Page 15 of Punish Me

“I was just...hello,” Brynlee greets as my eyes fly open.

“Hello. Pretty little secretary, Ambrose,” Lyndsey says sassily, chuckling as she walks away.

The bitch. She knows exactly who Brynlee is, just as the look on Brynlee’s face confirms she remembers Lyndsey.

“Daddy, the vending machine broke,” Cee-Cee says.

Brynlee presses her lips together in a tight smile and holds a pack of cookies in the air, shaking them.

“Miss Brynlee to the rescue,” she says in a choked voice, holding up the cookies. “I found this one assaulting the vending machine. I wasn’t aware she belonged to you until she started storming this way. These belong to you,” she says, handing the cookies to Cee-Cee.

“Thanks.”

Brynlee nods and turns to walk out the door.

“Wait,” I say.

She pauses but doesn’t turn to look at me.

“Bryn,” I say softly.

“Yes.”

“Um...I want you to formally meet my daughter, Camryn Hope Charles.”

“Dad,” Cee-Cee whines. “It’s Cee-Cee,” my daughter says, rolling her eyes.

In her peach-colored, form-fitting dress, Brynlee turns and extends her hand. “It’s a pleasure to formally meet you, Miss Cee-Cee.”

Cee-Cee eyes Brynlee carefully and then me before turning back to Brynlee. “Are you my dad’s new girlfriend?”

“Cee-Cee!” I warn.

“No, sweetheart. Your dad is my brother’s best friend and now my boss,” she says simply.

“Oh,” Cee-Cee says, and I wonder at the disappointment in her voice.

“She’s beautiful,” Brynlee says, turning to me.

“Thank you.”

She looks at Cee-Cee for a long time before she says, “She looks just like you.”

I see the heartache in her eyes, and though I don’t regret my daughter, I regret the heartache I sent Brynlee through all those years ago.

“Who is she, Daddy?”

I turn to see my daughter watching me closely. Sighing, I walk to my desk and reply, “An old friend.”

“FWB?”

“What the hell do you know about that?”

“It’s what Mama and Greg and Mama and Colt are.”

Fury runs through my veins, and I shake my head. “You’re learning too much with your mother.”

Shrugging, she replies, “Gotta learn eventually.”

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