River Road (River's End Series, #4) (22 page)

“No. My employer. I live here now though and you can stay here also.”

Shrugging, she lifted an earphone and nestled it inside her ear, hiking her bag up onto her shoulder, and passing him without another word as she entered the house. He stared after her, far beyond astonished. Holy crap! After all his stress and worry, wondering with anxiety how to handle her, and that was her?

Nicola patted AJ’s arm, reassuring him she was normal. Cami was still traumatized by her mother’s death and just needed time…

All AJ could hear was the white noise filling up his head. How could he, of all men, offer Cami what she needed? He didn’t even know her. And vice versa. How should they start up any kind of relationship? AJ’s first relationship of any real substance was with Jack Rydell as his employer, and until recently, he had no other relationships in his life. Now there was Kate and a
daughter
? He ran his hands through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck before finally following her into the house.

Kate was in there, but no Cami.

Kate’s face melted into sympathy when she saw him. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. “I told her my name, and she asked where her room was. I pointed it out and she went in there, slamming the door shut. She’s scared. Confused. She doesn’t trust us, of course. So it went about as well as I think it could have.”

“I told her, ‘my name is AJ.’ That’s it. That was my huge welcome for my long lost daughter that I never knew about. It was so stupid. Like something you’d say to a convenience store attendant. I mean”—he threw his hands up—“Crap! I told her my name. I don’t know what else to say. I don’t know how to even reach her, let alone… whatever else I should do. She’s screwed. Her life sounds like it’s been hell already, and this is the solution? Me? You’ve heard me talk, you know I can’t be a father. What good am I at that?”

Kate squeezed him tighter to her. “You’re here, AJ, that’s good for her. You won’t run. You won’t abandon her. You’ll deal with her no matter how hard it might be, and how little you know about what you’re doing.” 

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’m never wrong.” Kate smiled quickly, but AJ saw a sad, deeper gleam in her eye. “I’m not wrong about you, AJ.”

He closed his eyes and drew in a breath, grateful for her steady faith in him. Physical faith was what she invested in him, not like the faith he found through God. It was different to have someone right there, touching him, talking to him, encouraging him, and believing in him. Especially when it was someone you trusted, admired and respected most in the world.

“What do I do?”

“Go to work. I doubt she’ll be out for a while. Be patient. She’ll need to eat at some point. Or she’ll get bored and come looking for something to do. There’s no TV, computer or anything else in her room. I’ll be working in here, and I’ll be sure to get you if she comes out.”

“I didn’t expect… anything.”

“How would thirteen-year-old AJ have reacted, AJ?”

He nodded. “Not so well. I was always wary of the next home, and person, or whatever. To me they were all full of crap. I knew I was nothing to them too. A temporary layover to whatever happened next. It’s hard when you don’t belong anywhere, and no one is looking out for you. No kid—”

He shook his head, throwing his hands over his face, and shuddering as he remembered. No one gave a shit about him and there was always the fear of the next day. And the next stranger. The next… unknown. It was never good. “No kid of mine should have ever known what it was like. If I’d just been informed of her. If Parker had at any point reached out to me… I would have done anything to find her, and change her life, and protect her.”

“Then you’ll have to do that now. It’s too late to cry over what was. What counts is what happens now. The damage is done. I think we already understand that. You can’t reverse it, or stop it, but you can find a way to undo some of it. For today? She’s here. She knows your name. That’s enough of a start.” Kate smiled and made a face as she said “name.”

He accepted her hug, her smile, her advice, and her loving face. He turned to head out, gladder, and almost ecstatic to escape. He paused. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

Nodding, he pressed his lips together, “Thank you, Kate. Not sure how I’d—”

“Maybe something was at work here, you know? Here I am, and just in time. Isn’t that how it goes? You believe everything always happens for a reason, His reason, right?”

“I used to. But I don’t know what reason God would have for a girl to be all alone in the world… but you being here? Maybe, yeah.”

