Page 7 of Keeping Kyler
“What about Mum?” I ask. “How do you feel about her now?”
He ponders my question a minute. “I’m finding it difficult to accept she’s known I was your father for years and she chose not to tell me. I’m very angry with her over that.”
“Me, too. Although, I know she thought she was doing the best thing.”
“Yeah.” He sighs deeply. “I don’t doubt that. Saoirse had a big heart.” He scans my face. “You look so much like she did back then. You’re every bit as beautiful as she was.” He grins as I blush, and his hands twitch at his sides. I can tell he wants to reach out, but he’s afraid of startling me. “I couldn’t understand how she just disappeared for no apparent reason. I asked all her friends, but they didn’t have a clue where she was or what happened. I would’ve found James too, but her best friend told me he didn’t know where she was either. She broke my heart.”
“It broke her heart too,” I admit in a whisper, recalling Mum’s words.
“I never got over her. It seems disrespectful to my ex-wife to admit it, and I don’t mean it to come across like that, but your mum was the love of my life. The minute I met her I knew she was the one for me.”
Something strange occurs to me as I listen to him speaking. “Why don’t you sound Irish?”
His lips curve into another smile. “I’ve lived in the States since I was twenty-one. My wife is American, and I moved over here after I graduated from Trinity to work for her father’s company. I rose through the ranks quite quickly and had a senior management role within a couple of years. It was thought, by the powers that be, that I would fit in better and present more professionally in front of our clients if I didn’t sound so Irish. I had a personal voice coach for years. My mother hates my accent now, and I always make an extra effort to sound ‘Irish’ when I visit the folks back home.”
I gulp. “Your … your parents are still alive? I have grandparents?” My dad’s parents—Michael’s parents—both died within a year of each other when I was three. My memories of them are fleeting. And Mum’s parents died in a house fire when she was a teenager, so I’ve never known what it’s like to have grandparents.
“Yes. My parents had children at a relatively young age, and they are both only in their mid-sixties now. They are dying to meet you.”
Air knocks out of my lungs. “They know about me?”
His eyes crinkle with his smile. “Yes, they do. I phoned and told them after I met you that first time. I had to see you with my own eyes. To know it was the truth before I broke the news to them.”
“You didn’t say anything.” I wet my dry lips, thinking back to our first conversation in the diner. “Why?”
“Your mother asked me to let you make that call, and I was trying to respect her wishes, but it was so bloody hard, especially after what happened in the diner that night.”
An intense shiver slivers over my body, and I shudder uncontrollably. Any thought of David’s attempt on my life has the same effect on me, and I’m still getting nightmares at night.
He takes my hands in his. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up, but I’ve been so worried about you since it happened. I tried to see you in the hospital, but James wouldn’t let me. Then he explained that you didn’t know yet, and I knew I had to bide my time. But it was damn hard, Faye.” Tears well in his eyes, and I can’t stop my own from falling. “I nearly lost you just as I found you. He’s lucky I didn’t kill him with my bare hands, but I was more concerned about getting you the help you needed, so I had to let him get away.”
Tears clog my throat, and I’m struggling to hold my shit together.
“Can I hold you? Please?” he pleads. Although he’s still a stranger to me, in this moment, I need to be comforted. I need someone to help chase those horrific memories away. Slowly, I inch toward him, and he carefully wraps his arms around me. I keep my hands at my sides, face pressed against his chest, with my pulse racing wildly. We stay locked in our weird embrace for a few minutes until my sniffles have subsided and the moment passes. I ease back first. “Thank you for saving me,” I whisper, wiping the moisture under my eyes with the sleeve of my sweater. “I thought I was going to die.”
He brushes a lock of my hair back off my face, and I’m a mass of conflicted emotions. This is all too much to take in. “I’ll make sure nothing like that ever happens to you again. I don’t want to come the heavy, because I know you need time to adjust to all this, but I want you in my life, Faye. We’ve missed so much time already. You’re my daughter, and I want to be a father to you.” He pauses briefly. “You’re part of my family now, and the others can’t wait to meet their new sister.”
My breath hitches in my throat. “What?” I croak.
“You have a sister and two brothers in New York, and they are very excited to meet you.”
Chapter Three
Kyler
“Here are the keys. We’ll keep your bike in storage until you return. Thank you for your business, Mr. Kennedy.” The clerk hands me the keys to the rental, and I thank him with a terse jerk of my head.
I’m in no mood for conversation.
With anyone.
I fling my jacket on the backseat and get behind the wheel. My cell pings again. Removing it from my pocket, I stare at the latest message from Faye. She’s worried about me, and I’m an ass for not responding, but I know if I acknowledge her, it’ll start a conversation I’m not ready to have.
I can’t drag her into my shit.
She’s dealt with so much the last few months, and she’s only just come out the other side. She doesn’t need this.
I don’t need this. But I’ve got no choice. This is my new reality, and I can’t un-hear what I overheard. Can’t undo what’s been done.
