Blaze (Heat #3)(14)

"That sounds good," I say half-heartedly. "I'm always here if you need me, Tyler."

"I do need you, Cadence." His eyes are intent on mine. "I need you as much as I need the air I breathe."





CHAPTER 15


"She's not coming here, is she?" I look beyond his shoulder. "Does she know that you're meeting me?"

Sergio settles on the wooden bench next to me. I expected him to beat me here, but surprisingly I was the one who arrived first. He'd called me shortly after Tyler left my apartment. He kept the conversation short, asking me to meet him at a bench in Central Park. I didn't need him to detail which bench. I know it by heart. He used to bring me here when I was a child so we could share an ice cream and look at the people walking their dogs.

"Asta is in Boston for the day," he says quietly. "She went to see about a new location for Magari. We're expanding there."

I suppose I should care about that, but I don't. My dad's business has nothing to do with me anymore. When I was a teenager, he'd tell me how he wanted me to run things after he was gone.

It was overwhelming back then when all I wanted to do was hang out with my friends anywhere but in a restaurant. My nonna's death sent him into a tailspin. He saw his own frailties then. Maybe he realized that he wasn't as invincible as he thought he was. Whatever it was, it sent him in a new direction. He married Asta, hired a management team to help run his business and he stopped cooking as much as he once did.

"Why did you want to see me?" I ask bluntly.

He glances at the large gold watch on his wrist. "You gave this to me when you were fourteen-years-old."

My gaze drops to his arm. The watch is oversized, the gold finish flaking away now that so much time has passed. It's the one flaw in his appearance. The rest of him is utter perfection. He's dressed casually in a dark polo and jeans. His hair is slicked back from his face. He's as handsome now in his early fifties as he was when I was a child.

I tap my foot against the concrete that surrounds the bench. "You kept that?"

"I wear this every day." He pumps his hand in the air, twice. The sunlight dances against the face of the watch. "It doesn't work anymore. The hands stopped moving years ago."

My heart stops for a beat. "You told me you loved it when I gave it to you."

"It was on Father's Day. You made me waffles for breakfast that day. I ate every bite. Then you gave me this watch."

I turn away to hide my rising emotions. "I remember. I remember that day."

"You told me I was the best father in the world. That was the best day of my life, Cady."

I swallow hard to fight the tears but it doesn't help.

"You said that whenever I looked at the watch I would know that you loved me at that minute, and the next too."

I bow my head, the tears uncontrollable now as they slide down my cheeks.

"I moved to Rome and two days later the watch stopped working." His voice vibrates with emotion. "I took it to get it fixed, but they couldn’t do anything."

I feel his eyes on me but I remain stoic, the only outward sign of my emotions are the tears. "Why do you still wear it?"

"I hope one day that the hands will move again." He taps the face of the watch with his index finger. "I want my girl to love me again."

"I never stopped loving you, dad." I turn my gaze to the ground, inching it closer toward him. "I've been angry with you but I've always loved you."

"I've always loved you too, Cady." He crosses his legs at the knee. I catch the movement from the corner of my eye. "I was forced to make a choice and I made the wrong one."

"You love Asta," I say it calmly, finally turning to look at his face. "She was upset over what happened between us and she pushed you to give me up."

"Don't make excuses for me," he goes on. "What I did was wrong. The love I had for her isn't the same as the love I have for you."

I've never doubted that. I knew when he met Asta that she would become someone essential to him. He couldn’t get enough of her. When he was with her, he was happier than I'd ever seen him before.

"I know, dad."

"I'm not a perfect man." He chuckles as he swipes his hand over his face to chase away the tears. "I'll forever regret not standing beside you. I hate myself for walking away when you needed me."

"Mom got me through it." I force myself to refrain from telling him how happy she is now. She met a man last year who has given her the only thing she's ever wanted, unconditional love. "I wouldn't have made it without her."

He studies my face, his green eyes locking on mine. "I want to make it up to you, Cady. I want to start doing that today."

If I was that fourteen-year-old girl who ached for her father's approval, his words may mean more than they do. I'm not her anymore. I'm an adult, one who has grown to understand that people will let you down and the best way to move on from that is to forgive them.

I thought I'd done that until I saw him two days ago at Tyler's apartment. Anger overpowered everything else I was feeling. If forgiveness was there, it was buried beneath a mountain of frustration and rage.