Paul
I’ve missed having her in my arms so much. I swing Friday around and clutch her tightly. I want to squeeze her ass and hoist her against me, but there are too many people around. I lift up the edge of my T-shirt and wipe my brow. “You belong with me,” I tell her, as the song dies down.
She does. She belongs with me, and I never, ever want to let her go.
I reach out and give Jacob a gentle fist bump after I put Friday down.
“I have to stay and help put away the props,” I tell her.
“That’s okay. I have to take Jacob home.”
I brush a lock of hair from her temple and tuck it behind her ear.
“Then I have to go get my suitcase from Henry’s.”
“Then you’re coming home.” I say it again because I like the way it sounds on my lips. Home. Our home.
“Yes, I’m coming home.” Her face colors, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s thinking what I’m thinking.
I feel a squeeze on my arm and look up. Kelly is standing there, and she doesn’t look very happy. “Can I talk to you?” she asks. She taps her foot and blows out a breath. Her fiancé has left, apparently, because I don’t see him anywhere.
“Can it wait?” I ask.
“Wait?” she asks, her voice growing louder. People turn to look at us. “I’m the mother of your child, and you want me to wait?” She points to her chest and looks like I just struck her across the face.
“God, Kelly, can you cut the theatrics? Just give me a minute.” I tip Friday’s face up and kiss her really quickly, and when I raise my head, Kelly is rushing toward the stage where Hayley is standing. She’s not even waiting for me.
“You better go and deal with that,” Friday says.
I heave a sigh. “What do you think that’s about?”
She pinches her lips together so hard that a white line forms around it. “She’s nearly green with envy,” she tells me.
“No, not Kelly,” I protest. Kelly doesn’t get jealous. We’ve both been f*cking other people for years and that never even bothered her. But she did have her jealous meltdown at the apartment the other day. Maybe?
Friday points her finger in Kelly’s direction. “She’s jealous. Mark my words.”
“F*ck,” I say.
“Go talk to her and get your props done. I’ll see you at home.” She steps up on tiptoe and kisses me again, and it feels so good that I never want to stop. But at least I have her to look forward to. Now and forever. She leaves hand in hand with Jacob. Henry goes with them.
I can’t find Kelly so I go and start loading the props into the storage room, and my brothers help me. I’m alone in the storage room, bent over picking up a piece of paper when I feel a hand on my back. I immediately hope it’s Friday and that she’s come to find me because she can’t be without me. But when I stand up, Kelly is suddenly in my face. Her lips touch mine. Actually, her lips crush mine, and I grab for her shoulders and push her back.
“What the f*ck, Kells?” I say. I push her back again, and she looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. “What the f*ck was that for?” I really want to wash my mouth out and spit because all my kisses are reserved for Friday now, and I feel like she just f*cking spoiled my kisser. “Why did you do that?”
“I think I made a mistake, Paul,” she says. “I know I probably caused this when I agreed to marry my boyfriend and told you about it and it pushed you away, but I ended that tonight.” She wrings her hands in front of me.
“You ended what?”
“The engagement, silly,” she says. She laughs like I should have a chance in hell of knowing what the f*ck she’s talking about. “I ended it.”
“Why would you do a stupid thing like that?”
“I saw the way you were looking at me during that song,” she says.
“I wasn’t looking at you.”
She puts her hands on her hips. “You looked me right in the eye. You were singing directly into my heart, and it made me realize what a fool I have been. I can tolerate your brothers. I can. I will.”
“I wasn’t singing to you, Kells,” I say. “I was singing to Friday. All that was for her.”
“No,” she whispers. She points to her chest. “It was for me.”
“No,” I say strongly. “You and I are done. That was all for Friday. I’m sorry you misunderstood.”
She steps back. And this time, she does look like I slapped her. “Why her?” she asks.
I shrug. “Because she’s Friday.” I don’t know more than that.
“But what’s special about her?”
“Everything.”
She glares at me. “Give me a list.”
“I don’t need to give you a list.”
“Give me reasons.”
“Why are you jealous?” I finally ask.
“We were good together,” she says quietly.
“Yeah, we were good until we weren’t. You really should go and catch up with your boyfriend.”
She shakes her head. “That’s over.”
“Good,” I say.
“What do you mean?”
“The whole time you were sleeping with him, you were telling him you love him and then sleeping with me, Kells. He deserves better than that. He should have a woman who loves him so f*cking much that she would never think about sleeping with another man. And if she did think about someone else, it better be a f*cking fantasy she comes home and lets him play out with her.” I shake my head. I don’t even know how to give voice to my thoughts. “I’m sorry you misunderstood.”
