Page 20 of Burned

Chapter Eight

Something was definitely wrong, yet Rhys couldn’t put his finger on what it was. Ever since the mall incident, he could feel Sadie withdraw from him. He’d told her several times, he didn’t believe she had intentionally taken the CD. She didn’t have a dishonest bone in her body—or did she?

As soon as that thought entered his head, he immediately shook it away. No, there was no way his sweet Sadie was capable of something like that. Yet, something had changed between them and it made him sad. Not even with his ex-wife had he felt this way for a woman: so madly in love that he felt as if his heart would stop beating without her. She was incredible and he wished there was a way he could express that to her, yet she was growing more distant toward him with each passing day.

“Daddy! Are you listening to me?” Carys waved her hand in front of his face.

Rhys blinked several times, before focusing on his daughter. She had been in the middle of telling him about something that had happened to her that day when he’d completely zoned out. “I’m sorry, darling. What were you saying?”

She rolled her eyes and flipped her hair over her shoulder, her annoyance evident. “When I was at the stables today, Sassafras was grumpy when I brushed her mane. She hasn’t been herself the last few times I visited. I think it’s because Buttercup’s owners sold her. Sassy misses her friend.”

One of his daughter’s passions was horses. She had two of them which he paid to have boarded at a local stable. Carys was good with the animals and took good care of them. She’d even convinced him to get a horse of his own, Sir Percival, a black Arabian. When he wasn’t busy, he and Carys would ride together, something she didn’t still mind doing with old Dad. “She’ll snap out of it eventually. Maybe she just needs some extra attention right now.”

“Maybe. You should come with me next time Daddy. I’m sure Sir Percival could use the exercise. We haven’t ridden together in months...not since…well, it would be fun.”

He raised a brow. “What were you about to say?”

She shrugged. “I mean we don’t spend as much time together as we used to since you started seeing Sadie. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you’re happy and all, but what about me? I’m still your daughter you know.”

His mouth formed an O. She’d never expressed these sentiments to him before. Sure it was nice doing things with his daughter, but as she got older, it was Carys who didn’t want to spend time with him. When she was a little girl, he remembered how she’d sit at his feet and color while he graded papers or did research for one of his books. She used to tell him everything, from who had cooties in school to which boy she had a crush on. There was a time when she wanted to go everywhere he went and there were times when they could sit in the same room without saying a word yet it was okay because the silent companionship was all they’d needed.

Now, she was either at the stables or in her room with her earbuds in texting on her phone or checking her social media. She no longer wanted to be seen at the mall with him because it was ‘embarrassing’ to be caught shopping with one’s parent.

When her friends were over, he felt as if he dropped into some foreign land. ‘Oh, My Gawd!’ was used in every other sentence. Carys and her friends fought over which guy had the most ‘swag’ and Rhys still wasn’t sure what the term ‘lit’ meant and whether it was something he should have grounded her for using. The words these kids used today were the weirdest thing.

And something that puzzled him, even more, was that fact that even when Carys and her friends were in the same room they spoke to each other through text. There would be times when he’d enter a room not understanding why three teenage girls were so quiet only to see each one of them holding their respective cell phones.

If anything he felt like he was on the outside looking in at his daughter’s life which signaled to him she was becoming more independent of him. It was one of the reasons why Sadie’s presence in his life had come at an opportune time. Rhys wasn’t really sure what to think about Carys revealing feelings of being left out. He loved his daughter and did long for the closeness they once shared.

“Come here, sweetheart.” He patted the arm of his reclining chair which was wide enough for her to sit on. When she took the seat, he grasped her hand. “Carys, I hope you know I love you very much. You’re my child and nothing will change that.”

“But you love Sadie don’t you?”

“Yes.” That was a no-brainer. He loved her with everything he had in him.

“More than me?”

He frowned. This wasn’t the line of questioning he ever thought he’d be on the receiving end of. “That’s an odd question. Why would you ask me something like that?”

She shrugged. “A simple yes or no would have sufficed, Dad. But I guess by the way you said that I have my answer.” When she made a move to get up, he tightened his grip on her hand.

“Now wait a minute young lady. I didn’t say I loved Sadie more than I love you.”

She lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut. “You didn’t have to. Look, it's fine. I understand. Eventually, I’ll be off to college and you can forget my existence right?”

“That isn’t true, Carys. You’re my daughter and you’ll always be an important part of my life.”

When her gaze met his again, he noted the tears threatening to fall. “If you say so, Daddy.”

“Carys. Oh, baby.” Rhys stood up and pulled her into his embrace and stroked the back of her head and rocked her from side to side. “I love you. You’re my princess and nothing will change that.”

“But you admitted that you loved Sadie more than me.”

“I did no such thing. It’s semantics really. The kind of love I feel for her is different from the sort I have for you. But neither love can diminish the other. I really want you to like Sadie because she means a lot to me.”

“Do you think…you’ll marry her?”

Rhys would have been lying if he said he hadn’t already given it a lot of thought. Sadie was everything he wanted in a woman, but because his experience with women hadn’t always been good, he wanted to give them just a little more time. But definitely down the line, he could see himself popping the question to her and maybe even give Carys a little brother or sister. Just the thought of Sadie’s stomach round with his baby sent shudders of longing through his body. Instead of answering her directly, he took a different tactic. “And if I did, what do you think about it?”

---