Page 26 of Reckless

“What do you plan to do after that?”

“After what?”

“Is that all you want to do with your life? Dealing with other people’s problems?”

“Isn’t that what you dedicated your whole life to?” I shot back at him. The serious look on his face showed me he was not amused. After a few seconds he nodded.

“Fair enough.”

My father was a lot of things. He was opinionated and honest to the point of hurting your feelings, but he never tried to hide that he too made mistakes every now and again, and he always tried to see the world through my eyes.

He rarely talked about his cases, but I always knew what case he worked on in any particular time. People loved to talk trash about him because of the clients he usually took on. So I had to learn to live with his career choices from a very young age.

I openly expressed my disdain towards his occupation only once in my life. I was sixteen. We were having dinner at home with a colleague of his and his wife. He told them I would become a great lawyer. That I always had more questions to ask in the back of my mind and that I was never afraid of expressing my opinion.

And all of that was true, but the fact he said I could do what he did made me lose it. So, I showed our guest I really wasn’t afraid of expressing my opinion, namely that my father spent his life defending and helping criminals, while I had every intention of doing something good to compensate for everything bad he did. That was the first time he found out I might not like him as a person. That we were fundamentally different.

We had been wary around each other ever since. Especially when we talked about work.

“I watched Amanda in a morning show last week.” Mom broke the silence with a calm and soothing voice. “She’s a badass.”

“A total badass,” I grinned at the fact my mother used the word badass and my boss’s first name like she knew her in person.

Amanda Reed was the most famous and well-paid female coach nowadays. She was a workaholic and a perfectionist which made all her employees’ lives hard most of the time, but it was worth it. Those who managed to keep up with her and stayed around long enough got to learn from the best. She was demanding but she also gave us space to grow.

“She wants me to attend a seminar in November. I will spend an entire week in LA. I could come see you again.”

“You could bring Nick with you,” Mom suggested.

“Relax. You will see him at the wedding,” I repeated the same lie I told Sylvia earlier.

“So it is serious then? If you are bringing him to the wedding?” she asked.

“I guess. Yes. It is serious.”

Or at least I thought it had to be. The more time passed, the more I felt like the relationship was fading away. But the wedding was a good opportunity for us to spend more time together away from our busy lives back in Boston. It could give us the push we needed to become a functioning couple.

After dinner, Dad locked himself up in his home office with his papers. I helped Mom clean up and went upstairs to my room.

I loved coming home from time to time and looking through my old stuff. I opened my wardrobe and the first thing I saw was my cheerleading uniform. I ran a hand over the pom-poms. Then I reached up and took my old jewelry box. It was full of Clementine’s handmade pieces. I used to wear them like they were diamonds, but they looked so weird now. I would never throw them away though. I was saving them and planned to use them to make fun of her in front of her children.

My phone buzzed.

Nick: Glad everything is okay. Miss u.

He answered my last text. The one I sent him when we landed. Hours ago.

Maybe Tyler was right. Lonely nights and unanswered texts awaited me in the future. Why would I do that to myself when I actually wanted something else? Being married and having a family was a dream of mine. Being married to a doctor was never a part of it. Was I prolonging our misery? Should I just rip the bandage of and end it now?

After the wedding. You need a date for the wedding reception, or you will be stuck with Chase the entire night.

Lucas’s best friend and I weren’t big fans of one another. We made out once at a party when we were still in high school, but his twin sister and I hated each other back then so it was doomed from the moment it started. Not to mention I didn’t like him as a person.

I turned on my laptop and checked my emails. I had a few meetings I had to attend the next day, but Amanda was totally fine with me joining online. So, I spent the last half-hour before going to bed preparing for the next day, not knowing that it would turn out the opposite of what I expected.

Chapter Nine

Tyler

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