Bad Seed

by Rye Hart

  The thought that she might come to realize that she didn’t really want to be with me caused an ache in my chest that grew in intensity every time I breathed. I didn’t want to leave her, I wanted to stay and plead my case. But that wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted me to go home and let her deal with her family however she needed to. On her own terms. On her own. Period. I looked over at the clock and saw it was already ten in the morning. Theresa was still fast asleep against me, but I knew she would want to get up and get out of there. My hand slid from her hair to her back, and I massaged her muscles until she slowly rose from her slumber. She grunted and stretched, her body pressed dangerously close to mine as she gripped me tightly, and I watched as her eyes slowly opened.

  “What time is it?” she asked.

  “Ten,” I said.

  “Wow. I can’t believe I slept that long.”

  “I can,” I said, grinning.

  She playfully slapped my chest before running her fingertips down the divot of my muscles.

  “I need to go get cleaned up.”

  “We both do,” I said. “But you can go first.”

  “You sure?”

  I leaned my head over to hers and kissed the top of it before I sat up.

  “Yep. I’m sure. You first, then me.”

  I turned around and watched as her beautifully naked body sauntered to the bathroom. Her skin held several new marks, but none of them were left in anger or violence. They’d been left in lust, in passion, in love.

  I got up and shut the balcony door, but not before I took one last whiff of the salted air. Theresa was humming in the shower, completely oblivious to the tension filling the room. Or maybe that was her way of attempting to dissipate it. I didn’t know. But the longer her shower dragged on, the quicker I wanted to get out of there.

  It was easier to rip off a band-aid than it was to slowly peel it back.

  I hopped into the shower after her and was in there less than five minutes. I washed up quickly then toweled off my hair and got dressed so I could get the fuck out of there. I wasn’t good with goodbyes. I didn’t like them at all. I didn’t want to say goodbye to Theresa. I wanted to pack up her things and take her with me. I wanted to be by her side forever.

  But I had to play this her way or it would get me nowhere.

  CHAPTER 27

  THERESA

  I kissed Grant in front of the hotel and then set off for my car. I didn’t want to watch him leave. It was too painful. It hurt the first time around, but this one was worse. I knew I was doing the right thing, making him leave town. I had to brace for the worst with my brother and Dad. I didn’t want him reaping any of the backlash from this because this was my fight with them. They were using Grant as a scapegoat for the issues that were coming to the forefront.

  I got into my car and drove off before I had a chance to look back. The hotel was beautiful, but I couldn't stay. We couldn't stay. It wasn’t reality, and it wasn’t what adults did. We could whisk ourselves away for a weekend, but a lifetime? It wasn’t possible. It was a teenager’s mentality, and I understood why Grant felt that way. His childhood had a lot to do with his need to escape from time to time. But I needed to take my own life by the reins and handle my own business once and for all.

  Which was why I was heading to my father’s house.

  I pulled into his driveway and took a deep breath. The conversation was long overdue between the two of us, and no matter what I had to do, this ended today. Whatever this control issue was that he had with me, it ended now. I had nipped it in the bud with Ike, but it had taken me eight years and a concussion to do so. Grant had given me a fabulous few days to recuperate and get back on my feet again, and now I had to make sure his efforts didn’t go to waste.

  I walked straight into my father’s house without even knocking. I didn’t want to give him a chance to mount any defense. I walked around the lower level of the house and found him in the kitchen, hunched over some paperwork with his head in his hands.

  I cleared my throat, and he looked up, seemingly startled that someone was in the house

  “Theresa?”

  “Hey, Dad.”

  He looked surprised, but his face immediately morphed. I knew he was about to give me a lecture, about leaving the hospital with Grant or kissing Grant or hopping from guy to guy or whatever it was he had been preparing in that head of his. But I was having none of that. He wasn’t going to get the upper hand this time. My voice was back, and he was going to listen.

  Whether he liked it or not.

  “Before you start, I have something I want to say. And don’t interrupt me until I’ve finished talking.”

  I watched my father nod, and I took a step into the kitchen.

  “What you did to Grant was wrong,” I said. “Blatantly and purposefully wrong. He needed us. That teenage boy with parents who didn’t give a shit about him needed us, Dad. And at the first sign of him spoiling whatever plan it was you had for my life, you threw him out like he meant nothing. Grant loved you and Mom, respected you and Mom. He would never have acted on any crush I might’ve had toward him as a teenager. Ever.”

  I drew in a deep breath and took another step forward.

  “And that little stunt you and Hollis pulled in the hospital? Completely uncalled for. Ike attacked me, Dad. Almost raped me in my own damn apartment, and you’re angry because Grant was there comforting me? Grant would never hurt me. How you could think he would is beyond me, and it shows me that you never gave a damn about getting to know him. The real him. Because despite you throwing him away like a piece of trash stuck to the bottom of your shoe, he made something of himself. He made something pretty damn big of himself. He started his own multi-million-dollar construction company with no help from anyone else. Did you know that? No, you didn’t, because you didn’t give a shit about anyone but yourself. And don’t try and tell me that you were doing what was best for me. You were doing what you thought would make you look like a good upstanding father.”

