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I swallowed furiously over the lump in my throat. This day had started so good. I’d slept with a man for the whole night—well, when we’d actually been sleeping. That had never happened before. He’d microwaved my Big Mac for my breakfast, which had tasted better than any fast food burger had a right to. And when he’d gone off to work and I’d kissed him goodbye, it had felt…normal.
Or what I’d assumed normal might feel like. I’d never had any experience with it. A normal couple with plans for lunch and a possibility of something more.
Not just a “see ya” with nothing else on the horizon except a potential call for a hookup on the weekend.
And you know what? I’d always been fine with that sort of arrangement. I wasn’t a forever girl.
Until I wasn’t fine with it anymore.
It wasn’t as if Clint owed me his life story yet. I certainly hadn’t told him mine. But he knew I edited romance novels and he’d neglected to fill in that part of his past.
Why? Were men just incapable of being forthright? Including my father and Mag, who obviously had some unknown issue with me that I couldn’t decipher.
Jerks. The whole lot of them.
My phone went off in my lap and I scowled at it hard enough to make the boulder in my throat dissolve.
“Yeah,” I snapped after accepting the call.
“Hi, honey. Did I wake you? I know you’re a night owl like your old Pop.” His cheerful laughter made me grip my phone tighter so I didn’t throw it.
“I waited up all night for you to show, so no, I wasn’t sleeping.”
A lie, but he deserved the extra dose of guilt. Not that he’d feel it.
“Are you okay? You don’t sound like yourself.”
“No, I’m not okay. I’m really fucking annoyed at men right now. I might become a lesbian. So I guess it won’t matter if I can attract a man then, huh?”
My father did not speak. This might’ve been the first time that had ever happened. I was used to him dominating every minute of every conversation, marching his way through as if I didn’t exist other than to agree with his every utterance. And if I didn’t, he didn’t notice.
“Katherine, you know I said some things when you were younger that weren’t as kind as they should have been. I’ve apologized for that before.”
“Apologies don’t turn off the voice in my head. I was insecure about myself even before I turned ten. I’m a hot fucking mess and it’s partially your fault and you can’t even come by when you decide to drop by unannounced.”
“I’m sorry.” His voice was soft. “But I met a woman on the plane—”
I laughed bitterly. “Of course you did. And let me guess, now you’re in love with her? Because that’s what you do. Get swept away by someone you don’t even know and then it’s over five minutes later.”
Pot kettle. Guess that’s what you do too.
The difference was I’d only done this one time in my entire life. The dudes I’d hooked up with before certainly hadn’t aroused that feeling in me.
It was just Clint, and it wasn’t a mystery to understand why. He seemed like he genuinely gave a shit about me. Like I mattered.
I squeezed my eyes shut. I needed to get off the phone before I said something I couldn’t take back. Not because my father didn’t deserve it. He was the first man who’d broken my heart and he’d done it over and over—and he didn’t even know it.
Didn’t even care.
“You know, you’re right.” My father’s voice was weary. “I’m in love with love.”
The ridiculousness of this conversation made me laugh. Hard. “You’re pushing seventy, Dad. How can you still be in love with love?”
“Look, your old man has made some mistakes.”
I snorted.
“But I always treat these women well. We have a good time. When it’s over, it’s over, true enough, but there’s no hard feelings on either side.”
