It had metaphor. Imagery. Childhood anecdotes. Hell, I even gave citations.
And I’d need three glasses of champagne and a shot of whiskey to get through it. But my father deserved to hear it.
Every last word of it.
I stared at the tumbler on the bar. The tiny glass filled with something harsh and necessary instead of bubbly and delicate. The bartender owed me a favor and cut me a break. I hadn’t asked for the good stuff, but she gave it to me. I slipped her a twenty for being cool. There’d be more money where that came from soon.
I knocked the glass with my manicured tips. I even had my nails done for this circus.
Served me right.
“You got off lucky.” I raised the shot glass to the air. “If they only knew the real you, Dad.”
At least my mourning blacks passed for scholarly, and the whiskey’s shallow confidence suppressed my bitterness. Most of it. After a long day of arrangements, phone calls, caterer confusion—yes, we could still serve cream puffs at a funeral, just send a server around with prayer cards too—I was done. Done planning. Done worrying. Just done.
Especially with him.
In actuality, I had two speeches.
One congratulated Dad on his new life and wished him happiness even if he’d buy what he couldn’t earn.
The other condemned him for running out on his family. It reminded him that when he left Momma, he also left me, and the past seven years without him were hard and terrible. Sure, he sent me money. And, yes, he brought me presents. But his wedding was the first time he wanted me in his life—and it was only so I could be part of his new family.
I didn’t want to join his wife-to-be and her son in another glorious union or second chance.
I was his first chance.
And he blew it.
Momma warned me about him, especially on my fifteenth birthday when I slid into the brand new Mercedes he bought for me. She said if he couldn’t remember how old I was, maybe accepting a present from a man more stranger than father was a bad idea.
She was right, but we needed the car, even if she was too proud to accept it from the man who left her to raise a child with only an envelope stuffed with money for help. Still, she said she liked greeting Benjamin Franklin a lot more than Mr. Darnell Franklin.
I wasn’t so sure, and now, they were both dead and buried. If I knew Momma, Heaven didn’t have a single nook or cranny where Dad could hide. She’d chase his ass from the holy throne to the pearly gates, and, when she got tired? Gran would be there with a rolled up Newsweek and a dog-chewed slipper to relieve her.
Kinda made me sad to miss the festivities.
I claimed a stool in the corner to avoid the early crowd and the eye of any loner who decided to take his chances. So when he settled beside me and ordered another round of whatever I was drinking, I readied my prepared response—a semi-casual back off with an apologetic smile.
Then…I saw him.
My defenses didn’t just crumble. They catastrophically failed. Sizzled up, fried to a crisp, and left everything in its wake a molten blend of excitement and bad decisions.
“What are we celebrating?” He asked.
Charm.
That’s what he was.
Just straight-up charm.
A green-eyed, trouble-making, buzz-cut charmer who saddled up next to me with dimples that’d fool some poor girl’s momma and tattoos that’d worry her daddy.
I knew the type. He wasn’t mine.
But I’d drink if he offered.
“I’m not celebrating.” The whiskey was my first mistake. Letting him flash those dimples was my second. Watching him flex an arm that nearly ripped the fabric of his t-shirt was my third. He would be the latest in a long line of regrets I planned to drink away. “I’m not really looking for company.”
“Good.” He took a swig from his beer. “Me either.”
I eyed the bar. Half a dozen empty seats were in peanut scattering distance. I nudged the bowl towards him, hoping he’d take the hint and pick one of the other spots.
No such luck. He claimed the chair next to me.
“Maybe we have a different definition of company,” I said.
He winked at me. Actually winked.
Craziest part was…I liked it.
“I’m told I’m excellent eye-candy.”
“Let me guess. You’re even better to suck on, right?”
Charmer’s grin was too perfect and his dimples too tempting for someone pretending to be so innocent. He knew what he was after. “A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell.”
“Then you’re worse company than I thought,” I said. “Why should I let you stick around?”
“Because a pretty girl like you shouldn’t drink alone.”
I smirked. “And a proper lady doesn’t accept drinks from strangers.”
“In that case…”
He stood. Good Lord, Charmer was tall. And built. Damn. He was gorgeous. He leaned close just to showcase his muscle stacked upon muscles. He knew how to carry it too. He was no gym-rat, and he was nothing like the coarse frat boys pumping iron and cat-calling me on the treadmill while I studied for classes. He had a gift. He actually used his strength for something other than popping a vein in front of a mirror. And he wielded that power with a poise rivaled only by his confidence to flirt with a stranger at a bar.
He motioned to shake my hand. “Let’s not be strangers.”
I offered him my palm. My cocoa complexion clashed against his skin. He was calloused, rough, like he worked with his hands. At least mine looked decent, fixed up all pretty for a wedding-turned funeral. It beat the usual—my nails gnawed into nothing with finals anxiety and family drama.
“Hi.” His voice melted like wax. “I’m Hard.”
I reached for my purse. “And I’m outta here.”
“No, wait!” He laughed, stepping in front of me. “I mean, I’m Zach Harden. But I go by Hard.”
“Of course you do.”
At least he owned up to it. “It’s just a nickname.”
“Hopefully it serves you well in thirty years.”
“Hasn’t failed me yet.”
So he thought he was cute. He was right. But I had enough cute today. After I filled out the funeral director’s template obituary, I babysat two precocious flower girls whining about not getting to be in the wedding. They needed their hair re-braided as much as their bottoms smacked, but their mothers relented and let them pitch tissues at crying family members. Needless to say, my cuteness quota for the day was maxed.
“Look, this has been fun…” I said.
Zach didn’t let me go. “Finish your drink. You look like you could use it.”
“And you better be careful with which way you’re lookin’.” I arched an eyebrow. “Last thing I need is someone telling me what to do right now. Not after the day I had.”
“That so?”
Oh, the pretty boy was testing me. Like my butt hadn’t been dragged from one end of town to the other trying to tie up my father’s loose ends. Change the flowers. Call the caterer. Find the will. Get the attorney. Dad only called me a month before the wedding to even tell me that he was getting married, the first time I talked to him in a year. Now I was the one responsible for finding the string quartet before they showed up to the hall and strummed up Brick House instead of Amazing Grace.
And now green-eyed charmer—with a nickname that probably far exceeded his reputation—thought it was funny to tease me. Worse, he acted like he wanted to hear about my day.
I wasn’t about to get consoled by a complete stranger while sitting in a bar where the Hairy Titty was the house drink. And I certainly wasn’t going to fall for his smile, no matter how genuine it seemed. Momma told me she was a fool for marrying Dad, but she wasn’t raising anyone to follow in her footsteps.
“Come on,” Zach said. “Just hang for a bit.”
It was a bad move, but I was tempted to sit. Heading home only made me nervous. I wasn’t in the mood to wallow in the few memories I had of Dad. Plus it was too hard to shed twenty-one accumulated years of guilt for holding a grudge against my father until the day he died. I never forgave him for leaving us, but he still managed to enroll me in the best schools, buy the supplies I needed, and deliver my first car.