Page 15 of Burned

Startled, Sadie looked up into the face of an unsmiling teen. So this was the famous Carys. She was surprisingly tall for a fourteen-year-old, probably taller than Sadie’s five foot four. Her face was round not quite hollowed out to womanhood. With long dark brown hair and green eyes like her father, she probably could have been pretty were it not for a deep scowl on her face.

Sadie stood up, pasting a smile on her face and offered her hand. “Yes, I am. You must be Carys. Your father has told me so much about you and I’m very pleased to meet you.”

Carys was indeed taller than Sadie by a few inches. Taking a step back, the teen eyed her up and down not seeming to miss a single detail, while totally ignoring Sadie’s outstretched hand.

After an uncomfortable silence between them, Sadie dropped her hand self-consciously. “Well, I hope we can become friends eventually.”

Carys’s lips curled in to a sneer. “You’re fat.”

Sadie’s mouth popped open. Had she heard correctly? “Excuse me?” She hadn’t known what to expect but this outright rudeness never occurred to her.

“Well, you’re definitely not Dad’s usual type. He usually likes thinner, prettier women. I mean, you’re not ugly or anything, but Daddy can do much better and has done than you.” Carys finished off her statement with another slow insulting perusal.

Even her mother who was known for being able to cut a grown man down with her words in half a minute at least had the couth to wait a while before insulting someone. It took several stunned moments before Sadie finally found her tongue. “Perhaps I may not be your idea of what’s beautiful but your father likes me just the way I am.”

Carys shrugged. “Of course he’d say that. Daddy’s a nice guy. Besides after the bad experience with his last girlfriends, he told me beautiful women were more trouble than they’re worth. So I guess it makes sense why he’s dating you.”

Sadie’s heart plummeted. Had Rhys really said that? Was that why he was with her because he didn’t think he’d have to work as hard with her as he would for a beautiful woman? It made sense. All this time she’d tried to figure out what it was about her that he a man like Rhys could possibly want with her and here was her answer.

The smirk on the girl’s face said it all. I don’t like you.

Sadie opened her mouth to say something, anything instead of standing there like an idiot. She should have seen this coming. Things had been going so well with her and Rhys it was probably too much for her to think she’d get along with his daughter as well. So this was the catch—the price for dating Rhys Edwards. An obnoxious teenage daughter. Was he worth it? Or was she already in too deep to cut her losses and get the hell out of here before she backhanded the little she-devil?

Rhys returned to the room, a glass of wine in hand. “Sorry it took so long, darling. The steaks are ready and I needed to take them off the grill.” He handed the glass to Sadie. “I see my two favorite girls have met. I’m sure you’re fast friends now?”

Carys beamed and sidled up to Sadie and put her arm around her shoulders. “We sure are. Sadie is a sweetheart, just like you said she’d be.”

Sadie did a double take. What the hell? Did this child have a split personality? One second she was one of the Children of the Corn and the next she was Pollyanna.

“Carys, honey, why don’t you go set the table for me.”

“Sure thing Daddy.” Carys walked over to her father and gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. As she walked out of his line of vision however, she tossed a look over her shoulder toward Sadie that said watch it bitch.

“She’s quite affectionate when she wants to be, that is when she’s not being a typical teenager. So what did you think of her?”

“What did I think of her?” What she wanted to say probably wasn’t appropriate. “Uh, she’s something else that for sure.”

Rhys’s grin widened. “She is that. It’s so important for the two of you to get along.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

“If I may confess, the last couple women I dated that Carys actually met…well, things didn’t work out and Carys believes she’s to blame. She’s such a sensitive girl and I feel guilty for being the cause of her upset.”

Something told Sadie that Carys didn’t feel anything of the sort. “Why would you feel guilty?”

“I shouldn’t have been so quick to introduce them to her. I should have made sure what type of people they were before subjecting my daughter to them. But I know you’re different.”

His words did nothing to reassure her. As a matter of fact, they only made things worse. In a strange way, they served to reinforce what Carys had said. Maybe Rhys did find her attractive in his own way, but now the doubts had resurfaced. How long would it be before he got tired of or found someone more desirable? And would his daughter always be this way?

She wanted so much to believe there could be something between them, but all the old doubts and insecurities came crazy back.

Was this the beginning of the end?

* * *

On his way to bed later that night, Rhys walked to Carys’s bedroom and peeked inside. Music was blaring from her phone. The singer sounded like a drowning cat. He shook his head. It was amazing what kids called music these days. Carys was draped over her bed, arms hanging over the edge as she lay absolutely still.

She was almost a woman. He remembered when she was just a little girl with uneven pigtails. He’d done the best he could as a single father and at times he wondered if it had been enough. Rhys knew Carys still harbored some residual pain from her mother’s abandonment. Even though he’d taken her to a few child psychologists, when she was younger, during her acting out periods, he still sensed a sadness within her.

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