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I reach out to shake her hand and there’s something familiar about her touch and the rippling electricity coming from her. Her soft fingers drag my focus to her touch, and part of me doesn’t want to let go. Especially when she smiles at me. Does she feel that?
“Hi, I’m Allie. Nice to meet you, Lucas…?”
That voice…
“Kennedy. Lucas Kennedy.” The second I say my name, her smile fades, and she drops my hand like I burned her.
What the hell? What did I miss?
“Dad,” she turns her entire body to Tom and away from me. “We gotta get going. I’ll take Jadon and let you get to it.”
“Oh, let me help you put him in the car.”
She snaps a tight smile on her face. “No! I got it. It’s fine. I’ll see you tonight for dinner, okay? Oh, Ted is coming. Said he needed to talk to you.”
Tom nods and hands over Jadon to Allie. “Alright, I’ll be home in an hour.”
Allie waves goodbye to Don and Barry after kissing her dad on the cheek. She doesn’t even acknowledge me, but I don’t know her and I’m not about to talk shit about my boss’ daughter. Maybe she just needs to get home. I’m reading too much into it. But I definitely missed something from Allie running to shaking my hand.
Maybe she’s just tired or something. Yeah, that must be it.
When we make it into the locker room, I check my phone for messages before heading into the coaches’ office. I have a few from Katrina congratulating me and then telling me we could celebrate tonight and a picture of her posing naked on the bed.
Oh, I can’t wait to get home.
Tom mentioned Jadon comes to practice often. I wonder if Allie does, too.
Chapter8
Allie
Shit.
Dammit!
FUCK!
How?Why?
Why, out ofallthe applicants inallthe world, would Dad hirehim? How and why wouldLucas-freaking-Kennedyend up working formyfather?
This guy ruined my life, and he never even asked my name before he did it! Well, I can’t say that Jadon hasn’t been a blessing, but I would have preferred having him a little later in life and in a position where his father would actually care if he existed.
Oh, I remember Lucas Kennedy and the way he conned me into the back of his car, acting oh, so sweet, and spewing his bullshit. I was so stupid and naïve to fall for his tricks. Then it all came crashing down with a simple “great, thanks,” like I was just trash.
I need to call Charity. She has always been good with advice. She helped me through the beginning of the pregnancy when I was too afraid to tell my dad. Even after that, she helped me when everything was too awkward for him.
He wasn’t comfortable helping his teenage daughter pick out breast pumps and nursing clothes when he planned to buy college and dorm gear. It made sense. He always thought my mom would be the one to help with pregnancy and “female stuff,” but after she died, it was just the two of us having to figure out a lot together. I mean, I was little when she passed, so I don’t really know how things could have been different for me if she were alive. He and I figured out pregnancy much the way we fumbled through my first period and my growing “woman” body.
Books, the internet, and videos online. He didn’t want help from anyone else, and neither did I.
But pregnancy and a baby were not on his list of expected life events for the daughter who was graduating from high school. Also, I probably could have waited until after the ceremony to tell him, but I threw up while heading to the stage to accept my diploma, so the jig was up at that point.
I was supposed to go to my dad’s university when I graduated. They accepted me early, and I got a great scholarship for a pre-med track, but when we found out I was pregnant, that dream went down the toilet. I could not afford to raise a child and go to school all alone and so I stayed back to raise Jadon. Studying, working, and supporting myself was going to be a lot for me to accomplish alone.
Even though I had to give up on my dad’s dream of me going to college and all that, I would do it all over again for this little boy. He made my life worth living. After we got into the hang of things, I applied and got into a mostly online program at a nearby university and have been working on getting my degree in business.
My plan is to open an organic catering company with a plant-based menu along with a regular menu upon special request. After I got pregnant and wasn’t able to keep any meat or dairy down, I removed all animal products from my diet and became a vegan. It wasn’t completely by choice, but by appetite, and even after I had Jadon, I was so used to the lifestyle that I just never switched back.
