Daddy's Boy (6 page)

Sighing I grabbed the phone and dialed my father’s number. The phone rang and rang some more before I finally gave up leaving a message asking him to meet me at the coffee shop.

Drinking the last of my coffee I pushed Denny, my father and stupid people showing up in the middle of the night to the back of my mind and went about my morning getting myself and Lucca ready for the day.

****

It was just after one in the afternoon, I’d spent all morning and lunch in the office trying to fix the coffee order that the assistant manager had in very blunt words fucked up. Of course the one day I really needed things to go right because my head felt like it was seconds away from exploding, everything had to go to hell. The order was only a small slice of the shit that was my day, two people had called in sick, the dishwasher wasn’t working and if the new kid dropped one more cup I was going to drop him. God this wasn’t me; I’m a single mom for goodness sake, sleepless nights were nothing new. So why was there a bitch monster trying to crawl out of my body to beat and yell at everyone within reach?

A knock at my office door and the new kid telling me my dad was here saved me from having to answer the bitch question.

Jack Owen, the only parent I claimed to know after my bitch of a mother ditched us for what she claimed was a better life with another man God knows where, was looking his age for the first time. His blonde hair was looking more gray than blonde, his shoulders were slightly slumped and his hazel eyes, which were always bright and alert looked dull and tired.

Sitting across from my father at a table by the window, I folded my hands and laid them across my lap so my father wouldn’t see them shake from how worried his looks had me.

“Dad are you ok?” I whispered trying to keep the panic out of my voice but failing.

Looking over my face his eyes turned hard. “I’m fine, are you?”

“You look like shit.”

Surprise flashed across his face followed by a harsh chuckle. “Thanks darlin’ I could say the same to you.”

“Yeah well I had a long night.”

“Lucca?” He asked the concern and love for his grandson clear in his voice.

Shaking my head I looked around wondering if this was the best place to have this talk. My father’s dislike of Denny was endless. Even if I left off the part about going to Denny’s, the mere fact that this Adam guy was in the drug scene which Denny was a part of would have my dad blaming Denny. Yes, he hated him that much.

“Last night two guys showed up at my house looking for you.”

Something that looked like panic settled on my father’s face and his whole body seemed to turn to stone. “Give me names Rachel.”

His behavior was slightly concerning; it was also obvious that he knew something like this would happen. 

What the fuck?

“Start talking Dad as you obviously know what I’m talking about.”

“Names first?”

Was it ‘piss Rachel off day’ and I just missed the memo?

“They didn’t give me their names they just said to tell you Adam was looking for you.”

“Shit.” My Dad cussed smacking his hand down on the table.

“Shit what?”

Standing up my Dad leaned over the table giving me his cop face. “Forget you saw them Rachel. I’ll take care of it they won’t show up again, I promise.”

Was that meant to make me feel better? Because all it did was make me worry more.

“I know who those men are Dad and I know what they do. What the hell do they want with you?”

“Fucking Denny.” He hissed under his breath.

See if it could somehow come back to Denny my father would find the path.

“I busted a couple of his dealers last week. He’s just making noise to scare me off. Don’t worry about it darlin’ I’ll fix it.”

Before I could say a word my dad walked around the table kissed my forehead and left quickly.

The words ‘what the hell just happened’ where flying through my head when Ryan walked through the coffee shop door replacing ‘what the hell’ with shit, shit, shit.

With Denny clouding my mind I had completely forgotten about Ryan. Ryan the guy I was dating and had been for the last month.

“Is your Dad ok he looks pissed?” Ryan said walking towards me and taking the seat my Dad had just left. “You look kind of pissed too. What’s going on?”

Ryan was a great guy, very sweet and not bad to look at, tall, in good shape with a nice clean-shaven face, but my God was he nosey. The man was always asking question.

Wow that was a really mean thought.

“Everything is fine. How was your night?”

Looking at my face his eyes narrowed for half a second before he shrugged his shoulders. “Quiet. Yours?”

