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He hesitated and seemed to be struggling to find the words. Her pulse hammered, and her blood pounded in her ears, drowning out all other sound. How the heck had he come to be here? How did he have the balls to just drop by?
Finally, he found his voice. “Well, I was actually hoping we could talk.”
“About what?”
“Well, for starters, how have you been?”
Hysterical laughter bubbled up Violet’s throat, nearly choking her. “Really? That’s why you’re here? To play some kind of catch-up game with me?”
“It’s not a game, Violet—”
“No, it’s not. You want to know how I am? I’m fine. I’m puzzled as to what in the holy hell you’re doing, but I am great.”
“Speaking of great, the house looks wonderful. You’ve really done a great job improving the place.”
“A friend of mine did it. Not me. I wasn’t going to put all of my hard-earned money into it just so you could show up and sell it out from under us.”
“This isn’t going the way I thought. Could we maybe just take a seat and talk? I won’t ask to come in, but we could sit on the porch steps.”
Violet didn’t want to talk or sit or shoot the shit. In fact, if she stood out here much longer with him, staring into his clean-shaven face and clear dark eyes, she might just take a swing at him. How dare he show up here stone-cold sober. Was he actually here trying to prove something?
“Pass, but thanks for stopping by.” Violet tried to step past him, but he grabbed her arm. Violet shook it violently and gritted out, “Take your hands off me.”
“I know you’re angry with me, and I want to explain. To make amends.”
It would have been funny if it didn’t make her really want to slap him. “You want to make amends? For what? For stealing our lunch money and blowing it on drugs? Or getting high and leaving me to raise your kids?” Violet’s voice rose, and the neighbor’s dogs started barking furiously, but she was beyond caring. “Or maybe you feel bad about attacking your son in the middle of the night when he was only eleven years old?”
He finally released her arm, but now Violet was seething and stepping into him aggressively. “Do you know he still has nightmares about you? Parents are supposed to make their kids feel safe, not scared.”
“I know I made plenty of mistakes, but that is what I’m here to fix—”
“This is not something you can fix. We have no use for you.” Violet spun away from him, heading for the porch steps.
“I hate to bring this up, but this house is in my name, and for better or worse, you, Daisy, and Casey are still my kids.”
Violet faced him once more. “We might share DNA, but we don’t belong to you. This house might technically be yours, but we aren’t. If you want it back, we’ll start looking for another place to live.”
Her father ran his hands over the top of his head and released a frustrated laugh. “This is not how I wanted this to go.”
“Then you really never knew me. After everything you did, you really thought you could just show up here and we’d be happy to see you? That’s we’d just open our hearts and forgive you?” Violet didn’t want him to know that she had worried, but she couldn’t keep the telling tremble from her voice. “I thought you were dead.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I was so screwed up for a long time, Violet, and after you told me to go, I thought it would be better if I stayed gone.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because I’ve been sober for eighteen months, and for the first time in my life, I’m able to take care of you guys. I know it will take time to earn your trust, but I’ve changed.”
Good for him. He’s straightened out his life finally, and what? You’re just supposed to let bygones be bygones?
“I appreciate that you’ve finally found God or inner strength or whatever, but it’s too late. Daisy and I are both adults, and the last thing Casey needs is to have you triggering old wounds.” Violet pointed to the road, in case she was being too subtle with him. “You can’t repair something that never existed.”
She’d almost made it inside when he called out, “I’m not giving up. Whether or not you think I deserve it, I will fight for the chance to know my kids.”
Opening the front door, she tossed back over her shoulder, “If you’d ever been much of a father to begin with, you wouldn’t need to get to know us now.”
Closing the door on whatever else he wanted to say, Violet locked it and escaped into her bedroom, sliding down the back of the closed door with a sob. Hugging her knees to her chest, she just sat there, fighting long-buried memories.
How dare he do this now? How could he think that any of them would fall for this bullshit?
