Chapter 23
NOAH
Two months later…
Idrummed my fingers on the table at the coffee shop. The day outside was surprisingly nice – blue sky, warm and sunny, despite the fact that it was only early spring. The latte in front of me was growing colder by the moment.
I was too preoccupied to even think about drinking it. After all, today was the first day I was going to see my daughter since she’d angrily stormed out of my house after finding out the truth about Sadie, me, and the twins.
Three weeks after the big blow-out, Camilla had reached out and messaged me, reassuring me that she wasn’t planning on cutting me out of her life forever, but she was still mad as hell and needed a little time to calm down.
Reading the text had been a relief – and it’d made me laugh a bit. Camilla was in every sense my daughter, down to the way she’d gotten so heated in the moment, only to gradually regain her senses, but still realizing she needed time to work through whatever anger had remained.
I’d managed to get more and more of a handle on my temper as I’d grown older, but during my twenties, that’s exactly how I’d been.
We hadn’t planned for two months to go by without seeing one another, but between her work, my work, and the twins, slotting in a father-daughter reunion was a daunting task.
Not to mention the little fact that we both had a hell of a lot to say to one another and neither one of us had ever been good at discussing our emotions.
I was seated at the front of the coffee shop downtown, the big windows allowing me a view of the street in front of the place. It was midday Saturday, so downtown was bustling.
My heart skipped a beat when I spotted Camilla’s sleek car coming to a park on the other side of the road, my daughter effortlessly parking her Black Infiniti at the curb.
She stepped out looking every bit the picture of confident professionalism. Despite going for a more casual look in black jeans and a light blue blouse, the way she strode across the street, her eyes hidden behind big, designer sunglasses, made it clear she was a woman in charge.
There was still tension between us, but it was impossible not to feel pride in those moments at the woman she’d become.
Camilla whipped her sunglasses off as she stepped into the coffee shop, scanning around, and spotting me. Not like a six-foot, six-inch redheaded Irishman was a hard person to find in a crowd.
She nodded to the counter, and I nodded back. A few minutes later, she was at the table with a mug of steaming coffee in her hands.
We sat in silence for a long moment, neither of us quite knowing where to begin – the pitfalls of two people who didn’t like talking about their feelings trying to talk about their feelings.
Eventually, we both started talking at the same time, followed by a shared chuckle.
“You might look more like your Ma,” I said. “But you’re my daughter through and through.”
I got a small smile in return for that one.
“You go first,” she said, sweeping her hand toward me.
“No, you. You’re the one who was wronged here.”
She pursed her lips and nodded slightly as if accepting that I was right on that score.
“I’m still mad at her,” she began. “And to be honest, I don’t know if I’ll evernotbe mad.”
“At Sadie?”
“No, the other best friend of mine who slept with my dad.” A look of regret came over her as soon as she said the words. “Sorry. That was out of line.”
“Well, considering how out of lineI’vebeen, I think you’re entitled to a little of the same.”
Another small smile.
“I’ve been thinking about it,” she went on. “And…I don’t know how I can really blame you for what went down. If you’re telling the truth, and I guess I have to believe that you are, that you had no idea who she was, then technically I can’t be angry with you. You have every right to sleep with whomever you choose.” She leaned in a bit. “You really had no idea that was Sadie?”
I shook my head. “Not a clue. There was something familiar about her, sure, but I hadn’t seen her for years. If ever I thought of her, I pictured a gangly kid with a big blonde ponytail. I had no idea what she looked like as a grown woman.”