How to Resist Prince Charming(73)

In Tom’s opinion, the only thing a man could do to redeem himself from becoming a complete ass was fix his mistake when he knew he was wrong.

Sure, he’d always known butting into Lenna and Farris’s affair wasn’t right and honorable. But after learning what he’d learned today, the wrongness of his actions felt iniquitous...even from his protective-father perspective.

Like a repentant sinner taking his first confession, he arrived at Lenna’s apartment with a package tucked snuggly under his arm. Evening had come, and the hours since he’d talked to Farris in his office had passed with grueling misery, creating a knot of guilt in his stomach that had grown into a nasty case of indigestion.

He knocked on his daughter’s apartment entrance and waited, shuffling his feet uncomfortably to ease some of the pressure his roiling innards generated behind his belt. Seconds ticked by; his anxiety mounted. He wasn’t looking forward to this, but it had to be done. He’d wronged his baby girl, his firstborn. That wasn’t something a fellow could look back on and be proud of.

When she finally pulled the door open, his heart dipped into his knees. As soon as she saw him, she burst into tears.

“Oh, hell,” he muttered. “Sweetheart.” He stepped inside, arms open to tug her into his embrace.

But Lenna pulled back.

He stopped in confusion. “Lenna?” he whispered, already dreading the worst.

She licked her dry lips and glanced away. “How long have you known?”

He knew exactly what she meant but wasn’t ready to address the subject yet. He’d wanted to butter her up first, give her the present, and tell her how much he loved her.

Unable to meet her eyes, he hedged. “Known what?”

“Cut it out, Dad. I’m talking about Braxton and me, and you know it. How long have you known what we did?”

Tom winced. “He told you what I did?” His guilt shifted into panic. The indigestion moved up his esophagus, and here came full-blown heartburn.

Had Farris brainwashed her away from him again?

“He told me you lied,” Lenna said. “That was all. But I didn’t believe him.”

There was no way to swallow down the lump in his throat. Bowing his head, Tom closed his eyes and concentrated on breathing through his nostrils.

“I didn’t want to believe anything bad about you, Dad. I didn’t think you were capable of something as underhanded as this. That’s why I haven’t been able to confront you. I don’t want to look into your eyes and see what you’ve done. But you did, didn’t you? You lied about those other women. Braxton never flaunted any redhead around Farris. He never sent anyone roses. Did he?”

Tom shook his head. “No.”

“Why?” she whispered. He could hear the tears in her voice, and it tore him up inside. “Why’d you do it?”

He shrugged helplessly, lifting his hands in meek surrender.

Lenna caught sight of the gift he held; her eyes went wide with recognition. “Oh, my God. Where’d you get that?”

Having forgotten he still had it, Tom glanced down. “Oh,” he said. “Here. I brought this as a...a peace offering, I guess. I was going to wait to give it to you at Christmas, but...” He shrugged again.

She might not be speaking to him by the time December rolled around.

When he held out the present, her eyes only widened more. Then it struck him. She’d seen the cream-colored wrapping before and probably even knew what was inside.

“That’s right,” he murmured. “You went to Paris with him, didn’t you?”

Lenna’s head snapped up.

Tom ran a hand over his face. “God, I forgot you were seeing him even then. I bet you even picked out your own gift.”

Lenna just blinked. “What’re you talking about?”

Tom sighed. “When he announced his business trip to Paris, I approached him and gave him some money, asking him to get a souvenir for my daughter, who adores everything French.” He smiled then and let out a low laugh. “Little did I know you two were seeing each other, and he’d already invited you along. You could buy your own souvenirs.”

Lenna’s gaze fell back to the gift. When Tom held it out to her, she didn’t take it.

Her eyes welled. “It was for me all along,” she whispered and covered her mouth. “He wouldn’t tell me who it was for; I thought he’d bought it for another—”

Lenna couldn’t seem to finish her sentence before a sob overtook her and caught her breath, robbing her of the ability to speak.

“Honey.” Tom stepped forward and opened his arms again. “I love you. I’m so sorry. I—”

“Don’t,” she said, holding up a hand. When he stopped, she wiped at her face with shaking fingers.

He nodded. “I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I’m so God damn sorry. I was wrong. I admit that.”

She snorted out a bitter laugh. “Yeah, well, we were all wrong, weren’t we? I was wrong to keep my relationship with Braxton a secret. You were wrong to lie about him. And he was wrong to suspend you just because I’d broken up with him.”

Tom grimaced. He reached up to squeeze at the bridge of his nose, realizing he had a lot more to confess than he’d originally thought. “Lenna,” he said, “he had every right to fire me. And no one would’ve blamed him if he had.”