Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 66330 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66330 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
But I couldn’t, because Lily wasn’t in my penthouse where she belonged. She and Halley were out hitting the nightspots or curled up on that pink couch watching movies and doing face masks or some shit. I imagined she was having to lie a lot too. I bet she liked it about as much as I did. Neither of us were liars. I’d never cared enough to deceive someone, and Lily was too honest.
The only thing that rescued the miserable dinner was the knowledge that it was Halley’s last night in town. I was going to drive her to LAX tomorrow after my morning meeting with my lawyer. Lily and I would have another four weeks or so before Halley came back for Thanksgiving. I half hoped that by then, whatever this thing was between us had run its course. As shitty as it was to miss Lily, it was just as shitty to wish my daughter back across the country.
Lily and Halley were going out for Halley’s last night. Halley had someone she wanted Lily to meet. Lily avoided both of our eyes and said she didn’t want to meet anyone.
“Still all work and no play?” Halley clicked her tongue, exasperated. “Dad, tell Lily she can’t work her youth away.”
“I actually highly recommend it,” I said, grateful that they had decided they didn’t want dessert and that we could finally end this sham. “That’s what I did.”
Lily’s eyes flickered up to mine, amusement in the blue depths. Halley rolled hers. “And look at you now. Going home alone to your plants every night.”
“Haven’t you hated every girlfriend he’s ever had?” Lily asked, her eyes back on the table.
Halley elbowed her. “Well, yeah, but I had reasons.”
Lily and I both paused, waiting for her to go on. Halley had already lost interest though. She was texting, her thumbs flying furiously across the keyboard. Lily’s gaze brushed across mine again. I felt it like a physical touch. The expression in her eyes was so clear I could read her mind.
By this time tomorrow, we were both thinking.
After we left the restaurant, Lily and Halley’s plans had them going the opposite direction I was heading.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Dad,” Halley said, giving me a quick hug goodbye. “Call me when you’re outside.”
“I will. And I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow,” I said to Lily, careful not to look her in the eye. I knew Halley would take the comment as the directive of a boss to an employee and not what it really was.
My daughter groaned dramatically. “Come on, Dad. Let Lily live a little.”
“I don’t want to live a little,” Lily said, and then looking at me, “I’ll be there.”
The exchange was brief, but it felt so intimate and loaded that I couldn’t believe Halley didn’t look back and forth between us suspiciously.
But she didn’t, and I walked away feeling better than I had in days. This fucking interminable dinner was over, and I would get Lily back tomorrow. I hadn’t gotten a chance to get her alone since she threw herself back into the elevator, just saving us from having to make some extremely unpleasant explanations to Halley. The look on her face as the elevator doors closed had haunted me though. Her eyes had been wide with shock and fear, but there had been pain in them, too. In that moment, it had hit me again how wrong I was for her, and how unfair that was to her. Over the last three days, I’d tortured myself with thinking about how many men in this city could treat her the way she deserved. And then I’d thought about how I’d maim every last one of them if they so much as looked at her.
Now, though, I knew she wasn’t thinking about them. She was promising me things with her eyes that I’d collect on later—this time tomorrow in fact.
As it turned out, I wasn’t able to see Lily come into the office bright and early. My lawyer, Jones, asked if I could meet earlier, and then he confirmed what I’d suspected. Kim’s counsel was reaching out, probing for more money. First, she’d claimed that she’d paid expenses for Halley’s education that I needed to reimburse her for half of. Everything she brought up was bullshit. I’d paid 100% of tuition, room, board, and books. I’d paid for the summer immersion trips. I’d even covered the sorority fees even though I didn’t get why the hell she wanted to join one. Kim must have known that wouldn’t work, because she also offered up a cleverly worded NDA. If I paid her enough, she’d never say another word about me. Not to the press, not to gossip bloggers, not even to her cat.
“I think that’s blackmail,” I said to Jones.
He shrugged as if that was just semantics. “She thinks she could get a book deal.”