“Caroline…Calli…” Her pause is more than enough time for me to hate myself.
I question what she’s proposing. “You’re Madi’s friend, Calli?”
Every moment around Caroline and Bennett has created a larger-than-life persona in me. It deflates. I’m a worse father than I ever imagined. I step away and pace my office.
“You’re fucking what?” Bennett growls at me. “And you told her to call you Daddy?” His breaths are audible.
As if I needed anyone to point that out.
“I’m the asshole here. I get it, but hear me out.” I stop in front of my bookcase and drop my head against it. They give me much-needed silence. When I get my shit together, I force my tone to stay calm.
“Caroline, tell Bennett what you looked like in high school. I’m not doing this to put you on the spot. I’m not mad at you. I just want him to understand that there’s good reason I didn’t recognize someone as gorgeous and important as you. It’s not just that I was rarely around, and when I was home, you never looked at me.”
“Okay.” Her response is so soft, I almost don’t hear it. Then she says louder, “You’re not mad at me?”
“No, Baby, not at all.” I rush around the desk and hug her into my chest.
“I’m still here.” Bennett gives me a cautionary look.
Giving Caroline space, I motion for her to explain. She gives more than I expected.
“I never looked at you because I was already in love with you. Madi hated that all of her friends thought you were super hot. I had a rough upbringing and she overlooked my problems, treated me as a true friend, my only one, so I never let on. If she caught me looking at you, I was afraid she’d think I was like everyone else, infatuated with her dad, and she’d abandon me.”
“Fuck.” I can’t process the disbelief, the relief, and all of the other emotions tangled inside of me.
“I’m still not getting how you didn’t recognize her,” Bennett has every right to be confused.
“I hit puberty late, so all of this…” She motions to her curves. “was non-existent back then. And to compensate, I bleached my hair to try to be a pretty blonde rather than an obnoxious redhead. And I’m sure you remember the makeup.” She scrolls through her phone while she explains.
A laugh bursts out of me. “So much of it.”
She angles her phone my direction with an old photo pulled up. I nod, then she angles it to Bennett. He takes it from her and looks from the screen to her several times.
How lonely was she, that she felt she only had one friend? She’s incredible. How can people not see that?
“No shit. I would have missed it too.”
I pull her into another hug and Bennett joins us. Our arms wrap around each other, his hard back and muscular arm a stark contrast to Caroline’s softness.
“I’m sorry I didn’t say something sooner.”
Bennett asks, “Are you and Madi still friends?”
She shakes her head, informing both of us, because as bad dad of the century I couldn’t have said whether they were still in touch or not.
“We had a huge fight at the end of high school, lots of horrible things were said, and we haven’t spoken since. I’m sorry I messed all of this up.”
“You told us now, that’s fine. What bothers me is that you didn’t trust us when we told you how we felt.”
“You’re both so…successful. I didn’t think you’d want anything serious with me. I figured it was just part of the flirting. It happens all the time.”
“No,” I clarify. “We’re completely serious.”
“Even after finding out who I am?”
“Even more,” I say.
“It doesn’t change anything for me,” Bennett adds.