Well shit walked myself right into that one. Now I had to decide if I told him the truth or not. Telling him would mean telling him things I didn’t want him to know about my father and Denny and I really didn’t want to talk about Denny anymore. I’d already forgotten I had a boyfriend because of him, which was silly because Denny and I weren’t anything anymore. He left me. I had to stop forgetting that.

“The same, except I was up with Lucca for a while.”

Nodding Ryan reached across the table taking my hand into his and rubbing his thumb across my pulse.

“How’s your brother? I heard from a friend we have in common that he was back for a visit. Your dad and Jace getting together?”

Well that was news to me I had no idea my brother was back. For over a year my brother had been coming and going as he pleased. Sometimes he told me where he was going but most the time he left me in the dark. I didn’t even know what he did work wise these days that had him always leaving Denver. He’d turned into a dick over the last year so I couldn’t really be blamed for not keeping in better contact.

Ryan’s phone ringing saved me from having to answer. Thank God because it was sad having to find out my brother was in town through the gossip line.

Saying ‘yes’ a couple of times Ryan snapped the phone shut and gave me a weary smile. “That was work I have to go. We still on for dinner tomorrow?”

Shit forgot about that too.

“Of course.” I said followed by a big fake smile pretending I didn’t forget.

“Good. Call me if you need anything Rachel.”

 “I will.” I said feeling very guilty.

****

Bouncing Lucca in my arms I took out my cell and finally made the call I’d been putting off all day. I’d put off calling Denny for a couple of reasons. One after seeing Ryan I was pissed that Denny could make me forget everything and only think about him. Then I was pissed because it wasn’t Denny that had came to me, I had went to him. So all these mixed and complicated feelings were my fault not his. And the other reason was because I knew once I made this call Denny and me would go back to the way things were before last night. The thought of having no contact with Denny again broke my heart. No matter how many times I told myself I hated him I knew it was a lie. I was still very much in love with Denny.

“Rachel what’s wrong? Is everything ok?” Denny said through the phone his concern and worry melting my heart.

Well fuck; Denny was not helping the mixed feelings.

“Fine. My Dad is going to take care of it.”

“Good.” Denny said, “Well I guess−”

“I don’t want this to be it.” I blurted.

“Rachel−” Denny whispered.

Jesus it had been this way since day one, one look at Denny or one look my way had me falling at his feet. How stupid could I be, Denny only helped me last night because of Lucca, it had nothing to do with feelings for me. I had to stop forgetting that Denny left me.

“Not me Denny, I want you to keep seeing Lucca.”

“Rachel−”

“Please don’t Denny. Just think about coming to see Lucca a couple of times a week ok, he deserves to know his dad.”

“I’d like that Rachel. I promise you I will think about it.”

“Thank you for last night Denny, goodbye.” Before he could say anything I hung up, gave Lucca a fake smile and did every trick in the book to keep the tears swimming in my eyes from falling.

All day I’d been trying to figure out why I ran to Denny when in all reality I could have just called my dad or even Ryan, but I think something inside me needed to see Denny to know that we were truly done. Too much had happened between us there was no going back. No mattered how much I still loved him.

Chapter 6

Jonah’s grandparents turned out to be pretty awesome. The first day was uncomfortable everyone tip toeing around each other, no one wanting to say the wrong thing. After that first day it was ok, even felt somewhat normal to have grandparents hanging around. Only twice did things get awkward and I had to leave the room. Once was when Jonah’s Grandfather asked to hear the full story of what happened to Vinnie. I had planned to help Jonah tell the story but when I opened my mouth to add a bit I couldn’t make my mouth work, the words were stuck in my throat. While I struggled to make the words come out I saw in my mind Darcy aiming the gun and Vinnie’s eyes once again pleading for me to help him. Then I was gone. I left the room like a scared child, running without stopping until I was hiding behind a bottle safely locked away in my office at Risk.

The second mishap was when Jonah’s grandparents asked about our grandparents on our father’s side and how my mother was doing. I had no idea they knew my mom or my grandparents. This had me leaving the room so that I didn’t yell at both of them. If they were around enough to know my mother how did they not see what Vinnie was doing? Why didn’t they stop it and take us away before I had to make the decision to let my father die. Once again I ended my night drowning my thoughts and decisions in a bottle.