****

It was nearly eight o’clock before Cami finally came out. AJ was planted on the couch, staring at the giant TV, and Kate was reading next to him. They had already eaten dinner, and talked in low tones about what to do, but eventually decided nothing. Finally, the door to Cami’s room opened.

She slipped out and stood at the top of the stairs. AJ jumped up, quickly moving to the bottom of the stairs and their gazes met. Cami simply stared blank-faced at him.

“Are you hungry?” AJ asked.

“Yeah.”

She descended the staircase, her gaze drilling him with an almost evil scowl. The goth makeup was enough to make him step back.
Fierce. Zombie. Scary
were just some of the words he could think to use as adjectives. She purposely put more space between them in her stride.

“We had spaghetti for dinner. Would you like some?”

“Whatevs.”

Yeah, whatevs
. He took in a breath to stabilize his nerves. He was trying very hard with her, but felt completely unqualified. Kate sat quietly listening. Her small smile was her tacit encouragement to keep
trying
. Following Cami, AJ noticed a gothic cross tattooed on her neck with blood drops that disappeared under the collar of her shirt. She was only thirteen. It stunned AJ. Jocelyn had tattoos all over, but she wasn’t
thirteen
. He really liked the hard talking, hard living Jocelyn with her spiked-up short hair, swaggering walk, and tomboyish ways. She danced hip-hop and was always jumping around with her earphones in both ears. She’d suddenly appear to jump or twist or kick off buildings or rocks before doing difficult aerial gymnastics. Jocelyn was awesome. But she wasn’t thirteen and she didn’t look like that.

He dished up the meal on a plate and microwaved it. Waiting, he busied himself by pouring her a glass of milk. Seemed like something a kid would need.

She sat at the table and stared down at her fingernails. Yup, also black. The girl loved black. He sighed and jumped when the microwave dinged before grabbing the plate and setting it down before her. She didn’t look up. No thank-you either. Without a word, she started shoveling the food into her mouth. AJ stepped back.

When she finally glanced up, she said, “Do you mind not watching me?” Then, dropping her head and looking down, she mumbled, “Pervert.”

“Uh, sure.”

AJ gleefully escaped to the couch, almost skipping, he was so eager to get away from her. Every move he made was wrong. He wanted to be reassuring and accessible to her by giving her plenty of space and not pressuring her. Instead, he creeped her out? He sat down on the couch, shaking his head at Kate’s sympathetic gaze. She squeezed his arm in support and he shrugged.

Cami ate her dinner and left with her dishes still on the table.

Days passed of the same ilk. She practically hibernated in the bedroom. Jack, Shane and even Joey asked about her, saying they’d yet to see any glimpse of her. No. Nope. She seemed to be unwilling to show her face during the daylight hours. AJ was never so mixed up before. He had no idea what to do with her. She ate the meals. That’s all he knew about her.

Joey lived in the same house and never saw her. It was an odd situation. She was like a mean little ghost squatting upstairs.

Cami always sneered, scowled, and rolled her eyes at AJ. He was the dirt, bacteria, and shit under her feet. She was more than clear about that. Kate was in the house every day so she kept track of her, but there was rarely any interaction between them.

“She’ll come around,” Kate kept saying. But AJ could see she was just as unsure as he of what to do. They were the adults, but Cami had all the control. She mumbled
pervert
at him on the few times he attempted to engage her or just talk to her, so he backed off, feeling totally confused. He did not know how to approach her. What if she accused him of being a pervert to Nicola? The threat of the state coming after him, assuming he was a child molester or worse, had him dismayed. What the hell was he supposed to do? She could accuse him of things… and what if someone believed her? Kate insisted he could not let her continue controlling him as she was. Kate would vouch for his innocence. No one would believe he was a pervert. But hell, the thought of it made his stomach churn. By keeping his distance, he figured she had nothing to complain about. He wasn’t being a creep by showing too much interest in her.

