Page 71 of Just What She Needed

"So you're okay with waiting to see me until Illicit plays Dallas next year? You're okay with your daughter handing down a fatwa that means you can only be with me one night a year?" She pulled her hand from his and stood up, cupping her elbows in her palms. "I'm certainly not okay with that."

Rhys stood, too, and firmed his lips. "I thought you'd understand better than anyone. You know what it's like not to have your dad in your life."

Her arms dropped to her sides in shock. "That's not the same thing at all. You can't compare yourself to a man who abandoned his family and never looked back. You're a part of your children's lives, you always have been."

"But not enough. I've rarely been there day to day, and that's what Sienna needs from me now. She wants that security of having me there for her without my running off for months at a time. She needs my undivided attention as her father, and not someone who's distracted by other things. I've never been there for her the way she needs, and I can't deny her that now."

Oh, the kid had really done a number on him, searching out all the guilt buttons to push that would put him firmly under her manicured little thumb. Rhett might have bought into it herself save for the fact that Sienna relegated her to nothing more than a distraction in Rhys's life. She threw her hands up in surrender.

"Fine, Rhys. Move to Chicago. Turn me into a one night a year fuck. It's your choice. But remember this." She blinked away the hot tears that stung her eyes. "I'm not the one forcing you to make a choice."

She couldn't stay there another minute knowing he was walking out of her life. And if those conniving bitches in Chicago had their way, he was walking out for good. There was no way she would let him see how he was ripping her apart, and she stumbled out of the condo for the last time before Sienna Collinsworth won by having Rhys watch Rhett fall to pieces in front of him.

26

My son ain't going to be miserable, because he's going to be the child of a rock star, the end.—Noel Gallagher

A glissando of synthesized notes announced a new text message, but Rhett refused to let herself glance at her phone. Instead, she kept her attention focused on the monitor of her laptop as though reconciling her bank statement was of national importance. Her eyes scanned the scant information it contained while she listened with half an ear to the rerun of the television show Mel was watching. Garcia and Morgan flirted back and forth but Rhett wasn’t in a frame of mind to concentrate of the storyline.

The phone chirped at her again to remind her that a text had come in. Like she could forget. Again, she pretended to ignore it.

Abrupt silence descended as Mel muted the TV, and Rhett braced herself.

"You're not going to check that?"

Without taking her eyes from her computer, Rhett shook her head. "Not right now."

"When's the last time you talked to him?"

"Last week, the day he left."

"Have you even responded to any of his texts?"

"A couple."

Mel didn't respond for a moment but indicated her exasperation with a sigh worthy of a soap opera diva. The sounds of Criminal Minds came back as Mel un-muted the sound but was cut short when she turned the set completely off right in the middle of a sexy murmured "baby girl" from that super-hot Shemar Moore.

"Look," Mel said. "I get it. You're pissed off. But he deserves better than this."

Rhett glanced at her sister but had to look away from the compassion she saw in her eyes. "I'm not pissed off. Not at him, anyway," she added under breath.

"Then why won't you talk to him?"

"Because I can't do anything about it." Rhett logged out of her bank's website and shut the lid of her laptop.

Mel huffed out a sound of impatience. "Not if you don't talk to him or read his texts."

After a glare at her sister, Rhett picked up her phone and turned on the screen.

One of these days I'm going to quit trying, you know.

A quick, sharp pain stabbed her heart, and she put her hand over her eyes. "Maybe you should," she whispered.

"What'd he say?" Mel asked.

In answer, Rhett tossed the cell phone to her so she could read the text from Rhys.

When Mel spoke again, her voice lost its lecturing tone. "Is that what you want?"