The Summer Deal (Wildstone #5)(86)

Okay, then.

All she had to do was go knock on a door and meet her past. And her present. And maybe her future.

But that didn’t feel true. It felt like her present and future were back at that pancake house, and she’d walked away from them.

Kinsey.

And Eli . . . God, Eli.

Unable to process that right now, she stared at the building, anxiety and panic and sadness all stirred up inside her so that she could hardly breathe. She would’ve called ahead, but she’d only had the address, no number. Her mom had been able to get it through her contact, but no other information.

But as it turned out, she could’ve gotten it from her very own sister. Furious all over again, Brynn headed up the walk, took the stairs to the third floor, and knocked on the door.

A woman answered. She looked to be about Brynn’s own age and was wearing cutoff short shorts and a clingy white tank top, with higher heels than Brynn could’ve managed on her best day.

“Um, hi,” Brynn said. “Does a Kenny Vega live here?”

“Who wants to know?”

“That’s . . . a bit complicated.”

The woman narrowed her eyes. “You’re not his ex, are you? He told me you two weren’t seeing each other anymore. I’m his new girlfriend, Karen, and I don’t share.”

“I’m not his ex. I just really need to talk to him.”

Karen looked past Brynn to the hallway. “Are you one of those server people for the courts?”

Brynn blinked. “No. I’m . . . his daughter.”

Karen’s entire demeanor changed. She straightened and smiled. “Oh my goodness, of course. I can see it now, you look just like him. Kinsey, right? Hang on, I’ll get him—”

“No, wait—”

Too late. Karen turned and yelled at the top of her lungs, “Kenny, get your ass up, your daughter’s here to see you! And don’t forget pants!”

A man came up behind Karen, thankfully wearing pants. In his early fifties, he was tall, lean, and his girlfriend had been right. Brynn recognized herself in his face. Same eyes, same nose, same mouth.

Same not-quite-tamed hair.

“Honey bun, look,” Karen said. “Kinsey came to visit you. Thought you said you two were on the fritz.”

His eyes were friendly, but confused. “This isn’t Kinsey.”

Brynn swallowed back the renewed pain of the betrayal that he knew Kinsey. “Nope, not Kinsey.” Her smile faltered because she’d already blown it. She hadn’t planned to burst out with the information of who she was. For one thing, he’d clearly never meant to be in her life, so she couldn’t just step in and blow up that life. That wasn’t fair and not what she wanted.

As for what she did want, suddenly she was short on the details of her own plan. She hadn’t thought this through. At all. Which meant Kinsey was right, a fact she hated. “I’m Brynn Turner. I was born thanks to . . . a fertility bank in Santa Barbara.”

He raised his brows and gave her a second look over. “No shit?” He grinned and looked at Karen. “What do ya know?”

She smiled at him. “I’m going to give you two a minute.”

“Thanks, honey.” He gave Karen a sweet kiss and then slapped her on the ass. “I’ll tell you all about it later, okay? Why don’t you open my laptop and see what I’ve been shopping for. Hint: it’s gold and sparkly, and it’s for you.”

With a delighted squeal, Karen twirled and vanished into the depths of the apartment.

“Sorry,” Brynn said. “I really didn’t mean to spring this on you.”

“Look at us. We’ve got the same eyes. Same expression. I bet you’ve got the touch.”

“The touch?”

“The charisma, honey. You’ve got it in spades, I can tell. You come by it naturally, you know, and you are welcome.” He flashed a charming smile and stepped aside for her to move inside.

The place was small and spare, with worn furniture. No personality, which was the very opposite of its two occupants. In the living room, he gestured for her to have a seat. Then he turned to a bar and splashed something into two shot glasses before turning to hand her one. “Vodka—”

“Oh,” she said, automatically taking it. “Vodka and I aren’t really friends—”

“To a new father-daughter relationship,” he said, and clinked his glass to hers before drinking.

And because he hesitated, seemingly waiting for her to drink as well, she took a small sip. And then nearly coughed up a lung.

“So,” he said. “Tell me all about yourself.”

She searched her brain for something exciting to tell him and came up blank. “I went to summer camp with Kinsey.”

He looked astounded. “Small world.”

“It was the only summer camp in the area where we grew up, so not really all that surprising. We didn’t know we were related then.”

“What do you do?”

“I’m a teacher.”

He flashed a grin. “I’ve got smart kids.”

“Do you have any more? Kids?” she asked tentatively, not wanting to be rude, but desperately curious.

“Not that I know of.” He paused. “In hindsight, it was all pretty stupid on my part, really.”