“You were calling me dad two minutes ago.”
Yeah, and two minutes ago I had forgotten he was a crap dad for a few seconds. “Does it really matter?”
He sighed heavily. This was the point we always got to on the phone, and neither of us knew where to go after. “I’m sorry, Harlyn.”
I believed he was sorry. I knew he loved me. But why did it take him twenty-seven years to see me as his daughter and not just an obligation he threw money at every month? “Why am I here?”
He cleared his throat, and his eyes dropped to the floor. I had never asked him outright if I was only here because he was stuck in a hard spot with Marion going on maternity leave.
“Because you’re my daughter, Harlyn, and I need to make up for the past.”
That was a surprising answer. “And also, you needed someone to run the office for you.”
He raised his eyes and leveled his gaze on me. “I could have found ten other people within a five mile radius to do this job. I asked you, because I want you here.”
I nodded my head and felt a lump form in my throat. That was the first time I had ever heard him say anything remotely close about his feelings. “Okay.”
“Okay,” he chuckled. “I say all that, and all you say is okay. You really are a Krinston.”
I shrugged. “I learned from you.” And I had, but I also had my mom to let me know that showing your feelings and what you were thinking didn’t make you weak. Roc had been slow on the upswing for that, but it looked like he was finally coming around. I was still going to keep my heart guarded when it came to him. He had broken it too many times before for me to trust him now.
“You still wanna go out for dinner?”
I shrugged again. “I guess I need to eat, right?”
*
Chapter 16
Remy
I pounded on the door and was surprised when it swung open not even two seconds later.
“Hi,” she chirped.
Damn, she was pretty. Her chestnut brown hair was piled on top of her head, a huge smile was plastered on her beautiful lips, and her eyes shone bright. Her legs were encased in a pair of tight black leggings, and she had a tiny white shirt stretched across her chest and stomach.
Fucking hot.
“Hey,” I croaked. I had seen her not even twenty hours before, but it felt like I was finally able to fully breathe again with her standing in front of me.
“Did you eat?” she asked.
“Uh.” I had finally gotten done with inventory at six-thirty and barely had enough time to shower and change, let alone grab something to eat. “No.”
“Good.” She opened the door wide and motioned for me to come in. “I went out to dinner with my dad and brought home something for you. We went to that seafood place a couple towns over.”
“Oh yeah?” I stepped through the door and closed it behind me. “I’ve always wanted to go there, but I never seem to have the time.” Especially with the season starting, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go there. All of my free time was going to be spent getting to know Harlyn. I just didn’t think she knew that yet.
“I got you the lobster mac. I had it, and it was the best thing ever.” She padded across the living room into the kitchen. She paused and looked over her shoulder at me. “You coming in, or are you just going to stand at the door all night?”
If I could stand here watching her all night, I would be fine. Her tight pants, which I’m pretty sure were leggings, stretched across her round, perfect ass, and my hands itched to run over the fabric and her ass. I cleared my throat and talked myself out of jumping her right then and there. “Just checking out your house, baby.”
“You saw it last night,” she laughed. She moved into the kitchen and pulled a large Styrofoam container out of the fridge. “Have a seat. I’ll get this heated up for you. It’s not too cold since I just got home ten minutes ago, but it needs a little warming.”
I managed to get my feet to move into the kitchen, and I pulled out one of the stools tucked under the kitchen island. I sat down and watched her move around. She emptied the contents of the container onto a plate and stuck it in the microwave. “Beer?”
I ripped my eyes off her shapely legs and nodded. “Sure.”
She tilted her head to the side a bit and smiled. “Long day?” She thought I had a long day, when in reality, I was just mesmerized by her perfect body.
“Yeah, I guess so. Had to take inventory, which took a big chunk of the day.”
She grabbed a beer and bottle of wine from the fridge. “Wow, that sucks.”
I shrugged and grabbed the bottle of wine. She handed me the opener and set a glass in front of me. “Just part of my job,” I mumbled. Normally, I had a bit more notice when it was about to happen, but that was what it is like to work for Roc. You never knew what was going to happen any day. I popped out the cork and filled her glass.
The microwave dinged, and she turned to pull the plate out. “Well, my day was rather boring. I read a book for the most of it and tried to look busy anytime my dad would walk into the office. We then had an argument, the same one we always have, and then we went out to dinner where we both acted like everything was perfect.” She set the plate in front of me and smiled. “I was glad when I got home and knew you were coming over.”
“Knowing I was coming over here made my day much more bearable too, baby.”
She held a fork up in front of me. “You wanna eat here or in the living room? We can rent a movie off the Xbox if you want.”
I grabbed the fork and looked over shoulder at her TV. “You have an Xbox?”
“Yeah. Although, I don’t game. I just got it because it plays blu-rays, has all of my streaming apps, and you can buy movies on it.”
“The fact you even know it can do all that surprises me. I only know it does all that shit because Jay has one.”
She took a sip of her wine and rested a hip against the counter. “And who is Jay?”
I stirred around the steaming lobster mac. “Roommate. Frankie is my other roommate. We all went to school together and work together.”
“Frankie seemed nice enough,” she laughed.
“That’s a good description of Frankie. Nice enough.”
“I didn’t mean that in a bad way. Just she seems to have a wall firmly around her.”
I loaded my fork with noodles and held it up. “For only meeting her for a few minutes, you sure do have her pegged pretty accurately.” I shoveled the bite into my mouth and took a swig of my beer.
She shrugged. “Just what I picked up on. I’m gonna find a movie to watch. Any preference before I put on the cheesiest chick flick I can find?” She batted her eyes at me and lifted her glass to her lips. “Steel Magnolias is calling my name right now.”
I chuckled and grabbed my plate in one hand and my beer in the other. “As long as you’re sitting next to me, I really don’t care what we watch.” Living with my mom had taught me it was just best to go with whatever movie a chick wanted to watch. Although, my mom wasn’t into chick flicks as much as others.
She rolled her eyes and flipped the lights off in the kitchen. “Darn it. You were supposed to be the typical man and moan and groan about having to watch a chick flick. Then I was going to torture you with Pretty Woman or Steel Magnolias.”