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The look of confusion on Catherine’s face would’ve been amusing under different circumstances. I had a feeling that if I’d asked where she’d gotten the idea for her little subterfuge, she’d tell me about having seen it on some tween show where the kids were inevitably caught when the parents contacted each other, and each realized they’d been lied to. Apparently, she hadn’t learned that part of the lesson.
“I wanted to hear about the Golden Words release party,” she said. “But I didn’t want to have to wait until you came over for dinner again because it took my whole life for you to come last time.”
Not for the first time, I wondered what David and Julia had told their kids about me and why I wasn’t around. Joshua was an easy one since, until recently, he’d lived on the other side of the country.
“I’m going to be around more now, I promise.” I didn’t say the words lightly. I’d missed too much already. I would be around as much as my family allowed it.
She gave an excited squeal and threw her arms around my waist, nearly knocking me off balance. I caught her before we both fell, awkwardly patting her back. Kids usually just eyed me warily from a distance, but Catherine clearly didn’t have any issues with me.
“Can I stay here for a while and you tell me all about the party?” she asked, letting me go. “I want to hear everything. Did you talk to Golden Words? I mean, I know you’ve probably talked to them before, but did you talk to them at the party? What are they like? Naoko is my favorite, but I like Peach’s name the best. Is it for real? They all have great names, not a boring name like Catherine.”
I stared at her as she wandered around my office, looking at everything as she talked. How was anyone supposed to get a word in edgewise when she was going like that?
“Catherine. Catherine!” I raised my voice the second time I said her name, and that caught her attention. “You need to call your parents and tell them where you are.”
Her face fell.
“And then I’m going to take you home.”
“But Uncle Nate…”
I shook my head. “I love that you wanted to come talk to me, but you need to talk to your parents about that and have them decide if and when you come to see me. And never alone. You’re a smart girl, so I know you had to know how dangerous this was.”
She looked at her feet, the answer in her lack of verbal response.
“Now, let’s get your mom on the phone.”
Thirty-Eight
Ashlee
I didn’t call Nate.
Granted, I’d told him to contact me if he’d had enough time to decide what it was he wanted, which made me hopeful that he just needed more time. I clung to that hope because the alternative wasn’t something I wanted to think about.
It was fear of that alternative that followed me into work and kept reminding me to avoid him so I never had to admit that he’d decided I was too much work. That voice grew louder with each passing hour until I decided that I needed to spend my lunch finding something to distract me.
That something turned out to be me deciding that my parents needed to meet. I shot off a text to Mom, telling her my great idea, and then spent the ten minutes it took her to reply wondering if this would blow up in my face. Mom said she was okay with me having a relationship with Finley, but it was one thing to talk about it and something else entirely for it to be right there in her face.
I never should have doubted her.
That sounds like a wonderful idea! I have to admit, I’d been hoping to meet the man who gave me the most important person in my life. I’d love to host too, if that’d be all right with you. I’ve been watching a new cooking show, and I have a whole list of things I’d like to try. Find out if he has any dietary restrictions.
I hadn’t asked Finley anything about family health history, I realized as I read the last line in my mom’s text. Sure, he would’ve included relative things when he’d donated, but that’d been more than two decades ago. Some things had most likely changed. I made a mental note to add that to the growing list of things I was curious about.
After I finished eating my lunch, I decided I had enough time to go talk to Finley before turning my attention back to work. Mr. Hancock and Ms. Lamas had both told me it was going to be an easy day and I could be flexible with breaks and such since I’d put in extra work last week.
There’d been surprisingly little I’d needed to do to wrap things up for the release party. A lot of that, I suspected, had to do with the fact that the young women of Golden Words were all-around decent and considerate. I hadn’t been in the business long, but it’d still been long enough for me to understand how rare it was for four talented and well-mannered people to come together to form a band.
I hummed one of their songs as I made my way down the hall to Finley’s office. He’s stopped at my desk to say hello when he came in today – unlike his business partner.
It was definitely time to start looking elsewhere for employment, I admitted to myself. If I’d been concerned about rumors when Nate was the only one I had a personal relationship with, the thought of what people would say if it came out that Finley was my father bothered me even more.
I loved being able to talk to him whenever it didn’t interfere with work, but I didn’t want a job where people would assume I’d gotten it because of who I knew rather than what I could do.
I knocked on his door, praying that Nate’s door stayed closed. I didn’t want an awkward run-in to be the reason we finally spoke to each other. When I heard Finley call for me to come in, I breathed a sigh of relief and went inside.
“Ashlee, it’s good to see you.” He rose from his seat with a smile. “I wasn’t expecting it to be you.”