Recognition burns in his eyes.
Something like hate fires through his features.
“Kelly? Kelly Jones?”
Chapter Six
Kaleb
I look down at the photo, trying to convince myself it’s not real. Maybe her application icons are distorting the image.
But there’s no way I can convince myself of that.
I’d recognize my daughter anywhere, and now that I look closely at Samantha – no, at Kelly – I realize what a fool I’ve been.
But the Kelly I remember was a girl with hair across her forehead, her teeth in braces, an invisible entity I never had cause to think about. She would sometimes come around to visit Natalie… and that was it.
I rarely spoke to her. I never looked at her.
How has she changed so damn much in just over two years?
Suddenly the realization of what we’ve done stampedes through me.
I kissed my daughter’s best friend.
I kissed her and I want to do it again. I want to do other things to her, dirty and carnal things, to make her mine in every way imaginable.
“Why did you say your name is Samantha?” I snarl.
“Wait, you two know each other?” Janie murmurs from the side.
“Yes. But I didn’t recognize her. Kelly is friends with my daughter.”
“Oh,” Janie says, as though it hasn’t quite struck her. And then she gasps. “Ohhhhhhh.”
“Yeah, oh.”
Kelly snaps her hand out, grabbing her phone.
She stares at me with tears glimmering in her eyes, making me want to reach forward and brush them away.
I want to sweep her into my arms and tell her I’ll never let anyone make her cry, I’ll protect her for the rest of my life…
But I’m the one making her cry, my reaction to the truth.
What does she expect?
I want to hug her, hold her, tell her it’s all going to be okay.
But I can’t, not now that I know the truth.
“I… I have to go,” she says quickly.
Kelly pushes past me. I fight the urge to reach out and grab her wrist.
I know if I do I won’t be able to stop myself from pulling her into a comforting embrace, and how can I do that now after I’ve learned the truth?
The door slams behind her and her footsteps pound down the hallway.
I’m left with Janie, who stares at the door and then back at me.
“I can honestly say that’s never happened before.”
I chuckle, without any humor at all. “Yeah, no shit.”
I stride to the exit and punch the door open, marching down the hallway, but Kelly is long gone by the time I get there.
“Good session?” the woman behind the reception desk says, giving me the come-at-me eyes like she did when I first arrived.
But I have no interest in her or any other woman, apart from Kelly. She’s the only one who’s ever ignited need in me, who’s ever made me want to chase after her and claim her, to kiss away her tears softly and then fuck her hard, claim her with my throbbing manhood, until her young fertile womb has no choice but to swell with my offspring.
Shit.
This is a mess.
She’s my daughter’s best friend.
Just…
Shit.
I sit on my balcony staring out over the city, the same way I did a couple of nights ago when Russ brought me the ticket.
But so much has changed since then, I refuse to believe it was so recent.
I kissed my daughter’s best friend and I want to do it again. I want to find her and push her up against the wall, leaning down so I can drive my manhood against her sex, letting her feel my urgent hunger through my clothes even if I know it’s wrong, even if I know I’d be betraying my daughter in the worst possible way.
“Dad.” Natalie pokes her head through the door, an innocent smile on her face, no idea the dark turn my thoughts have taken. “Want some coffee?”
“Sure.”
I find it hard to meet her gaze.
She swung by for a visit, to say hi before she attends an extra-curricular lecture at college this evening.
It should have made me happy when I clicked on the intercom and heard her voice, but the depressing truth is guilt stabbed into me instead.
“Okey dokey,” she says, the same way she would when she was a kid, getting me to say it in my goofy voice.
Say it, Daddy. Say it.
And she’d leap up and down, waving her hands until I indulged her.
How can I betray her like this?
“Hey, Dad.” She steps onto the balcony, tilting her head at me. “Are you okay? You seem sort of weird.”
“Sorry, little gnat, I guess I’m just thinking about some stuff.”
She smiles at the nickname, little gnat, which I bestowed on her as a kid because she was always leaping around the place like an overexcited insect, and because it fits her name, Nat, perfectly.
“Do you have any idea how vague that sounds?” She giggles as she strolls over to me, putting her hands on her hips and staring down at me. “I know you’re not big into talking about your feelings, but you know we can talk about anything, right?”