiles, beauty, brains, kindness and innocence. Besides that, she’s drop-dead sexy, with a toughness that makes her stand up straight and lean into every challenge she’s been handed.
The late afternoon summer sun streams through the back windows as the girls sit on a chair by the pool, looking at each other’s phones and roaring with laughter.
“Dad!” Arianna yells, waving toward me. “We’re going to swim, we want to have chicken fights. Get your suits on…you and Layla versus me and Carter.”
Fuck.
Carter stands, brushing his hands down his chest. “I got about an hour before I got to shove off, but I’m down for a battle. Unless you’re scared…” He snorts a chuckle. “You got an extra set of trunks I can borrow?”
I nod because forming words is impossible. I watch as Layla runs through the door, smiling at me, digging through her bag and pulling out some yellow strings holding together a few triangles of red cloth.
“My new suit!” She dangles it in front of her, biting into her lip, then turns and runs out to the pool house where Arianna disappeared through the door a moment ago.
I should say no. But saying no to her is impossible. She deserves everything, even if it will destroy me in the process. I’ve never longed for touch before I met her. Now, it’s on my mind every second of every day.
