Page 16 of Burned

Even though the last few years of his marriage had been rocky, he wished at times Lacey would have seen fit to at least visit her daughter from time to time. Once, he’d tracked his ex down through a detective agency in hopes that she’d come to Carys’s tenth birthday party, but Lacey had been living the high life with a boy that was barely out of his teens. She’d been supporting her boy toy with alimony she’d received from her much older second husband. The last time Rhys heard from her she was married again. He only kept tabs on Lacey in case Carys wanted to know her whereabouts and for that reason only.

Maybe in his attempt to fill the void, he’d made some bad decisions in the women he’d selected, but now he believed he’d gotten it right with Sadie. Not only did she make him hard with just a smile or the way her hips swayed from side to side when she walked, but she was a genuine person. Sadie was someone he could have a future with, and grow old with. She was a woman who loved him for him and would love his daughter as well.

Rhys tapped on the bedroom door lightly. “Carys?”

She lifted her head and smiled. “Hi, Daddy. Come in.”

He walkedinto the room and took a seat next to her on the bed. “Shouldn’t you be getting to bed soon? You have school tomorrow.”

“There’s only two more weeks of school left. We don’t really do anything. It’s basically like one big free period. I have study hall for my first class so I can sleep through it if I’m too tired.”

Rhys raised a brow. “Mmm, maybe I should have a talk with your teachers so they’ll give you something more challenging to do.”

“Daddy, you wouldn’t!”

He grinned. “I guess not. But you really should hit the sack kiddo. You know how cranky you are if you don’t get eight full hours of sleep. I’m going to turn in myself. I have a meeting with the dean of my department tomorrow morning. But before I go, I wanted to ask you, what you thought of dinner.”

“In what way?”

“Did you like Sadie?”

“She was okay but…”

Rhys frowned. “But what?”

“I don’t know why but…I get the feeling she doesn’t like me very much. Maybe I’m just being too sensitive.”

“Of course Sadie likes you. Why would you think she didn’t?”

“I dunno. Is she always that silent? I guess when I tried to ask her questions she seemed a bit, standoffish.”

“She was probably just nervous. Once you get to know her better, you’ll see how wonderful she is.”

Carys smiled. “I’m sure she is.

Rhys leaned over and kissed his daughter on the forehead. “Goodnight, Angel.”

“Night Daddy.”

As he walked out of Carys’s room, an uneasy feeling took over. Sadie had been unusually quiet at dinner. If he was being completely honest with himself, she didn’t seem one hundred percent. Perhaps she wasn’t feeling well. Yes, that had to be it. The next time the three of them were together, things would go much better.

Chapter Seven

“I didn’t know it was in my bag. I didn’t place it there. Why would I steal a CD from the dollar bin? Who even buys CDs anymore? And even if I wanted the CD it’s a freakin’ dollar. I would have bought it.” Sadie was beyond annoyed. She’d never so much as jaywalked in her life and here she was being accused of theft. And there could only be one possible explanation.

Carys.

The past couple months had been a test of wills between her and the teenager. The line was drawn at that first meeting. Although Sadie never gave the child a reason, Carys hated her and made it quite clear she had no intention of giving her a chance. Sadie, figuring they’d started off on the wrong foot had tried to make an effort to get to know Rhys’s daughter better. But every attempt she made was rebuffed.

Rhys told her that Carys was really into some rock group called The Vampires so Sadie had called her sister Daisy, an entertainment lawyer in L.A. to see if she’d heard of them. It just so happened that one of the band members was a client of another lawyer in the firm Daisy worked for. Her sister managed to get some autographed swag from the band and a tour poster.

Carys barely said thank you when Sadie had gifted it to her and actually tossed it aside as if it were a pair of socks she’d received on Christmas. That didn’t stop Sadie from trying. Each attempt she made to engage Carys in conversation was met by either one-word sentences or outright hostility. It was frustrating because Sadie was head over heels in love with Rhys and really wanted to get along with Carys for his sake.

Of course, she was all sunshine and light when dear Dad was around much to Sadie’s utter annoyance, but on the rare occasion when they managed to be alone, the nasty barbs began. Carys would take digs at Sadie’s weight, how she wouldn’t last, and her apparent lack of personality. Carys could have tested the patience of a saint, but Sadie bit her tongue. After all, she was the adult and Carys was the child. What would it look like if she, a grown ass woman were to stoop to the teenager’s level?

The last thing she wanted to do was run to Rhys. What would he think of her if she couldn’t get along with his daughter? It was clear he adored the little demon so she was determined to let the little comments roll off her back. After a while, it did seem like Carys was getting tired of her little game of Jekyll and Hyde when Sadie didn’t give her the response she was probably looking for. In the last couple of weeks, the girl just took to ignoring her which was fine with Sadie—at first.

Try as she did to ignore her back, Sadie hated not being on good terms with someone who Rhys loved so much. The way she figured it, with Carys being Rhys’s daughter, there had to be something special about her. In an effort to extend an olive branch to the girl, Sadie had invited her out for some shopping and lunch. Rhys had thought it was a good idea and to Sadie’s surprise, Carys seemed to think so too.

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