“I was hopeful. I guess I read it wrong.”
“You’re not in love with me. You want what could have been.”
She nods, and her eyes fill with tears. “Just tell me why her.”
“She loves me. She loves my daughter. She loves my family. She loves my business and my work. She loves the hustle and bustle of my life. I can see my life with her fifty years from now. That’s why her. So, don’t kiss me again.” I scowl at her.
“I’m sorry,” she says.
“We’re friends, Kells,” I tell her. “But don’t ever hope I’ll fall out of love with her and into bed with you because it’ll never happen. And don’t come between us. You understand?”
She nods. “I get it.”
“Good.” I adjust my shirt for lack of anything better to do. “One day, you’re going to meet the right one. And when you do, you’ll see f*cking sparks. You’ll feel it from your head to your toes.”
“And you feel that for her.”
“Yes.” I don’t even need to think about it.
“Okay,” she says. “I’m going to go home and be embarrassed all by myself.”
“No need to be embarrassed.” Well, there sort of is. But it is what it is.
“You’ll forget this happened, right?”
“Already forgotten.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
“Yes.” I won’t keep secrets.
“Okay.” She sighs heavily.
She turns on her heel, tips her chin up, and walks out of the room.
What the f*ck was that?
###
I let myself into the apartment, and Hayley runs in ahead of me. She’s still in her tutu and she’s hungry, so I make us quick sandwiches and wrap one up for Friday because she should be here soon. It’s either really sad that I’m so excited about it, or it’s really wonderful, and I’m leaning toward wonderful.
Hayley eats her sandwich and some chips, and I send her to take a bath. She’s tired, so I read her a quick story afterward and tuck her into bed, but as soon as I do, there’s a knock on the door. I hope it’s Friday and that she’s just forgotten her key, but I open the door to find two police officers with their hats stuck under their arms.
Oh f*ck, which one of my brothers did something now?
“Mr. Reed?” one of them asks. He looks down at his notepad.
“Yes.” My heart starts to thump. What if someone is hurt? What if someone was in an accident?
“Mr. Paul Reed?” he asks.
I nod because I doubt a squeak could leave my throat.
“May we come in?”
I step to the side, and they enter the room. They walk to the sofa and take a seat. One of them holds out a file and opens it up. He looks at me. “Can you confirm that you are the son of Mr. Max Reed of this address?”
“Yes. But he wasn’t of this address. He’s been gone a long time.”
He gazes at me warily. “But he did once live here?”
“Yes, he’s my father.”
The man’s gaze turn sympathetic. “I’m very sorry, Mr. Reed, but we have unfortunate news. There was an old warehouse on the other side of town that was being demolished, and your father’s body was found inside.”
I fall into my chair because my legs won’t hold me up. “What?” All this time and he has been in the same city?
“We were alerted that there was a body that was found during demolition.”
I scrub a hand down my face.
“How long has your father been gone?”
“Years.”
“That makes more sense then,” he says. “The coroner says the death happened years ago.” He pulls a picture from the stack and shows it to me. I avert my eyes because I’ve seen enough. I remember that shirt like I just saw it yesterday. It was his favorite. He wore it all the time, and my mother hated it because it had a curse words on the back of it with a picture of someone flipping the bird.
“He was wearing that shirt the day he left.” The day I kicked him out. I jab the heels of my hands against my eyes and scrub.
“He most likely died around that time. Maybe even the same day. It’s hard to say. His body was fairly well preserved as he was stuffed into a freezer in the basement of a building.”
Oh holy hell. I get up and start to pace. Bile rises up my throat, but I swallow it back.
“Would it be possible for you to come to the station with us?” he asks.
“I have a daughter,” I say.
“Is there anyone you can call to come and stay with her?” He looks kind but firm. I get the idea that this isn’t a choice.
I nod and pick up the phone. But I can’t call my brothers. If I did, I’d have to tell them that Dad died the day I kicked him out. I let them think he left all those years ago. But he didn’t. I threw him out. And now he’s dead.
I dial. “Hey, Kells, can you come over and get Hayley?” I ask. “I have to do something.”
“Why?” she asks.
“It’s an emergency.”
“Why me?”
“Because you’re her f*cking mother and I need for you to come and get her,” I say. “Take her home with you.”
“I’ll be right there.”
F*ck, I’m opening up a whole can of worms, but I can’t tell my brothers yet. I just can’t.