“If looks could kill... That girl is mighty mad at you.” “Yes, she is.” They both looked over.
“You love her.”
“What?”
“It wasn’t a question. Your mother always said your eyes were the window to how you were feeling. For the first time, I see what she meant.”
Aleks couldn’t believe his dad would say something like that. They never discussed their feelings. They didn’t discuss much of anything, and he wasn’t about to start now.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, no? I know love when I see it.”
“You? Love? You haven’t dated anyone since Mom left. What do you know about love?” “I know that it ties you up inside. It makes you do things, feel things, think things you never
would have thought you were capable of. And I know the pain of losing that love. I loved your mother with all my heart, and when she left she took my heart with her.”
This was the first time they had talked about his runaway mother. At a party with fifty people milling about.
“Dad, we don’t–”
“No. We do. I see it for the first time. She loves you too.”
“I don’t know about that. She’s pretty pissed.” Aleks glanced over and caught her gaze.
Carrie had every right to be pissed.
“Why did you bring that girl with you?”
“Do we really have to do this here? Now?”
“I haven’t done right by you. I haven’t been a good example. I’ve let you grow up afraid to love. I let you grow up thinking that making a connection with someone wasn’t worth it.”
That’s exactly how he felt. Except when it came to Carrie. They had the connection. He might even love her, but why would he inflict his issues on someone so perfect? She deserved a better life. “I have been lonely for so long. The Taylors have something special. I want that something for you. I’ll be damned if twenty years from now we’ll be the two old men having Christmas dinner alone.”
“Even if I do love her, I’m not the right person for her.”
“I bet she would disagree.”
Aleks looked at his dad with sarcasm.
“It doesn’t make you any less of a man if you give yourself over to a woman. Especially one who has been in your life for so long.” His dad slapped his hand on his shoulder. “You better wise up, son. One day you’ll wake up and she’ll be with someone else, and that feeling is worse than not taking the chance in the first place.”
It had taken almost twenty years for his dad to give him sound advice. Maybe he was right.
“There you are, babe. I’ve been looking for you.” A bony arm slid its way around Aleks’s back, and a body sidled up to him. The wrong body. His date. “You must be Aleks’s dad. Great to meet you.”
He watched his dad and date exchange pleasantries, a sick feeling rising in his throat.
What was he thinking bringing her here? Pulling a move like this might have been the last straw for Carrie. After what they had shared, for him to show up with some random skank was a slap in the face. He should have thought this through. He should have thought harder and longer for another way to distance himself. Instead he jumped into his plan the only way he knew, the selfish way. The easiest way–for him. He never thought about what this would do to Carrie.
He never thought that she could feel... Exactly! You never think, Turko.
Aleks looked over, hoping Carrie could see the sick feeling he couldn’t ignore, the guilt he couldn’t shake.
His eyes roamed from left to right, but she was gone. * * * *
Carrie entered the kitchen through the patio door and stepped around the flurry of workers. The party was winding down and had been a huge success. Her parents were surprised, grateful, and having a blast. That was all that mattered. The fact that Aleks Turko brought a date, the fact that they had shared the most intimate time and he brought a random girl into her home to flaunt in her face, that was all beside the point.