Shit!
Even his internal language changed. All the peace he found during the last few years here in River’s End was starting to slowly erode. He began to wish Cami would disappear so he could go back to his life from a few months ago. Even the changes Kate required of him were things he’d never done for anyone else. Now his daughter seemed hell-bent on despising him. Every time he said, hi, hello, good morning, or good evening, she called him a pervert.

Finally, one day she didn’t come out at all. AJ knocked on the door, asking her if she wanted to eat. She claimed it was her time of the month and she was in too much pain to walk.

He removed his hand from her door and swiftly fled out into the fields. Gross! He didn’t need to know about… that. It made him cringe and he died a little inside his head that day. He really didn’t know if this teenage daughter thing was for him. Though no one was asking. Which was perhaps the hardest part of it all.

****

Kate was nearly at the end of her tether. For the first few days, she understood, and her sympathy poured from her heart towards the little, lost, freaky gothic-princess, potential serial-killer, strange girl who was living in the room upstairs. It must have been very confusing to Cami, being there all alone, so young and immature amongst complete strangers. Her pain and fear must have been overwhelming.

But when she started calling AJ a creep and a pervert over and over again, Kate watched their interactions more closely. She knew Cami was watching AJ discreetly and how violently AJ reacted when he was called those awful names. So far, he just backed away from her, nearly tongue-tied and flushed with bright colors. He retreated as far as the room would allow from her. Oh, she was a masterful manipulator. She never spoke even a hundred words to anyone living there. And usually she punctuated her statements by muttering some rude name at them.

They kept in touch regularly with Nicola. Kate fully supported and backed up AJ, and Nicola assured them that no one believed anything sordid or inappropriate was going on. AJ didn’t even sleep inside the house any longer. He and Kate had not had sex since Cami’s arrival.

Cami liked to pretend her period kept her bedridden. AJ even provided her meals by leaving them at her door. Kate got so mad, she thought her head might finally explode. She patiently held her tongue, remaining quiet, although her patience as well as her tolerance were nearly at an end. The arrangement definitely wasn’t working for her and Kate was fully prepared to explain to AJ why.

Kate didn’t want to lose AJ over this latest situation. Not yet. She spoke the truth when she said it was a game changer, but she hadn’t yet decided if it changed the game for her. One thing she knew for sure: her decision would not be determined by the thirteen-year-old flaming mess who was living upstairs.

In the almost eight weeks since Kate’s arrival there, she tried to go home every week for a night. Leaving at dawn, she spent the entire day in her office, going back to her condo exhausted at night, only to wipe the mildew off her toilets. Once in a while, she swiped the dust that was always collecting. Then she’d gather whatever clothes she might need, and work the next day in Seattle before driving all the way back to the Rydell River Resort. What she liked most from these trips was the kiss AJ always gave her the night she returned. There were no words, and he didn’t whine or complain. He didn’t even express how much he missed her. He didn’t say one word. But the kiss? That said everything.

During those two months, she and Jack engaged in some real conversations too. It started off slowly as a passing encounter or bumping into him at the beach. He politely inquired how she was enjoying her walk or horse ride or whatever, which often led to more chit-chat. She found he was far more composed than she first believed. But once Cami came into the picture, Kate’s regard for her stranger-brother soared, and it changed into a mutual respect as a kind of rhythm seemed to exist between them.

Joey lived in the house with Kate, but they observed a cool, hands-off policy in their dealings with each other. Kate felt like she kind of ruled the Rydell River Ranch main house. So huge and luxurious, she knew she should not become so comfortable with the Rydell hospitality, but she did nevertheless. And it happened by accident, which Kate also appreciated. Her only complaint was, Cami had intruded on her kingdom. She really didn’t like the way Cami was treating the prince of Kate’s little scenario either. Never before had there been a prince in Kate’s scenario, so she felt more than protective toward him.