13
Isensed something was up as soon as I stepped into the office. And I had a feeling I knew what it was before I arrived at my desk. When I opened my door and saw her sitting there, I rolled my eyes to the heavens and let out a pointed sigh.
“Cleo, what the hell are you doing here?” I demanded. My sister was sitting in the chair behind my desk with a big grin on her face, spinning around like she owned the place. Well, she could have if she’d wanted to, but she’d been the one who’d insisted she was more interested in pursuing her art than anything else. She spent most of her time hanging out at balls and galas and getting photographed for the social pages, but she had a studio and occasionally produced some awesome paintings when she put in the time. I had one of them sitting next to the bed in the spare room, waiting to be hung up.
“I thought I’d come in and visit you,” she replied, playing at innocent even though I knew she was anything but. “They told me the news, you know.”
“Crap,” I muttered, closing the door behind me carefully. No one at the business knew I was married yet, and I had no intention of letting my sister announce it to them.
“I can’t believe you actually ran off and just got married,” she remarked, shaking her head in play-disapproval. “And without telling your beloved sister, no less.”
“Trust me, you’re going to be a lot less beloved if you’re not careful,” I warned her. “Come on, out of my chair. I need to get to work-”
“You’re seriously not going to tell me any more about her?” She pouted. “The woman you married? Don’t I deserve a little more than that?”
“You don’t deserve anything for coming down here and disturbing me when I’ve got so much work to follow up on,” I said. “You should go home for now. I’ll call you, and we can sort out dinner.”
“I thought I would just turn up on your doorstep like you did with her last night,” she continued breezily. “The entire family’s a mess, you know that? None of them can believe you did this. It’s just not like you.”
“Well, now it is.” I shrugged. “Come on, out of here. I’ll call you later, I promise.”
“When do we get to meet her?” she asked, spinning from foot to foot at the doorway. “I want to see the woman who stole your heart so unequivocally, you married her without telling any of us.”
“Uh …” I trailed off, and suddenly a thought hit me. A bad one.
“You didn’t tell Dad, did you?” I asked, playing it casual, but she knew me well enough to see the panic all over my face. A smile crept up her face, the same one that appeared when she’d hidden my school uniform or blabbed on me to Dad for sneaking out when we were both in high school.
“Of course, I have,” she replied innocently. “He is your father. I thought it was only right that he knew.”
“Oh, fucking hell,” I groaned. “And when exactly is he back from his honeymoon?”
“A day,” she replied, the grin widening evilly. “And I think he has some pretty strong opinions about what you’ve done, Kristo. He sounded pretty angry on the phone.”
“Yeah, well, thanks for that.” I cocked my head at her crossly. “Think you can give me a little peace and quiet now? Seems like I have some serious damage control to do.”
“Seems like you do.” She headed to the door at last. “Let me know how it goes with Dad. If you survive.”
“Will do,” I replied, and she planted a quick kiss on my cheek before she swept out the door and left me in peace, though now that I was alone, my brain was running double-time trying to make sense of what the fuck I should do now. I should have told them to keep their mouths shut to Dad for the time being until I could tell him about Amaya myself. The thought hadn’t crossed my mind until now and it was way too late. I would just have to deal with him when I got back. Unless …
I didn’t want to overwhelm Amaya with my family all at once, let alone my father, who would be beyond angry at what I had done. Maybe I could rush her out of the country for a few days, give him some time to cool off? I could pretend it was our honeymoon or something. No one would argue with that.
But I sat down in my chair and sighed deeply, knowing that wasn’t going to work. He would know what I was trying to pull. Our minds worked the same way, and he would put the pieces together and figure out I was making a break for it. If there was one thing my father hadn’t done, it was raise a coward. He would want me to face him, and I would be better off just doing that than trying to duck my responsibility for much longer.
I picked up the phone and dialed his number, figuring it would be a good plan to get his temperature before I saw him. It rang a few times, and I was about to hang up, writing it off as a missed call, but then he snatched up the phone. I could instantly hear his fury bubbling from all the way down his end of the line.
“Kristo?” he demanded.
“Dad,” I greeted him, keeping my voice as calm as I could. “How are things?”
“Oh, we can talk about that when I get back,” he threatened. “I’m arriving tomorrow with Karen, and we’re going to discuss exactly what you’ve done.”
“Honestly, take some time and relax. I know you’ll be tired—”
“Oh, no, you’re not getting out of this one that easily,” he cut me off. “I can’t believe I had to hear this from your sister. We’re going to talk about this as soon as I get home, you understand?”
“Sure,” I replied, already exhausted by the thought of the conversation. “I’ll talk to you soon, Dad.”
And I hung up the phone before he could say another word. I didn’t want to hear anything more from him, not yet, not now. I would deal with that tomorrow, and the least I could do in the meantime was get my shit in order, so he couldn’t be mad about the state of the business, at least.