9
“I don’t give a shit what you do with it!” I barked at one of my employees who had tried to ask me where he should put a case of champagne that had been delivered for the upcoming end-of-summer bash. “Just deal with it.” At least it was only Rhys. That fucker was lucky he still had a job anyway.
A few minutes later, Riley walked over and told me she’d lost her apron and asked where to find another one. I glared at her until she scurried away with her tail between her legs. I should’ve fucking fired her a second time. Or maybe it was a third. I’d lost count.
Not long after, I was sitting at the bar working on adding up some invoices when Oak tapped me on the shoulder. “Boss. You have a visitor.”
I didn’t look up. “Tell ’em to fuck off! I’m busy.”
It wasn’t Oak’s voice that responded. “I carry a gun. Not sure fuck off is a good answer to give me.”
Shit.
Gia’s father.
Just what I needed.
I turned around. “Sorry. It’s been one of those days.”
Tony chuckled and slapped me on the shoulder. “One of those days or three of ’em?”
I knew what he was getting at. After Gia got out of the hospital, I’d made her take a few days off as a precaution, even though the doctor had cleared her to return to work. It had been three days since I saw her—which happened to be the same number of days I had been fucking miserable. Tony was a cop. I didn’t bother to try and lie to him. Instead, I stood and walked around behind the bar.
“What can I get you to drink?”
He held up a hand. “Just a seltzer would be great. About to drive back to Queens.” Tony had stayed at Gia’s rental since she got out of the hospital. It gave me a modicum of relief to know someone was looking after her, at least.
I poured a seltzer and slid it across the bar, then proceeded to make myself something a fuck of a lot stronger. “I’m not driving anywhere. Hope you don’t mind, but something tells me that you showing up here alone…I’m gonna need it.”
He smiled. “Have your drink. Come sit.”
I finished mixing a vodka seltzer that was more vodka than seltzer, and took a seat on the stool next to Tony.
He reached behind his back into the waistband of his pants and pulled out a bag. Opening it, he dumped a stack of postcards bound together with a rubber band onto the bar.
I looked down at the pile. “Vacation souvenirs? You can probably pick up one in the drugstore in town if you’re looking to add to your collection.”
Tony shook his head. “No. Not vacation souvenirs. Well, not from any vacation I ever took, anyway. These are from Leah, Gia’s mother.”
Tony read the confusion on my face.
Removing the rubber band…he started to toss them one by one in front of me.
“Look at the postmark dates.”
I picked up a few and looked at the worn ink. “All on Gia’s birthday?”
“Yep. Every year on Gia’s birthday, her mother mailed her a different postcard from a different place.”
“She never mentioned that.”
Tony stopped his one-by-one toss of the postcards and turned to look me in the eyes. “That’s because she doesn’t know. And I hope to keep it that way, if you catch my drift.”
I nodded. “Understood.”
“Anyway.” He tossed a few more in front of me and kept one in his hands. “They’d come every year like clockwork. I know Leah’s handwriting, so I knew they were from her, but they were always blank.”
“Okay…”
“When Gia’s mother left, she told me she didn’t want to be pinned down with a child, that it was her destiny to travel and see the world. I’d met her while we were both vacationing down in New Mexico. We both had a bit of wanderlust in us. First year we got together, we saw fifteen states.
After we got married, we planned to finish seeing the rest and start on Europe. We had big plans.
We were saving money to take a year off and do nothing but travel.” Tony paused to drink some of his seltzer, but I got the feeling he needed a minute, too. “Anyway, Leah got pregnant and that changed everything. At first, she was excited about it, thinking it wouldn’t have to change our
plans. But the reality of that hit real quick. I took the police test for a steady income and health insurance, and they called me right before Gia’s first birthday. Leah stayed home with Gia. With a baby, money was too tight to travel. It wasn’t what we planned, but life doesn’t always go as planned, does it?”
“No, sir.”
“Anyway, my daughter says I can turn a knock-knock joke into the Declaration of Independence, so I’ll try to sum up and keep it brief this time. Leah didn’t like the change of plans and took off one day, leaving a Dear John letter in her place. One of those postcards arrived in the mail every year, always blank, until Gia’s eighteenth birthday.” He tossed the remaining postcard in his hand on the top of the pile. It wasn’t blank like all the others. I glanced down at it and back to Tony.
“Go ahead. Give it a read, son.”
Dear Tony,
This is the last postcard you’ll receive. I’ve spent the last eighteen years traveling from place to place, looking for someone or something that I could never seem to find. Today it hit me. I’ve been looking for someone to replace you and Gia. I looked for pieces of you in every relationship I had.
And in the end, nothing compared to the original. You’ve stayed in my heart far longer than you were in my life.
Our daughter is a woman today. I hope she’s like you. Strong enough to have the courage to deal with the unexpected and not run away when life turns out different than planned. Take it from me, you can run away from people, but you can’t run away from what’s in your heart.
Always, Leah
“Don’t let eighteen years pass before you stop running, Rush.”
Tony had left me even more fucked up than I’d been before he showed up. Only I wasn’t angry anymore; I just felt down. Like I’d lost my best friend, quit smoking, and someone had run over my fucking dog—all in the same morning. He’d obviously brought me Gia’s mother’s postcards to show me that cutting the person out of your life doesn’t always let you move on. But the thing was, unlike Gia’s mother, I didn’t think there was anything better out there for me that I needed to search for. Gia was better than I even deserved.
Unable to focus, I got tired of sitting in my office. For three days, I’d had Gia on the brain, and it was only getting worse. I needed to see her, even if it was the asshole thing to do when I couldn’t give her what she wanted.
I stopped by the kitchen and had the chef make a bunch of her favorite dishes, and decided to drop in and check on her unannounced.
Twenty minutes later she opened the door, and I stood staring at her, completely forgetting what my excuse for coming by had even been. God, she looked hot as fuck in that bikini.
“Rush? Is everything okay?” Her brows drew down with concern.
I remembered the guise I’d come under. Holding up the bag, I said, “Thought you could use dinner.
Did I interrupt you going for a swim or something?”
“No. I just sort of wear bathing suits around the house now because my clothes are too tight.” She fingered the edge of her bikini bottom that was pushed down under her beautiful, plump stomach.
“It’s like walking around in my underwear, but socially more acceptable.”
I’d forgotten what her curves did to me. Seeing her bare stomach with a little more fullness to it, her tits really filling out the top, I wondered if stopping by had been such a good idea after all.
Gia licked her lips. “I’m starving. Any chance there’s eggplant in there?”
“Sure is.”
She practically ripped the bag out of my hand and left me standing in the doorway as she walked away. I started to chuckle, but then got a look at her from the rear.
Damn. Not funny.
Maybe I should be like a deliveryman and bolt. The little T&A show was enough of a tip.
Gia yelled from somewhere in the house. “Rush? Where are you?”