Page 21

Rafi stared down at the man in disgust, contemplating ripping his arm out of his socket for daring to touch his woman. In the end, he let the bastard go, wanting to reassure Carys more than he needed to hurt the pathetic excuse of a man at his feet.

Turning, he offered a hand to Carys. “Are you okay?” he asked, moving closer and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

He was gentle, shifting so she couldn’t watch as his bodyguards dragged her father down the block.

They would probably dump him in an alley somewhere.

Rafi didn’t care what they did to him. Carys was his only concern.

“Let’s go,” he urged, guiding Carys to the waiting SUV.

He got her settled inside and sat beside her, holding her closely as the car started to move.

She was white faced and shaking, and he gently tightened his arms around her, hoping to share his strength with her.

He’d noticed several pedestrians passing along, literally walking around the altercation.

Why? Why would anyone walk by someone who was obviously being harassed and not stop to offer help?

Everyone was so busy these days, so focused on getting home to their own tasks that they forgot to be compassionate human beings.

“Thank you,” she whispered. He heard a little sniff then despite the fact that she was still trembling, Carys pulled away from him. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand, then turned away, trying to hide her face.

For a moment, Rafi felt as if he’d been slapped. Carys was pulling away from him? Why? She carefully moved to the seat, her hands lacing together in a white knuckled grip.

“Will you tell me about him?”

Carys stared out through the window, but he could still see her profile. Another tear slid down her cheek and she wiped it angrily away.

“Thank you for your help,” she whispered, her tone tortured.

“Let’s have a drink,” Rafi suggested. “Then you can tell me all about him or not. We can just sit in silence if that’s what you need.”

It was a relief when Carys nodded. The SUV came to a halt outside of a pub-style restaurant. It wasn’t somewhere he would have chosen himself, but when his driver had heard the “drink” offer, he’d gone to the first restaurant he saw.

Once they were seated at a small table, he ordered her a martini and a scotch for himself.

She didn’t really touch the martini. Oh, she sipped it a bit, but Rafi suspected that the sip was more to appease him.

In a small way, Rafi supposed that her desire not to hurt his feelings was a good sign.

She wasn’t rejecting him. But he could see that she was still struggling.

“Who was that?”

“My father,” she replied, the second word cracking in the middle.

Rafi knew that she wasn’t going to relax with the alcohol. So more serious measures needed to be taken. He pointed to an item on the menu and the waitress nodded with a smile of understanding after a glance at Carys, promising that it would be out quickly.

Rafi waited in silence, wanting Carys to tell him in her own time. He didn’t want to pressure her. Still, it wasn’t until the waitress slid a piping hot platter of “loaded” fries between them, that Carys actually showed a smidge of interest.

With careful fingers, she pulled a fry from the mass of melted cheese, bacon, sour cream, and chives from the pile and bit into it.

Rafi knew that he’d gotten it right when Carys closed her eyes and sighed.

He wasn’t sure if that sigh was due to the comfort food or some other reason, but he didn’t care.

After four more cheesy fries, Carys’s shoulders slowly started to relax.

“Thank you,” she finally whispered as she took another fry.

“Want to tell me about him?” he asked, taking his own fry and popping it into his mouth.

But scotch wasn’t an appropriate drink for cheesy fries, so he downed his drink and ordered two beers.

Carys laughed a little and the sound seemed to lighten the mood just a bit.

When the waitress slid the two beers onto the table, Carys eyed her martini.

And because she understood the value of a martini, she downed the drink in a few gulps, then let out an audible “Ahhh!” as she delicately set the glass back down, then pulled one of the beers closer.

There was another long silence as Rafi watched her. She nibbled thoughtfully on the fries, and he could almost see her inner gears whirling. He let her think, hoping that she would tell him what had happened. But for the moment, he was just relieved that he was with her again.

“My father is an ass,” she blurted suddenly, concentrating on extracting another fry and loading it with melted cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

“What did he do to make you hate him?”

She popped the fry into her mouth and chewed, then delicately wiped her mouth with the napkin.

“He left.”

There was a long silence after that bombshell. Rafi stared as Carys chose another fry and popped it into her mouth.

“How old were you?”

“I was twelve when he left me and my mom and moved in with his mistress.” She chose another fry. “I was thirteen when he divorced my mom. But even then, I still had a relationship with him, although it was strained.”

“Was your mother hurt?”

Carys laughed flatly. “She was devastated. But she never said anything bad about my dad. She kept it together during the day, but I could hear her crying at night.” She stole a perfect fry, pushing his hand out of the way when Rafi tried to snag it first. He let her because he wanted to hear the rest of the story more than he wanted the perfect fry.

“So, then what happened? Did your father leave completely?”

She sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Not initially.” She stared blankly out the window for a moment.

“We used to go camping together. Just the two of us. We’d hike and fish and roast marshmallows. And we’d talk.” She frowned sadly at the memories. “My friends used to complain about their dads, but I always thought my father was the best in the world. I could tell him anything.”

There was another long silence and, this time, Rafi didn’t prompt her. She ate several more fries, but didn’t concentrate on loading them as carefully as before. When she started talking again, his gut clenched.

