Page 75 of Just What She Needed

"I had a shit summer. It's taken a while to get over it."

"Yeah? You were back in Chicago, right? What happened to Dallas?"

Even lukewarm the beer felt good going down his throat, and he drank for a minute or two before replying.

"Sienna happened. When I was there for her high school graduation, she told me she wanted to spend the summer with me before she went off to university. Said I never spent any time with her, and I owed it to her. But she refused to go to Dallas, so I ended up back in Chicago."

"Hey, still. Must've been nice to see your kid all summer long."

"Would've been if any of that had been true." He realized he was almost chugging the beer and forced himself to dial it back. "I saw her all of six times, and even then she was bored out of her skull and couldn't wait to get back to her friends."

Drew drummed his heels against the support pole under where he sat. "Then what the hell, man?"

"Hayley, that's what. When she got divorced, she decided she wanted me back. I let her know in no uncertain terms that was never going to happen, but you know Hayley."

Drew's only answer was a rude noise, and Rhys had to grin.

"The bad part is that she told Sienna, and apparently made it sound like it was a done deal. She even brought her to New York the day after we played Boston."

"New York." Drew sounded uncertain. "Was that when...? Wait, I remember. We played Boston, and then we had a night off before three shows at MSG. Yeah." The drumming of his heels came to a sudden stop. "Oh, fuck. You had Hellcat with you in New York, didn't you?"

"Got it in one. Sienna lost her shit when she saw Rhett. I mean, she completely flipped out. I guess I should have seen that was why she wanted me in Chicago for the summer, but I couldn't believe my own kid would manipulate me like that. At the time I just thought it was seeing me with someone else. She's never met any of the women I've dated."

"None of them? Not even Shannon?"

Rhys laughed in surprise. "Fuck no, definitely not Shannon. You know as well as I do she was a psycho bitch."

Drew's soft laughter joined in. "Yeah, but you didn't know that going in."

"I sure as hell did," Rhys corrected him. "But I didn't care because she was fun. Until she wasn't." He finished his beer and rolled the bottle between his palms. "But that wasn't why Sienna pressured me into moving." He felt rather than saw Drew's head turn toward him question. "She thought if I was in Chicago then I'd fall lovingly into Hayley's waiting arms, and all would be well. I didn't find out about all that until the night before I came out here, and I kind of let Sienna have it. Now she's not speaking to me. And there you have it. How I Spent My Summer Vacation, Fucked Up Edition."

"Bad shit, man. I'm sorry. Uh, how old was Sienna when you and Hayley split up? She wasn't walking yet, was she?"

"Yeah, but just barely. And I guess that's what confuses me most about all this. There's no way she has any memories of when her mother and I were married. And we're hardly able to be civil around one another when we do have to interact."

"Maybe that's why she wants you back together. Especially if Hayley's putting ideas in her head."

"Why? She doesn't have happy memories to draw from. Hell, I was fourteen when my parents divorced, and I never wanted them back together. Even though I do have good memories of my childhood, I saw how much happier they were apart."

"Maybe that's it." Drew resumed drumming his heels on the post. "Sienna's never seen you happy with anyone else. Maybe part of her thinks you were just waiting around for her mom to divorce ol' Stick-Up-His-Ass."

Rhys lay back on the rough boards of the deck with his hands laced behind his head. "Never thought of that. I suppose that was one part of why she freaked out when she saw Rhett."

"Speaking of, how's Hellcat dealing with all this baby-mama drama?"

Rhys tried to make his tone light and unaffected. "Wouldn't know. I haven't spoken to her in several months."

"Oh." The simple word spoke volumes. "Sorry, dude. At the risk of having to turn in my Man Card, can I just say I thought y'all were great together?"

"At the risk of having to set my Man Card on fire, can I just say you were right?" He couldn't repress a heavy sigh. "I really thought maybe she and I would...Well, that's over now, anyway."

"If it was me, I'd call her."

"Doubt she'd answer. She knew what Sienna was up to. I don't know if she knew Sienna wanted Hayley and me back together, but she knew the kid was trying to break us up. She kind of hinted around at it before I left Dallas, and I wasn't cool about it. Then when I got to Chicago, she said there really wasn't any point in maintaining contact since we were so far apart and wouldn't see each other, and she called it quits."

"Shit, Rhys." Drew turned to face him. "What'd you say?"

"I was too busy throwing my phone against the wall to say anything. I'm sure she thinks I'm insane."