Page 5 of Temptress

“I’ll remind her. And I’ll take some pics, text them to you later.”

“Okay, Si. Be safe and be happy. Talk soon.”

I could handle the safe part, but it was the happy I wasn’t so sure about. My happiness was tied directly to the girl inside. Her heart beat in time with my own, so as long as she was unhappy, so was I.

I just hoped I could get through to her.

3

SILAS

Lowering the paint roller into the tray of primer, I wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand and took a step back to survey my handy work.

It looked like shit.

Fortunately, it was just the primer, so I didn’t really care, but it was more than a little concerning that the red was still showing through. I could only hope it wouldn’t bleed through the nice, pale gray I’d gotten to paint the whole house with.

“Hey, Darce,” I called up the stairs. I waited twenty seconds for an acknowledgement that didn’t come. “Darcy!” I hollered.

I heard the creak of her bedroom door opening, followed by a voice full of attitude. “God,what?”

It had been like this for the past three days. Once the movers finished and took off, Darcy had closed herself up in her bedroom, only coming out when I all but forced her. Even then, she hardly talked to me, and once I released her from the torture of my company, it was right back to her room, like I didn’t exist.

Would it have been nice to have a little help painting these god-awful walls? Yeah. But I was picking my battles, and I’d chosen to let this one slide. Plus, I would have been lying if I said it wasn’t a little nice to have a reprieve from the constant attitude.

I only had a few more days until I started my new job, and I wanted to get as much of this done as possible before that time. I wanted to make this as close to a home as possible before my new job took me away from Darcy. She’d start school the following week, and I wanted her to feel settled before that time came. It was the least I could do for her after uprooting her entire life. I figured if I could at least get the main living spaces and her bedroom finished, she’d stop hating the new house so damn much.

Personally, I could live with a bedroom the color of gangrene and an office that looked like a unicorn shit all over the place. I wanted to get this done for her.

“Come take a look at this.”

She let out an exaggerated, “Ugh!” that was followed by her stomping down the hall and stairs. She stopped at the landing, arms crossed over her chest, foot tapping indignantly, like she was in the middle of something life-alteringly important. “What?”

I let out a huff of my own, quickly reaching the end of my rope. “Can you come all the way down, please?”

She rolled her eyes so hard, she looked like something out of a scary movie. I half expected her head to start spinning in a circle. Instead, she stomped down to the base of the stairs and resumed her closed-off, pissy stance. “All right. I’m down here. What’s so important?”

Keep your cool. Keep your cool. Keep your cool, I chanted inside my head. My relationship with my daughter was tenuous, to say the least, and most of that was my fault. She’d spent the first thirteen years of her life hardly knowing me, then all of a sudden, I was justthere. I’d seen it in her face every single day since having been discharged, she was still unsure how to act, or what to say. Unsure of me in general.

And I couldn’t blame her one damn bit.

To her, this had to feel like she was living with a stranger, so as often as she made me want to scream or pull my goddamn hair out, I forced myself to keep calm. I couldn’t image what this whole upheaval had been like for her. I was sure it was scary, especially with the one constant in her life now four thousand miles away.

It broke my fucking heart every time she looked at me with contempt or wariness. I kept reminding myself to be patient, that this would take time, but I would eventually guide us there. I’d earn her trust one of these days. I hoped my heart could survive the wait.

I placed my hands on my hips and looked around at the primed living room, hallway, and stairwell—everywhere that had been painted blood-spurt red. “So? What do you think?”

Darcy’s eyes rose higher on her forehead. “What do I think of what?”

I shot her a bland look. “You’re kidding, right? I know it still looks like shit, but even with just one coat of primer, it’s a serious improvement from what was here, don’t you think?”

She scrunched her nose as she took everything in before saying hesitantly, “Dad, I don’t think you did a very good job. Is it supposed to be so... streaky?”

I bugged my eyes out at her, feigning offense. “Are you serious? This is a job on par with the professionals. I can’t believe you’d say that.”

The giggle that wrenched itself free from her lips was a healing balm for my soul. The sound was so beautiful, so light and happy, that I nearly fell to my goddamn knees. Pure music to my ears. “No offense, Dad, but I don’t think there’s a professional painter out there who would hire you, not in a million years.”

I sucked in a dramatic gasp and placed a hand to my chest. “You take that back right now.”

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