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Hugh walked in, navy-blue suit pants encasing his legs. A pale-blue shirt buttoned over his chest, with a jacket slung over his shoulder. He had an earpiece in and chatted with the other person like he didn’t have a care in the world.
His gaze met mine then kept on going. Like he didn’t have a clue who I was.
But he would. Oh, he would.
He walked up to Amanda, and she shot me a nervous glance.
I stood there watching Hugh order coffee, silently waiting for him to say something to her so I could make a scene. But clearly, he was too preoccupied by his phone call to harass Amanda any today.
Which only made me more suspicious. Was it Caleb on the other end of that phone call?
“Rebel?”
I jumped at my name and spun around, not expecting to see my father standing there.
He beamed at me. “Hi!”
“What are you doing here?” I spluttered, completely taken by surprise at his sudden appearance.
He pointed at the register. “Same thing as you, I assume. Getting coffee.”
Something about that didn’t ring true. “There’s coffee in Saint View too. Why come all the way into the city?”
The man bit his bottom lip then let it go slowly. “Okay, fine. You busted me. You drove past me when you were leaving Saint View. I couldn’t help but follow. Don’t be mad.”
But I was mad. At least a little bit. “I said I’d call you if and when I was ready.”
He dropped his gaze to the floor, his shoulders slumping. “I know you did. I’m so sorry. It’s just hard for me to see you again. I know you’re a woman now and you don’t need me, but in my mind, you’re still five years old.”
“Could you two move? You’re blocking the entire exit.” Hugh pushed past me without even waiting for a reply, jostling me forward. My coffee sloshed around inside the cup.
“Hey,” my dad complained, catching my arm to steady me before the coffee spilled everywhere. “You just knocked my daughter because you were too impatient to even ask politely. That was uncalled for.”
Hugh just kept walking, leaving my dad staring after him with a scowl and muttering about needing to be raised with better manners.
Something in me softened at Torrence being protective.
He noticed me watching him and cringed. “I’m sorry. I know I’m not your dad in any way other than biologically. I shouldn’t have said anything to him.”
“No. It’s nice, actually.”
The guy looked so pleased by the tiny scrap of praise, I couldn’t help but give him another. “Do you have time to drink one of these with me?”
His eyes went wide. “Now? Really?”
I gave a little laugh. He was sweet. “Sure. If you don’t have anything else going on?”
He half bowed and gestured for me to go ahead. “What can I get you?”
I held up my coffee and a brown paper bag with the café’s logo on the front. Inside was a rapidly cooling muffin Amanda had heated for me. “I’m good. But I would like to sit and talk. Maybe you could tell me about my…”
Torrence beamed. “You want to know about your family?”
It felt so weird to even think about. That there was more than just me and my mom. I’d never really thought of the two of us as a family. It was always just her and me. But I had siblings and a stepmom. Cousins, maybe. Aunts and uncles. That had a different ring to it.
Torrence led me to a table. “You have four sisters. Alice Elizabeth, Samantha Jane, Naomi Melissa, and Jacqueline Kay. They’re all younger than you, obviously. I didn’t meet their mother until about a year after I moved back to Texas.”
“Is your wife nice?”