This is good. Safe flirting, no pressure. I can’t even begin to arrange to meet him until I’m back in Nashville.
I tell him I need to get to work, and log out of the app. Grinning, I grab my laptop and set it up on the little desk behind the couch. I’m still not sure what’s going on with Zander, but I’m just not going to think about it. I’m going to focus on work and put him from my mind for as long as I can.
Once my laptop turns on, I go into my email to check for any messages. I have several, but as I scroll through them, my eyes land on a familiar name and I freeze.
Colin Doyle.
Dad.
What the hell does he want?
He hasn’t reached out in months. He used to a couple times a week when he first left the States. I tried at first, but then he got remarried and it was the nail in the coffin for me. Mom never said anything, but I know it hurt her. I wasn’t interested in talking to him after that, so I ignored most of his attempts. Eventually, he stopped trying so hard and now I might get a message from him twice a year - on Christmas and my birthday.
Never out of the blue like this.
Curiosity gets the better of me and I open the email.
Hello Rylee,
I hope you’re doing well, my girl. It has been so long since I’ve seen you, and I miss you terribly. I thought I would extend an invitation to spend Christmas with me here in Ireland. I’m inviting your brother as well, and though I know it’s abit of a long shot, I’d love to have all my children here for the holiday. I would pay for your ticket and make all the necessary arrangements, so you wouldn’t need to worry about any of that. You could come here and enjoy yourself without stress, and we could spend time together. Let me know if you’d like to take me up on the invitation - I truly hope you do.
I hope I hear from you soon, sweetheart.
Love,
Dad
I stare at the email a moment before letting out a growl of anger and clicking out of it. Seriously? We’ve hardly spoken in years, and he has a new family now. Suddenly he wants to pretend he’s my dad? What the fuck? He hasn’t made that much of an effort to be in my life since he and Mom split and he took off back to Ireland, leaving me and Aiden behind. Speaking of, does he really think he has a chance in hell of convincing Aiden to go to Ireland for Christmas? Aiden doesn’t even come home to Nashville!
The only consistent thing the men in my family are capable of is disappointment. My Dad, my brother… they’ve all fallen short and left Mom and I to clean up the pieces of the lives they shattered. I’m definitely not going to Ireland - I’m not even going to tell Mom about the invite. She doesn’t like talking about Dad anyway and always says my relationship with him is my own. She doesn’t need to have anything to do with it.
Shaking my head, I shove away from the desk and stand to pace. Pain and fury swirl inside me and it’s overwhelming and I hate it. I hate him!
He doesn’t matter. I don’t need to think of him. I just need to focus on work. To help clear my head, I go to my room and grabmy journal, flipping to a new page so I can pour my heart out where no one else can see.
Dad really thinks Ireland at Christmas will fix everything?I scribble angrily.Does he think we live in a fucking Hallmark movie? That we’ll spend a little time together and everything will magically be okay? I don’t know why he bothers to keep trying at all. It’s a waste of both our time.
Once I’ve purged myself onto the page,I grab my phone and decide to get my call with Juliet out of the way first. I dial her number and relax back in my chair as it rings. Gizmo comes trotting up to me and hops up onto the desk, plopping down right on the keyboard of my laptop.
“Hey!” I reach up and gently push him off the computer.
At that moment, Juliet answers the phone.
“Rylee! How are you doing?”
“I’m good, Juliet,” I reply, grabbing Gizmo to remove him from the desk completely, and flinching at my overly chipper and cheerful tone of voice. “Just wanted to give you an update on the articles.”
“Yes, great! What do you have?”
I give her an overview of the notes I have and my schedule for the next two weeks. We also go over the details for tomorrow and Zander’s photo shoot, which should be pretty straightforward as far as tech and what shots we’re going to want to get.
“I’m going to get some action shots at their season opener,” I explain. “Also I’m setting up the full team shots for the following week. By then I should have all the one-on-one interviews done too.”
“That sounds like steady progress,” she tells me, and I feel a surge of pride. “How about the Bachelor of the Year article? How’s that coming along?”
My stomach twists and when I answer, I’m struggling not to let my anxiety, over that part of this assignment, show in my voice.
“It’s, uh, coming along,” I carefully say. “I need to spend more time with the… bachelor. Do a more in depth interview. We’ve also got his photoshoot scheduled for tomorrow.”
