Page 66 of How To Fake A Fiancé

I recall the vague reply Kami gave me when I asked about her father back in October.

My dad was never really in the picture.

Maria continues, her face growing somber. “How much has she told you about her childhood?”

“Just that her dad wasn’t really there in her life.” Out of respect, I decide to leave out the part where Kami called her mother a serial monogamist.

A long line etches across the woman’s face. “Since you’re basically family, you ought to know the truth. Her father and I were young when we had Kami. Taking care of a toddler as a college student working part time was not easy, but we made the most of it. Our marriage became strained though, after I had Sofia. I thought if we had another kid, our marriage could mend. But then I realized after some time, we weren’t the same people as when we met. I didn’t want to be with a man who chose work and hookups over his own family. He left a year later. Kami was only seven at the time.”

“Do Kami and Sofia see him?”

She shakes her head. “Sofia was barely a year old when he left, so she doesn’t remember him. Kami, though, would often ask to visit him, but he never responded when I asked him on her behalf. He paid child support and had shared custody with me, but he acted like we never existed. The last I heard from him, he just renewed his vows with his new wife.”

I stand there in surprise. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for Kami to watch her dad walk out of her life. A man who she loved and thought loved her back no matter what, only for him to act cold toward her, wanting nothing to do with her. My blood starts to boil.

“When was the last time they talked to their father?” I do my best to hold in my anger.

Maria grimaces. “When Kami was seventeen, she traveled across the country to go see him for the summer.” She sniffles. “She came back home the next day. She told me later it was because he wouldn’t open the door.”

What an asshole.

I bunch my hands into fists.

She asked him to want her, but he said no. How soul-crushing that must have been for her. Is that why she didn’t think I’d stick around? Is that the reason she refuses to commit? Hearing her heartbreaking past makes me want to scoop her up in my arms, tell her that it’s going to be okay, and make damn sure she never has to experience that pain ever again.

While that answers most of my questions, it still doesn’t explain her annoyance with her mother and sister. Sure, they have a somewhat fairy-tale mentality when it comes to love, but I’m trying to understand why she’s made their relationships, or at least her mother’s, her business.

“It must have been difficult for Kami and Sofia to grow up without a father.”

Guilt forms on her face. “After he left, I went into a depressive state. I didn’t want to see his face, I didn’t want to talk about him, and I didn’t want to so much as hear his name or the word ‘dad.’ So I took all the photos of him out of the house. I didn’t want us, Kami especially, to miss him.”

“I can’t imagine going through a divorce while raising two girls by yourself,” I sympathize.

My mind goes back to the conversation Kami and I had the week before when her mother called her about John.

Your mom has dated a lot recently?I remember asking.

More like my whole life.…that woman wouldn’t know what a serious relationship was if it hit her in the face.

“It was just the girls and me for a bit.” Maria’s voice pulls me back to attention. “But then I started missing someone to sleep next to at night, and at the same time I still wanted my girls to grow up with a father figure. One of the first guys I met had me convinced we could be one happy family. He was with me for a year. But I woke up one morning to him packing his things. When I asked what was wrong, he completely ignored us. Even when Kami went to give him a hug like she always did in the mornings, he shoved her to the side, told her something that made her cry, and walked out of our lives. I found out later that he left us because he was already married and discovered his wife was pregnant. I didn’t always make the best choices in men, but things happen for a reason, right?”

Kami was a child when her dad left, and just when she thought she had a new father figure, that asshat pretended like she never mattered. Has she always felt like she doesn’t matter to any man? I can’t imagine being introduced to someone supposedly important to my mother, getting to know them, and growing attached to them, only for it all to be ripped away from me. The worst part is Kami and her sister never got a say. The relationships seem to have ended solely on their mother’s or her at-the-time boyfriend’s at the time, terms.

I’m also positive Maria’s revolving love life affected Kami’s views on love and relationships. It explains everything: her refusal to commit, her criticism of her mom’s choices, and her reluctance to consider being with me.

I don’t entirely blame her for faulting her mother for her actions. She is, in some part, at fault. She had a choice of who she dated and how she incorporated a man into their lives. What she didn’t have any control over, though, was being so coldly rejected.

I need to make Kami see I won’t walk out on her. Show her that I’m here to stay. Use not just my words, but also my actions. Right now, she thinks I’m like any guy, sexually or otherwise, who has come and gone throughout her life. If I want to convince her otherwise, I’ll have to prove myself to her.

I paste on a smile. “Yes, they do.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Kami

Going to the grocery store two days before Thanksgiving is never a good idea.

Sofia and I dodge carts left and right. People all around us are rushing to get this, that, and the other. And screaming children decide in the middle of all this chaos to have full-blown tantrums. The sounds of crying children and frustrated parents hurt my ears.

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