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“You’re not my dad,” I mutter.
He sighs, running a hand through his precociously graying blond hair. “I'm sorry," he mumbles. He stands up and starts to go up the stairs and I follow, albeit slowly so I don’t stumble.
When he looks back over his shoulder to see me struggling up the stairs, he grunts in the back of his throat and comes back down, lifting me up over his shoulder like I’m a sack of potatoes.
I just hang there, my head spinning.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m taking you to bed. You can barely walk,” he mutters, and he takes me to my room, depositing me not so gently on the bed and looking down at me as I pull the covers around me.
“Did you have fun?” he asks softly.
“So, what if I did?” I shoot back, feeling a little belligerent. After all, he is the one who rejected me.
Derek’s brow has been furrowed, a frown on his face, but now his expression goes blank. “Have a good night, Kenna,” he says, and walks out of my door, closing it behind him.
Suddenly, tears spring to the backs of my eyes and I don’t know if it’s the booze or just the rejection that I feel.
It was a stupid plan.I’mstupid, and childish, and he’s right not to want me.
The next morning is a weekday, so when I wake up at nine in the morning, I wake up in a panic. I’m looking everywhere for my phone but I must have left it in the backseat of Nolan’s car.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I curse, running downstairs to check on the kids.
Derek is sitting shirtless at the table with a cup of coffee.
“Wh-what?”
I’m surprised to see him there, it’s so late.
“Taking a day off work,” he says gruffly, not looking at me. “I thought you might like a day to recover.”
“I don’t need a day to recover. I just lost my phone and I didn’t have an alarm – you could have woken me up!” I complain.
Derek shrugs. “It’s fine. I haven’t had a day off since you started working here, anyway. I miss the kids.”
I sigh and pour myself a cup of coffee from the pot, sitting down across from him. It occurs to me that I must look like a mess, with my hair all rumpled from sleep, having not even washed my face.
“Do you want me to leave? Go see my parents or something?”
Derek looks up at me for the first time that morning, and I notice the bags under his eyes. He looks like he hasn’t slept.
“The kids love it when you’re here. Stay,” he says, and then looks back down into his coffee.
“Derek?” I ask softly. “Is something...wrong?”
“Suzanna called,” he says bluntly, and my eyes widen.
“My aunt Suzanna?”
“The very same. She wants the kids to come to her wedding.” He barks out a bitter laugh. “Imagine that.”
“That’s unacceptable,” I say after a long pause. “You’re not going to let her see them, are you?”
“Of course not.” Derek looks at me curiously. “Although I thought you might try to talk me into it.”
I shake my head. “I told you; I don’t even know her anymore. My family cut ties with her when she left.”