“After my dad left us, he left me too. At first, after he moved in with his mistress, the camping trips turned into weekly dinners out. Then even the dinners with my dad slowed down to once a month, and then stopped, without explanation.” She grimaced and heaved a heavy sigh.

“My stepmother, Beth, got pregnant quickly and by then, my dad stopped coming around completely. At first, my mom made excuses for his absence, explaining how difficult it was to have a newborn. She said that the first year is really rough.” Carys stared out through the window again.

“So, I tried to be patient. But, the good times with my dad never started up again.” Her mouth twisted slightly before she continued.

“I saw pictures online with him and his new family, going out to various places. Just innocent family events like picnics or pizza out.” Rafi watched as Carys rubbed her eyes.

The unspoken words were that her father never invited Carys out to those picnics or pizza nights.

Finally, she took a deep breath and continued.

“But after Beth went back to work, she got a promotion.” Carys squeezed her eyes shut briefly, fighting back the tears.

“The promotion meant that they had to move across the country to Arizona.”

“Oh no, that must have really hurt!”

Her chin trembled, but she inhaled deeply, clenched her teeth and let it out slowly. “He stopped calling after he moved. Eventually, I saw Beth posting pictures of my dad taking my half-sister camping. They had a great time.”

Rafi understood. His voice was raspy when he said, “Doing all the things that you used to do with him.”

Carys continued. “He didn’t call. He didn’t even bother sending me a card for my birthday by that point. It was as if this new family was everything he needed and I was…well, unnecessary.”

“That’s awful, Carys,” he hissed. Rafi wanted to reach out and touch her, but something warned him that she needed space right now. So, he kept his hands wrapped around his beer mug. Neither of them were interested in the cheesy fries anymore.

“It was. It still is.”

“So, why is he here now?” he asked.

She offered him a half smile. “He and his wife moved back to Philly. The letters started about a year ago. I read the first one. He said that he was back in town and wanted to get together for dinner whenever I had time.”

He looked into her eyes, noticing the sheen of tears.

She looked out the window. “After sixteen years of being gone, he wants to get together for dinner. He wants to be my dad again.” She was angry now, shaking her head. “He doesn’t get to ignore me for years, then come back into my life and pretend like nothing happened!”

“I agree,” he replied, relieved by the anger. Her pale cheeks warmed with her roiling emotions.

Suddenly, she lifted her head and straightened her shoulders.

“Finally, I just started rejecting the letters, sending them back unopened. Then the phone calls started. And I blocked him. Then my stepmother cornered me at the grocery store. She said that she knew that my mother had passed away and that I needed a mother figure in my life again. Beth explained how she was here, ready to be that mother figure for me.”

“That’s…odd.”

Carys sighed, sliding her fingers into her hair as she gripped her head.

“Yeah, it was creepy. Beth is like a Stepford wife. She doesn’t work anymore and bakes bread, then posts images of her perfectly baked bread online.

” Carys looked up at Rafi incredulously.

“Bread. Just bread! If you look at her social media, she has probably a hundred pictures of bread all styled and rustic looking or…whatever! It’s really weird. ”

That sounded…absolutely insane! “Different kinds of bread?”

She shrugged and there was a hint of amusement in her eyes. “I don’t know. I’m not a baker so I’m not sure. I stopped looking a while ago.”

He nodded his head, taking in that bit of information. “So, what happened earlier?”

Carys sighed and toyed with her beer, staring down into the golden depths.

“That was my father. He’s angry that I keep returning his letters unopened and that I won’t respond to his email messages.

” She half-grinned. “I set up my email to automatically send his messages to the trash, so I have no idea how many emails he’s actually sent me.

” She took another deep breath and leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand, which was covering the top of her mug.

“He thinks that he has a right to be in my life and so he’s forcing confrontations.

However, I have no desire to have him in my life.

He rejected me. He didn’t want me in his life, so I’m merely accepting his terms.”

“That sounds reasonable to me.”

She groaned, running her hands through her hair again.

“Yeah, well someone needs to explain that to him. He thinks I’m being too emotional.

” Her eyes hardened. “I was very emotional when I was twelve and he left me and my mom. I was nearly hysterical when he announced that he was moving across the country because his new family had a better job opportunity. I begged him not to go. I begged him to take me with him. And then I sobbed over the phone with him, pleading to visit him in Arizona.” She was silent, then added, “He always said no, that it wasn’t the right time for a visit.

Then it wasn’t the right time for him to come see me.

Then he didn’t have the time for phone calls.

And when my mother passed away in a car accident, he didn’t even call to see if I was okay or needed help.

” She shrugged, lifting her chin higher.

“I’m no longer emotional about him. My emotions for him burned out a long time ago. I’ve learned to live without a father.”

She took a sip of her beer, but it was warm now, so she pushed it away, wrinkling her nose.

“What now?”

Carys thought about that for a moment. “Now,” she paused again, looking at him without any expression in her eyes. “Now, I would like you to do naughty things to my body and make me forget I ever saw him tonight.” She tilted her head again. “What do you think?”