Rise - Part One (Rise #1)(7)
My smartphone rings, startling me briefly. I look down at the screen, half-hoping that it's a potential new client for my business. I'm relieved when I see my father's familiar number pop up. I reach forward to silence the call knowing that my pops will understand if I don't answer. I talk to him at least two or three times a day. We have an unspoken agreement that if either of us are busy with work, that we'll text or call back as soon as we can so we don't worry the other.
"Do you need to take that?" Landon leans forward in his chair, his eyes skimming the screen of my phone. "I can give you some privacy."
If I played the dating games that some of my friends prescribe to, I'd be tempted to tell him I need a moment and then when he got up to give me the space he thinks I need to take the call, I'd laugh and toss my hair back as if I was flirting with the person on the other end. It may be a technique my college roommate used to test her potential boyfriends to see if jealousy was already afoot, but I've never enjoyed games, dating or otherwise. My dad taught me to be direct if I want something in life, and right now, I want to know if Landon Beckett is interested in me.
"It's my dad," I admit without any hesitation. "I'll call him back later."
"Is he in New York? Do you live at home?"
I thought we already established that I'm a full-blown adult. I try not to sound sarcastic as I answer. "My mother lives in Boston. He lives in California. He moved there a few years ago when they divorced."
That may have been more information that he was fishing for, but I've got nothing to hide, at least here in America. Italy is another story altogether.
"Are you close to your father?" he asks as he reaches for the glass of ice water in front of him.
I smile. "I'm very close to him. I talk to him at least a few times a day."
He pinches the bridge of his nose while his eyes briefly flutter shut. "It sounds like he's an important part of your life."
"He is," I acknowledge with a brief nod of my head. "Isn't your dad important to you?"
"My father," he begins before his tongue darts over his bottom lip. "I lost my father when I was a teenager."
There's not enough familiarity between us for me to ask about details. I don't need to push to know more about what happened. The sorrow that I see on his face as he looks down at my smartphone as it rings again with another call from my dad tells me all I need to know about the depth of Landon's loss and how it's impacted him.
Chapter 5
"You're telling me that he ditched you because your dad kept calling you?"
Leave it to Lilly to spell the humiliation of last night out for me. "I wouldn't say that exactly."
She tips her chin towards me. "You said he asked if you were single, but then when your dad called you a second time, he got up and left."
If we are going to dissect every aspect of my dinner with Landon, minute-by-minute, I'm going to need something stronger than the cup of tea I picked up on my way to Lilly's office. I tried to explain on the phone what happened last night, but she was insistent that I hop on the subway and come down to her office. Since I have absolutely nothing on my agenda today, I readily agreed. I got her a cup of herbal tea too since she's given up coffee while she's breastfeeding.
"He did leave shortly after that call." I nod slowly. I've replayed everything that happened last night in my mind since Landon abruptly stood to end our dinner while I was still putting food into my mouth. Just a few minutes after I silenced the second call from my dad, he left under the veil of an excuse about needing to get to bed early because he was jet lagged.
He told me, when we first arrived at the restaurant, that he'd picked up a quick round trip job to Chicago and had landed ninety minutes before I saw him at the deli. How that translates into going to sleep at eight o'clock is beyond me.
"I bet he's not used to hanging out with women your age." She taps a few keys on her laptop. "I just need to finish this code quickly. I can talk while I'm doing it."
Of course she can. If the baby was here, she'd also be cradling her in her arms right now. I've never known anyone as organized and efficient as Lilly.
When we met, shortly after I arrived in New York, we hit it off instantly. I was at a dinner party at Jax and Ivy's apartment. The room was filled with a sea of unfamiliar faces and suddenly, this fiery ball of red hair broke through and came walking towards me. She introduced herself as the wife of one of Jax's cousins.
I didn't have to say another word the entire evening. I tried, but in her nervous excitement she gave me a condensed version of her life story. It was painful to listen to and at the end of the night, when she pulled me into a tight embrace against her then swollen, pregnant, belly, I knew I'd made a friend for life.
"Maybe I just can't read men." I pull my hand to my mouth in an effort to stifle the uncontrollable giggle that accompanies the statement. The moment the words leave my lips I realize the absurd irony in them.
Her fingers pause as she turns to look at me. "What's so funny?"
It's not a question based in sarcasm. She's genuinely puzzled by the glee I'm taking in my admission that I don't know anything about men. I don't blame Lilly for not understanding. I've never told her about the man who wrote that marriage proposal to me. Some secrets are better left hidden away forever.