Standing with Jonah, Olivia and Mason in the airport we waved the grandparents off at the gate before turning as a group and walking back to Mason’s SUV.

Settling in to the front seat I decided it was time to tell them about Rachel as they’d been asking all week. It was now or never as I was going to see Jack tomorrow.

“Rachel wants me to keep seeing Lucca so today I’m going to go see Jack.” I said my voice betraying how nervous I really was.

Slapping a hand on to my shoulder Jonah gave it a hard squeeze. “That’s great Denny. It’s about time you got to know your son.”

 “Why do you have to ask Jack?” Olivia asked her voice taking on that harsh edge that meant she was about to get mad.

“Jack hates me Olivia. To keep the peace it’s better that I tell him what Rachel wants and see if he’s ok with it.” I said telling somewhat of a lie. I wasn’t telling Jack, I was asking permission. What Rachel wanted was against the deal we had made so I needed to see how he wanted to play it.

There was no doubt in my mind that he was going to tell me to fuck off and stick with our deal.

“Why does he hate you?” Olivia questioned sticking her head between the front seats and looking at me curiously.

“Jack has hated me from the moment Rachel said my name.”

“All it took was your name?”

“Yep, just my name. He’s a cop Olivia he knew what I did. It also didn’t help that the first time I met him, Rachel decided it was a good time to tell me and her father that she was pregnant.”

“No!” Olivia shouted, as Mason stomped on the brakes sending us all flying forward.

“Jesus Mason, let’s try and keep the car on the road.” I hissed, pulling on the tightened seatbelt.

“Sorry.” Mason whispered, clutching the steering wheel with a white knuckled grip.

“Hello!” Olivia yelled. “Are you going to bitch at Mason or tell us what happened?”

Turning around in my seat I stared at Olivia hard. I wasn’t really mad at
her I just liked to give her a hard time. She was the little sister I never had. “This one afternoon Rachel wasn’t feeling good so we were chilling on the couch watching a movie. Her dad called to check on her and I guess he asked if she needed him to come over. Rachel said no, that I was with her and told her dad my name. Then she gave me a weird look and said that he’d hung up on her. Half an hour later Jack is barging through the door yelling at me to take my hands of his daughter.” Shit, I was damn lucky he hadn’t come in pointing his service gun at me.

“And?” Olivia asked practically jumping in her seat.

“And Rachel asked what was going on. Jack pulled Rachel away from me screaming that I was a drug dealing criminal.”

“Oh my God.” Olivia gasped, her hand shooting up and slapping over her mouth.

My God was right. As long as I lived I would never forget the look Rachel gave me. It was a mixture of betrayal, anger and hurt. The same look Olivia had given Jonah when she found out about the drug business.

“How come you’ve never told us this?” Jonah asked sounding a little hurt.

That was a good question; I rarely talked about Rachel with Jonah or Mason. Maybe it just went too fast; maybe I was being selfish, wanting to keep everything Rachel to myself. Or maybe somewhere in my subconscious I knew that everything I had with Rachel was just too good to last.

“Shh.” Olivia hushed Jonah with a hand over his mouth. “Yell at him later. Right now I want to know what happened.”

“Jesus you’re such a girl.” Jonah grumbled behind Olivia’s hand.

Turning and glaring at Jonah, which had him rethinking his comment, Olivia hissed, “Yes the last time I checked I had boobs and a vagina. The real question is, are your parts girl or boy today?”

Jonah’s hand shot out grabbing on to Olivia’s hand and shoved it down on to his groin. “You tell me baby? What does that feel like to you?”

“Touché Jonah.” Olivia whispered with a shy smile.

“Please for the love God finish your story Denny.” Mason said urgently.

“I told her the truth. I’ve never sold a drug in my life.”

Olivia made a snorting noise while giving me a look that said bullshit.

“We’ve never sold drugs Olivia.” Jonah said losing the flirting tone.

“I know that, but it’s the same thing. Dealing and working for a drug lord is the same evil.”

“I’m not disagreeing with you.” I said looking back at Olivia. “But what could I say? I couldn’t explain it to her, not with her father the fucking cop there.”