“Hi, do you have a reservation?” she asks.
“I’m here to meet someone.” I hope to hell Kendrick didn’t change his mind and decide to show up at the last minute. I want my dad alone for this. “Nicholas Mitchell?”
Her eyes light up. “Of course. Follow me.”
I do just that, my pulse thundering in my neck. I only realize what I’m about to do when the waitress tells me, “Just a little further.”
I’m going to see him.
I’m about to see my dad for the first time in months and confront him. In a few minutes, I’ll know what truly happened that day. My fears multiply when I spot him in a wide leather booth at the back of the restaurant. He’s got his eyes locked onto his phone. He hasn’t changed one bit.
I frown when a woman comes up behind him, all smiles, and slides into his booth. My jaw crashes to the ground as a scene worthy of my worst nightmares plays out in front of my eyes.
No, it can’t be.
My hand flies to my mouth when she pulls on his face, plastering her mouth to his for a long kiss.
Finally, they pull away.
And my father sees me.
Panic twists his features. But he’s not nearly as freaked-out as I am. Because the woman previously eating my father’s face is not just any woman.
It’s Jenny.
Yes, Jenny, as in my twenty-two-year-old boss. Jenny as in the girl who cried in my arms about her boyfriend who has a kid. The same Jenny who told me she couldn’t stay away and had sex with him in his wife’s bed when the family house was empty. Jenny… is the reason my parents got a divorce.
I want to puke, scream, grab a plate off a waiter’s tray, and throw it in his face Frisbee-style. I want to unhave a dad. It all goes down in less than five seconds, but it feels much longer—like an excruciating eternity. Jenny takes notice of my father’s ghostly expression and follows his stare.
To me.
If my dad’s face is worth a thousand dollars, Jenny’s is worth a million.
“Kassidy, honey, let me explain.” My dad falters.
He has no idea how bad this is. He doesn’t know Jenny is my coworker. He doesn’t know she gave me explicit details about riding him in my mother’s bed and how much the forbidden aspect of it turned her on.
I think I might be sick right here on their expensive carpet.
“What’s going on here?” Jenny questions, seeming genuinely clueless.
My dad exhales. “Jenny, this is my daughte—”
“Don’t bother,” I cut him off. “She knows my name, don’t you, Jenny?”
“You two know each other?” my dad gathers.
That’s when I snap.
“Yes, we know each other, Dad. Want to know how? She’s my fucking boss.”
My outburst is quick to capture the attention of surrounding customers. Good thing I couldn’t care less.
“He’s the guy you told me about? My dad?” I yell at Jenny, who won’t even look at me, tears glimmering in her eyes.
Then it hits me.
The most probable explanation of how this all started. I always wondered why he quit his job as a college dean.
“Oh my God. Is she…” I almost gag. “Is she one of your students?”
Gasps run across the room.
My father looks mortified, which is how I know that I’m spot-on. This is why he quit. Because he didn’t want to get caught. It isn’t lost on me that Jenny altered her story, careful to exclude the dean/student details of the relationship, and said he only had one kid to make herself look better.
“How could you? Cheat on mom with a student? Dad, she could be my sister. My fucking sister.” My voice splits.
“Kassidy, that’s enough!” he barks.
“Is she the reason you’ve been gone for months? Why you gave up on us?”
It’s my father’s turn to snap.
“I didn’t! I didn’t give up on you. I’ve been calling your brother. Why do you think I’m here? I want him to meet her. The love of my life.”
Tears burn my eyelids. I’ve always suspected Kendrick was his favorite, but hearing him say it to my face still hurts like hell.
“Why not me?” I choke.
“Because you’re judgmental, Kassidy. You always have been. Just like your mother.”
That’s the dagger in the heart I can’t take. I begin to bawl, right there in the middle of a restaurant full of strangers.
“Don’t worry. I’m done looking at you.” I wipe my face with my sleeve. “I never want to see you again.”
I barge out of the building, hyperventilating. As if this day wasn’t shitty enough, I bump into someone entering the restaurant on my way out.
“Kass?”
I look up, barely recognizing my big brother through the tears. Looks like he changed his mind, after all.
“You knew?” I yell so loud he jumps.
Guilt fills his eyes. “Kass, please, calm down.” He goes for my arm, but I fling it out of reach.
“Did you fucking know, yes or no?” I belt.
He gives in. “Yes, of course I knew. I’m the one who told mom.”
This is why he was running out that day. Why he was so pissed. Why he and my mom were whispering for weeks after Dad left.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I try to punch him, but he dodges every blow—downside of attacking a trained fighter.
“I wanted to, Kass, I swear, but he was always your hero. I… I couldn’t do that to you. I wanted him to tell you himself. You have to believe me. I only came here to tell him to fuck off and stop calling me. I don’t want to meet his toddler girlfriend.”
“You mean my boss?” I huff out a bitter laugh.
“What?” His eyes grow. “No way?”
“Yep. My store manager is the one
