your daughter. You should be watching
out for me not Caleb."
Jack reached out immediately, patting her
knee. Her lip trembled. "I'm always watchin' out for you, but your
old man can't do that from another state. And that means you need
to understand a few things."
Sydney nodded, giving him time to
continue.
"While you're not here, Pax and Caleb are all
I have. They keep me company and look out for me. I see the upset
in Caleb's eyes whenever I talk about you. He still hurts after all
this time. I don't want you tearin' that wound open. Syd, you ran
away from him, showin' him the relationship was over, and yet it
sure didn't look over from where I was standin'. If you want him
and realize the mistake you made, then great, but you need to be
serious about this. Messing around with his feelings ain't
fair."
Sydney digested what he'd said, berating
herself for not considering how much her father had grown to love
Pax and Caleb. "You're warning me away from Caleb? Seriously?"
"No need to be so dramatic. You never change.
Always quick to jump to conclusions." He paused, patting her knee
again. "I'm just sayin' you should think long and hard before
startin' what you don't intend to finish."
"I'm not in the mood to argue with you, but
you have no clue about what I've thought about. Maybe I do want to
see it through." His brows shot up, disappearing underneath his
white bangs, and she saw hope flair in his eyes. Her admission
hadn't been intentional. In fact, she'd been equally surprised when
the words left her mouth.
"I'd say you need to leave the boy alone
until you decide. Stop thinkin' about us as the people you visit
from time and time, and consider the destruction you leave in your
wake each time you leave. I raised you better, Sydney."
"I'm doing nothing wrong," she shot back,
hating the way he made her feel. "Caleb is a grown man and can make
his own mind up. He came onto me , so I'd say he's
just as responsible for the potential heartbreak."
"So it is goin' to end that way then?"
She gritted her teeth, growling in
frustration. "You never hear me. I try to tell you things—explain
myself, but you never listen. It's like you pick out key words and
mold them to what you'd rather hear. When I was seventeen, for
example, you found those notebooks and raged for hours about how
disgusting they were. Never once did you allow me to actually
explain."
Jack shook his head, removing his hand and
resting back in his chair. "You've got it wrong. As I recall, I
handed those damn books to you and asked you what they were. Your
embarrassment caused you to scream at me . After that night,
you refused to talk to me about it. I had little choice but to
leave you be. I tried Ne-Ne."
Silence surrounded them, suffocating in its
thickness. Pax and Caleb intimated something similar about that
night, but she'd refuted their memories. Too many people were
showing her a different side. Could her memories have warped with
time, leaving her to recall only what she wanted to?
The thought didn't sit well with her. She
loved her father but had such resentment about the way she thought
he treated her night he found her notebooks. If those memories were
wrong, she'd held onto the false hurt for too long. The only way
forward would be to deal with as much of truth she thought her
father could cope with. The interludes between herself, Pax, and
Caleb would be out, but she wanted her dad to know what she really
wrote. As it stood, Jack thought she worked as a journalist for a
teen magazine.
She had made so many mistakes, and pushed the
people she loved away. Her only excuse? She thought they wouldn't
understand her dreams. Sydney convinced herself Jack wouldn't deal
well with a daughter who wrote erotic fiction, and that Caleb and
Pax would think badly of her because she loved them both—wanted
each of them for very different reasons.
It hit her that she couldn't have been
further from the truth, and the only person she'd been running away
from
out for me not Caleb."
Jack reached out immediately, patting her
knee. Her lip trembled. "I'm always watchin' out for you, but your
old man can't do that from another state. And that means you need
to understand a few things."
Sydney nodded, giving him time to
continue.
"While you're not here, Pax and Caleb are all
I have. They keep me company and look out for me. I see the upset
in Caleb's eyes whenever I talk about you. He still hurts after all
this time. I don't want you tearin' that wound open. Syd, you ran
away from him, showin' him the relationship was over, and yet it
sure didn't look over from where I was standin'. If you want him
and realize the mistake you made, then great, but you need to be
serious about this. Messing around with his feelings ain't
fair."
Sydney digested what he'd said, berating
herself for not considering how much her father had grown to love
Pax and Caleb. "You're warning me away from Caleb? Seriously?"
"No need to be so dramatic. You never change.
Always quick to jump to conclusions." He paused, patting her knee
again. "I'm just sayin' you should think long and hard before
startin' what you don't intend to finish."
"I'm not in the mood to argue with you, but
you have no clue about what I've thought about. Maybe I do want to
see it through." His brows shot up, disappearing underneath his
white bangs, and she saw hope flair in his eyes. Her admission
hadn't been intentional. In fact, she'd been equally surprised when
the words left her mouth.
"I'd say you need to leave the boy alone
until you decide. Stop thinkin' about us as the people you visit
from time and time, and consider the destruction you leave in your
wake each time you leave. I raised you better, Sydney."
"I'm doing nothing wrong," she shot back,
hating the way he made her feel. "Caleb is a grown man and can make
his own mind up. He came onto me , so I'd say he's
just as responsible for the potential heartbreak."
"So it is goin' to end that way then?"
She gritted her teeth, growling in
frustration. "You never hear me. I try to tell you things—explain
myself, but you never listen. It's like you pick out key words and
mold them to what you'd rather hear. When I was seventeen, for
example, you found those notebooks and raged for hours about how
disgusting they were. Never once did you allow me to actually
explain."
Jack shook his head, removing his hand and
resting back in his chair. "You've got it wrong. As I recall, I
handed those damn books to you and asked you what they were. Your
embarrassment caused you to scream at me . After that night,
you refused to talk to me about it. I had little choice but to
leave you be. I tried Ne-Ne."
Silence surrounded them, suffocating in its
thickness. Pax and Caleb intimated something similar about that
night, but she'd refuted their memories. Too many people were
showing her a different side. Could her memories have warped with
time, leaving her to recall only what she wanted to?
The thought didn't sit well with her. She
loved her father but had such resentment about the way she thought
he treated her night he found her notebooks. If those memories were
wrong, she'd held onto the false hurt for too long. The only way
forward would be to deal with as much of truth she thought her
father could cope with. The interludes between herself, Pax, and
Caleb would be out, but she wanted her dad to know what she really
wrote. As it stood, Jack thought she worked as a journalist for a
teen magazine.
She had made so many mistakes, and pushed the
people she loved away. Her only excuse? She thought they wouldn't
understand her dreams. Sydney convinced herself Jack wouldn't deal
well with a daughter who wrote erotic fiction, and that Caleb and
Pax would think badly of her because she loved them both—wanted
each of them for very different reasons.
It hit her that she couldn't have been
further from the truth, and the only person she'd been running away
from
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