  I saw my father wilt a bit, and I knew I was finally getting through to him.

  “From now on, I make the decisions in my own life. I’m twenty-six years old, and I’m capable of succeeding or failing on my own. You and Hollis? This control thing the two of you have going on with me? It stops now. That blatant display of anger in the hospital made you no better than Ike. And I don’t know if this is surfacing because you didn’t cope with Mom’s death, or because Hollis and I grew up, and you can’t handle that, or from any other insane reason that could possibly be the cause of this. But I can tell you one thing. I’ll cut you out of my life before I let you control me anymore.”

  I was panting, shaking, my jaw clenched from the overwhelming emotion, and my eyes were boring into my father. His eyes filled with guilt as he stood from his chair, and I saw the tired look in his eyes. The bags underneath them. The dark circles that came to light as he walked across the kitchen. He stretched out his arms and engulfed me in a massive bear hug, and it took me a few seconds to digest what was going on.

  It was not the reaction I expected.

  I wrapped my arms around my father and held him close. I hadn’t realized until that moment how much I had missed the closeness. When I was little, my father had hoisted me onto his shoulders and carried me around endlessly. But as I grew, he pulled away, and became the strict disciplinarian, the rule-maker, and stopped being the father I remembered. It felt good to be reminded that some part of that man was still inside him.

  “You’re right.”

  I furrowed my brow at his statement. I didn’t think I’d heard him correctly.

  “What did you say?” I asked.

  “I said, you’re right,” my father said.

  I stepped away from his embrace and looked up into his eyes.

  “Grant would never have touched you in any way. He was a good boy, just misguided. He was a good influence on Hollis, despite the antics they kicked up from time to time, and I still attribute Hollis’ want t
o be a cop to Grant’s influence.”

  “Seriously?” I asked flatly.

  “I’ve felt guilty for so long over what happened to Grant. The fight. What I did. The way he left. It ate me up inside for years. Your mother, too. She felt guilty for not stepping in and overriding what was going on that day.”

  “It wasn’t Mom’s fault,” I said. “It was yours. And I hope you told her that.”

  “I did. Several times over. I wondered for years what Grant was up to. If he was okay and getting along and making a life for himself. But I knew you weren’t the only one with a crush all those years ago. I saw the way he looked at you a few times. At the very least, I knew he enjoyed being around you. But I didn’t know to what extent.”

  “There was no extent, Dad.”

  “I know. I know that now, and in some ways, I knew that then. But you’re right. I was worried about your future, and I was worried that you would lose yourself in your teenage feelings for him like Jane always did with her crushes, and I panicked. It isn’t an excuse, but it was where my head was at the time.”

  “Grant’s a good man.”

  “I know. It’s why I sent him that email,” he said.

  I furrowed my brow again and tilted my head.

  “Email?” I asked.

  “I have something to admit, Theresa. And I know it’s going to make you angry but hear me out. Okay?”

  “What did you do, Dad?”

  “When things started going south with you and Ike a few years in, I had Hollis keep an eye on you.”

  “Seriously?” I asked.

  “Hollis told me about that time he broke up something between you two in the parking lot of some restaurant or whatever, and I figured that would be enough to get you out of that situation. But he kept coming around. And there was talk of him moving in. And I knew he wasn’t good for you, princess. Something in him changed. We all saw it.”

  “What did you do?” I asked.

  “I sent Grant an email.”

  “You what?”

  “It just sort of happened. Hollis has been emailing back and forth with him for years. I was at Hollis’ one day peering over his shoulder, and I saw Grant’s email. And I figured if Hollis couldn't talk sense into you and I couldn't, that maybe he could.”

  “Wait, are you telling me that’s why Grant was in town?”

  “I told him you needed him. That’s it. And I knew when he got into town he would figure out why.”

  “You told him I needed him?”

  I took a step back into the kitchen counter and planted my hands on the edge.

  “I knew Grant would come back to help, and I knew you would listen to him. But I didn’t think things would escalate like this. I didn’t think he would—that he would still have that crush on you. I didn’t think things would develop like they did, and I panicked again. His life is in Boston, and I was afraid you’d run off to be with him and I’d lose you like I lost your mom.”

  “But Dad, I’m not your wife, I’m your daughter. And Mom is dead, gone for good. If I moved to Boston, it’s a five-hour drive, not a permanent removal from your life. I’m supposed to grow up and move on and live my own life.”

  He nodded sadly. “I know honey, and I’m sorry I’ve tried to hold you back from that for so long.”

  I still couldn’t believe that he had been the reason Grant had come to town. And I couldn’t believe that Grant had lied to me about it. That he had been here to try and push me away from Ike and he hadn’t come clean with me. Just another man trying to push me in the direction he wanted me to go.

  “I know I’ve tried to control certain aspects of your life, and for that I am sorry, but I won’t apologize for doing whatever it is I could do to get you away from Ike for good. I will never apologize to you for that.”

