Blaze (Heat #3)(20)

It's an apology years too late but it's more than he's ever offered before.

"Thank you," I whisper. "Thank you for that."

His stance shifts as tension leaves his shoulders. "I'm your father. Today I start showing you that I'm a good one."

The temptation to embrace him is there but I step back. "We can start by having lunch. I've missed Magari. Can I come there for lunch one day next week?"

"You'll come." He looks at me, smiling. "You'll bring your boyfriend, yes?"

"Yes." I nod as I brush past him to open the door. "He'll come with me."





CHAPTER 22


I let out a slow breath as I watch Tyler arranging the chairs in the dining room of Nova. "I understand. I can go to lunch with Sergio by myself."

He stands back to inspect the position of one of the dark wooden chairs. The soft launch is only two days away. "Can you reschedule? I can't make it today but three days from now I'm free."

I smile at the offer but I've built up the courage to see my dad today and nothing is going to stop me from doing that. "It's fine. I'll hang out with him for an hour or two."

"Maribel invited him to the soft launch." He scratches the bottom of his chin. "She thought she was doing me a favor."

"A favor?" I look to where Maribel is standing at the back of the dining room talking to one of the sous chefs. "I thought you hired a PR company to handle the invitation list for you."

"I did." He surveys the positioning of the table that's separating us. "Maribel did it as a surprise to me. She went to Magari and spoke to him. He apparently accepted right away."

I want to tell him to rescind the invitation but I know that's petty. Having Sergio at the soft launch will draw more press. It will help shine the spotlight on Nova. I can't take that away from Tyler.

"It'll be fine," I say under my breath. "There will be so many people here that want to talk to him. He'll mingle and I'll hang out with you."

"You don't have to come. If you want to skip I'll completely understand."

I pause while I consider what he just said. He's willing to spend one of the most important nights of his life without me just so he can have my dad here. That might not be what he's implying but that's sure as hell the way I'm taking it.

"Are you worried that I'm going to cause a scene?" I rub the back of my neck, the muscles suddenly seizing into a tight knot. "I can stay home, Tyler."

He finally stops to look at me. "I was offering you an out, Cadence. I know there's a lot of shit for you and your dad to work through."

"I can handle it," I say honesty. "He wants to repair what happened. I'm willing to try too. That's why I'm having lunch with him today."

He rounds the table. "I want to make things as uncomplicated as I can for you. You have a lot going on right now. If I can do anything to ease that burden, I'm on it."

"You can promise me that after the soft launch, you'll spend an entire night in my bed with me."

He stills for a minute before he leans forward, the tip of his tongue touching my neck. "I'll spend an entire week in bed with you, Chef. It's going to take that long for me to do everything I want to you."

***

"Do you like the pasta?" Sergio's eyebrows rise in anticipation of my answer.

"I ate it all." I touch the corner of the white bowl. "You should put this on the menu."

"No." He shakes his head. "The first time I made that for you, you were five-years-old. You loved it. I'll never make it for another person."

The words touch me just as deeply as all the others he's shared with me since I sat down at Magari to have lunch with him. The interior of the restaurant is different than I remember. The tone is lighter and fresher than the dark masculine theme that used to define this space. The linen tablecloths are hand stitched with the Magari logo. It's beautiful, breathtaking really.

"I didn't hurt Asta, dad." I smooth my hand over my hair. I'd straightened it today after Sophia helped me choose an outfit. She's been quietly supportive of my decision to spend time with Sergio.

I texted her on my way here to tell her that she'll get to meet him at Nova's soft launch. She replied almost instantly with a happy face emoticon.

"I know, sweetheart." He sips from the glass of house red that he placed on the table when he sat down. He had one of the servers bring me the same, but I haven't touched it yet. I don't want anything to mar my memory of this lunch. "I was a fool back then."

"Why did you believe her over me?"

He contemplates his answer with another mouthful of wine. He swallows hard. "She was pregnant, Cady. When she fell in the office that day, the baby was lost."





CHAPTER 23


My eyes sting with tears. There was a baby. We struggled. Asta fell.

"It wasn't your fault." He doesn't look at me as he says the words. "We tried for a long time to conceive. It finally happened. I wanted to tell you but Asta insisted we wait until she was three months along."

She wasn't showing when we fought in the office. I don’t remember what she was wearing but if there was a bump at all, it would have been tiny.