“Kayla isn’t my employee,” Angelica answered, her entire body tense. She knew this tone from her father, and it neverboded well. She was about to be put in her place. The real question was whether or not she’d stand here and take it.
“Ange, when I was working and in management, we never scolded employees, and we certainly didn’t do it in front of customers and other staff.” He hadn’t moved his gaze from her face.
Angelica’s heart raced. She couldn’t handle this. Not now. Not ever. She was a grown ass adult, and she shouldn’t be allowing her father to talk to her like she was a two-year-old again. This was why she’d left the house. This was why she rarely visited them.
“Again, Kayla isn’tmyemployee. If she was, she would have been fired years ago.” Angelica clenched her jaw tightly. “And I’m not going to hold back on that. She needs to know the danger she’s in with not only losing her job, but also losing her family.”
“Something you’re familiar with,” Harold said, a bite in his tone. “Family is more important than business.”
“Not when family is dragging the business down and taking everyone else around them under with it.” Angelica turned fully now, facing him and ignoring the fact that Kayla was still standing right there. The fight was no longer with her—this was with her father. “Not when family is the reason everything is breaking apart!”
All right, that last one might not have been about Kayla and her family. It might have been about Angelica and hers. Clenching her jaw tight, Angelica refused to back down. She didn’t want them here, and she certainly didn’t want her dirty laundry aired across the country into homes of people she never knew existed until last year.
“Family?” Harold leaned in, his lips quivering in anger. “I knew it was a mistake coming here.”
Angelica’s chest tightened suddenly. She shook her head at him. “Maybe it was a mistake.”
Harold scoffed and walked away. Angelica rocked back into her heels, realizing belatedly that she had moved closer to him, that she’d engaged in the fight that she wanted so much to avoid. She caught sight of her brother on the other side of the lobby. He didn’t seem happy, but then again, he never was when she and their father got into it. It wasn’t the first time, and Angelica was damn sure it wouldn’t be the last.
She waited until Harold was gone before storming in the other direction, needing a few minutes to herself with nothing poking at her to be someone she wasn’t. She stepped out of the doors and onto the patio of the hotel, letting the heat hit her cheeks and her body in the way it was meant to. Oppressive. Overwhelming. She breathed the dry heat and let it out slowly. She just had to find her calm center again, that place she could retreat to and still get the job done.
“Hey,” Christian said.
Angelica rolled her eyes. Her family could never just leave her alone when she needed time, could they? She said nothing to him as she stayed right where she was, but she did give him an annoyed glare.
“He’s just trying to help.”
“I don’t need his help,” Angelica hissed. “I need him to stay out of my business.”
Christian stepped next to her, shoulder to shoulder, as they looked out on the city surrounding them. “I never understood why you two didn’t get along.”
Angelica sighed heavily. This wasn’t the time that she wanted to actually talk about it. If she had a choice in the matter, she’d never bring it up. It was in the past, and that’s where she’d like to leave it. “You were always the one they loved.”
“They love you.”
“They tolerate me.” As did most of the world, if she were being brutally honest about her life. She didn’t have closefriends. She hadn’t managed to keep a relationship longer than a year, not one that was serious anyway. Angelica crossed her arms, sweat pooling at the small of her back as the heat finally took its hold of her. “You’ve always been the golden child.”
“Not because I wanted to be.”
“I know,” she answered quickly. “Dad is…well, he is who he is, and I don’t anticipate that he’ll ever change. But I’m not going to fight him to accept me for who I am either.”
“He loves you, Ange.”
She turned on him then, looking him over. In so many ways he was still the small boy that she’d left at home when she’d moved away to go to college, the kid who didn’t know or understand the real world. He’d always listened to their parents. He’d always done what they told him to do and believed what they told him to believe.
“I’m not saying he doesn’t.” Angelica steadied herself. “But I’m not going to be the person he wants me to be, ever. And he needs to accept that.”
“Who do you think he wants you to be?”
Straight. Married. A parent. Demure. Easier.
All those words crossed through her mind in a split second, but she couldn’t force them to her lips. All her life she’d worked to protect her baby brother, and now was no different than before. She shook her head slowly and faced the city again. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does.” Christian touched Angelica’s shoulder lightly. “We miss you. I miss you.”
She gave him a watery smile and leaned her head against his shoulder. “I miss you, too.”
And she did. She missed the family that she had and the family that she didn’t have. Seeing the way Hope and Rex took such special care with Eva only brought that home. They were there for Eva every moment that she needed them. And Angelicanever had that when she was growing up. Christian wrapped his arm around her shoulders in a side hug and squeezed her tightly.