  My head was spinning with all the information coming my way.

  “I’ll find Grant, and I’ll apologize to him. I know you want me to, and I know he deserves it. He deserves to know that I didn’t think he was just garbage to be thrown away.”

  I felt my father’s arms drape around me one last time and I hugged him close. My ribcage and the bruising on my thighs still hurt. I choked back my tears, not wanting to cry into his chest. I came here in strength, and I would leave here in strength.

  But I wanted to sink to my knees and cry.

  “I love you, Princess.”

  “I love you too, Dad.”

  “And when you have this conversation with Hollis, go easy on him. I only saw you in the hospital, but he saw that man on you. It’s going to take him a while to get over seeing his sister like that.”

  I nodded against his chest before I stepped away. But my priorities had changed. Grant kept something from me, and I needed to know why. I looked over at the clock and saw it wasn’t quite noon yet. There was a chance Grant was still at the hotel

  “Do you want to get some lunch or something?” my father asked.

  “How does dinner tonight sound? I’ve got somewhere I need to go first,” I said.

  “Whatever you want is fine. But it would be nice to sit and have a nice conversation with my daughter.”

  I smiled up at my father before I made my way to the front door, feeling more at ease in his presence than I had in years.

  “Put me down for six tonight. But you’re buying,” I said.

  “Then we’ll go out for a nice steak!” my father called after me.

  I shut the front door behind me, but a weight hadn’t lifted from my shoulders. One burden had replaced the other, and I was very upset. Grant had lied to me about why he was in town. I could see in the beginning why he wouldn’t want to tell me. Hollis had tried to get me to leave Ike before, and I had bucked him. I probably wouldn’t have listened to Grant anyway, especially since it had been so damn long since I’d seen him.

  But after what we’d shared, after what we’d admitted we’d felt for one another, why wouldn’t he just tell me? Did he think I’d be angry and tell him to go? Probably, but it didn’t excuse anything. He knew I was tired of other people controlling my life. Why would he not come clean and deal with the consequences with me?

  I was going to find him, and I was going to ask him all those questions.

  And he was damn well going to tell me the truth this time.

  CHAPTER 28

  GRANT

  I decided to stay one extra day in case Theresa called and wanted to talk. But that wasn’t the only reason why I was staying. I wasn’t ready to return to Boston yet, because I knew once I did, I wouldn’t be able to pull away for a while. And if there was any chance that I could run into Theresa one last time, this had to be it. Once I returned, work would bog me down more than ever, and it would be weeks—possibly months—before I’d make it back up this way.

  If anyone wanted me to.

  I sat at the table overlooking the ocean and clicked through some documents. Some financial issues had arisen that Matt called me about a few minutes after Theresa had left. When I set out to start my own construction company, I had a job as a foreman, learning the ropes, excelling at the trade. I wanted knowledge of what it was like to work for the company so I could have some empathy for those I would eventually employ. I became good friends with the owner who then became my mentor, the man who helped me start my own company out of Boston. He taught me everything he knew, and in return, we partnered up on some projects that bolstered both of our reputations.

  Matt had gotten an email from him, and it wasn’t good.

  My mentor was dying. It had been coming for a while. No one comes away unscathed when breathing in floating insulation and dust for the years he had. But he was reaching out to see if I was interested in purchasing his company. He had never married and had no children, and there was no one for him to pass on his company to. He was giving me the option to buy out his company and merge us into one massive conglomerate.

  And I was considering it.

  I had all the financials for the company pulled up to se
e if we could afford something like this. It would be a massive move in the right direction for us, but it also had to be at the right price. I wanted to do right by this man. He was the only other male figure in my life I even remotely considered parental, and I wanted to make sure he could die at ease, knowing his legacy would be taken care of.

  If I took this on, that would be why I couldn't come back into town. I would need to be there for the merger, the acquisition of new clients, and projects that were still works in progress. I’d have to retrain multiple employees and possibly build a new headquarters that would fit everyone and all the equipment we would acquire.

  I couldn't be in Bar Harbor chasing the woman I had fallen in love with.

  The only woman I’d ever loved, really.

  But a knock at my hotel door pulled me from my thoughts. The knock was rapid-fire, harsh, and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I figured it was Hollis using his cop skills to track me down and lay me out. I was ready, though. I knew the longer I stayed, the greater chance I had of running into him.

  And if he thought I was going to back down because he was my friend, he was sorely mistaken.

  I got up and yanked open the door, poised and ready to do battle with my best friend. But instead of Hollis, I found Theresa.

  And she looked pissed.

  “You’re still here,” she said.

  “I am.”

  “Good. We need to talk.”

  She pushed past me, and my gaze followed after her. She had a fire in her eyes and power in her stance. I gathered from her demeanor that things hadn’t gone well with her father. Or Hollis. Or whoever the hell she had decided to talk to first.

  It wasn’t until she turned back around to face me that I saw her anger directed at me.

  “Why did you come into town, Grant?”

  I furrowed my brow as I shut the door to the room.