Page 4 of Mine to Keep

Tommy

His phone number is written beneath his name, and my fingers itch to dial it. Even as temptation tugs at my heartstrings, something else has me hesitating. I know nothing about this man. What if I find out more and I don’t like it? What if he has a wife and hooks up with random women in every city he visits?

I push that thought away because I refuse to believe it’s true. Perhaps it’s best to leave this as a one-time thing. Just a single night of hot sex with a gorgeous stranger.

A stranger I’d love to callDaddyagain.

1

TOMMY

Three Months Later

Ifollow the hostess as she leads me past the murmur of quiet conversations and clinking silverware. Excitement runs through me at the thought of seeing my old friend after too many years. The high-end restaurant is all gleaming surfaces and low lighting, but it’s Geoff Roush’s face that lights up when he spots me striding closer to his table.

“Tommy!” His voice booms through the hushed dining room, turning a few well-coiffed heads at the commotion. I can’t hide my smile as I approach.

“Geoff.” I greet him with a firm handshake accompanied by a hearty pat to the back of the shoulder. It’s the kind of familiarity that comes with twenty-plus years of friendship.

“Been way too long, man.” He pulls away, his eyes crinkling with sincerity. He gestures to the seat across from him, and I take my place in the leather-bound club chair.

“Hasn’t been easy catching you in town,” I say, easing into the comfort of old jokes and shared history.

“You’re one to talk. You keep a busier schedule than I do.” He chuckles, pushing a glass of amber liquid toward me. “Your usual.”

“You remembered,” I joke and lift my Scotch with a subtle nod.

“Hope you don’t mind,” Geoff starts, a twinkle in his eye that piques my curiosity, “I invited someone else tonight. Katie Jane’s in town. Figured it was about time you met her.”

“Katie Jane?” Her name rolls off my tongue, foreign yet intriguing. “That’d be great. I’ve heard so much about her over the years.” I manage to keep my tone even, my expression open as I’m interested in meeting this elusive daughter of his. She’d always been away at school the few times I’d come into town.

“She just graduated from NYU. Damned proud of her.” His chest visibly swells, a father’s love etched into every line on his face. “She’s got her mother’s brains and looks… but my stubbornness, God help us.”

The thought of meeting Katie Jane stirs something in me—a mix of curiosity and an unexpected jolt of eagerness. Geoff has always spoken about her with such reverence. I picture a young woman with his cool blue eyes and his late wife’s gentle smile, but my imagination falls short. There’s a mystery to her, a piece of my friend’s life I’m about to uncover.

“Looking forward to it,” I say, and I mean it. His world has always been a fortress, his business acumen as sharp as the Chicago skyline. But Katie Jane? She’s the heartbeat he’s fought to protect, the soft echo in his steel-hard life.

“Ah, there she is,” Geoff announces, his gaze fixed on something beyond my shoulder.

I twist around, expecting to lay eyes on a young woman who’s somehow both a stranger yet not after years of her father’s stories that he’s shared with me. I stop midway, my drink pausing inches from my lips before almost dropping to the floor.No longer a hypothetical image, Katie Jane is about to become a reality. One that, unbeknownst to Geoff, might just change everything. Then, memories come flooding back—salty Miami air, the heat of her skin, the taste of her lips.

“Isn’t she something?” My friend’s voice pulls me back into the present, but my pulse hammers against my temples.

“Incredible,” I manage, the word a tightrope I walk between truth and catastrophe. My heart lurches as my gaze clings to the woman approaching our table.

Kate. Not Katie Jane. Kate.

The woman whose laughter still echoes in my dreams, whose body I’ve worshipped under a veil of stars in a bed of sin.

“Tommy, you alright?” Geoff’s brow furrows, a crack in his ever-confident facade.

“Fine, just... tired from my flight…” I trail off, failing to find a lie that doesn’t sound like betrayal.

Time slows and my breath catches. Kate is here, wrapped in the same elegance that spelled my complete undoing three months ago.

“Dad!” Her bubbly voice is a melody that tugs at memories best left buried. My friend and his daughter embrace in a picture-perfect moment that should warm me but instead sends ice down my spine.

“Katie Jane, meet Tommy Sinclair. Tommy, this is my favorite daughter, Katie Jane.” He wraps a protective arm around her shoulders and pulls her in for a tight hug.

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