Her mind wandered back to Mitch and his son. She felt for him but there wasn’t much she could do.
Or was there?
She got her phone out and did a quick search for Kyle Ripley on social media. She found him in the list of people who came up and clicked to look at his posts, but they were private. So much for that. What was the girlfriend’s name? Addison?
Harper took a sip of wine, then did a search for her. A list of people came up. Based on Mitch’s description and the number of followers he’d said she had, Harper found her after some serious looking. She clicked to check out her profile and posts.
Harper’s brows lifted. Addison was everything Mitch had said and then some. She had a Barbie doll kind of look. That overdone, plasticky sort of appearance that reminded Harper of so many wannabe starlets.
It wasn’t good. The look was rampant in L.A. but Harper didn’t get it. Why make yourself look like a generic fantasy? Hollywood loved beauty, but it also loved a unique look. Those were the people who became real stars. The ones with character in their faces.
This young woman would probably never amount to much more than a social media influencer, which was sad. Maybe she’d get some sponsors. Harper scrolled through her posts. It seemed she already had some. Various cosmetics and skin care, some kind of energy drink, an athletic wear company.
Nothing Harper had heard of before, and with her job and celebrity connections, she felt like she stayed on top of whatever was hot and trending, most of the time.
She found some older posts with Kyle in them. He had Mitch’s bone structure. Longer, shaggier hair and eyes that Harper could only think of as sad.
Was he sad? Was he, like his father, still grieving? Or was that sadness because of the life choices he’d made?
The more Harper looked at Addison’s posts, the more she wondered if Kyle’s attitude toward his father had been partially influenced by the young woman he was involved with. It seemed to Harper that Addison would want to highlight Kyle’s famous father. It could only bring her more clicks.
Harper scrolled deeper and found a few posts where Mitch had been mentioned, but they were years old and there were only two of them.
Just for kicks, Harper followed Addison.
“Thirteen now,” Willa said without looking up.
“New followers?”
“Yep.”
“Congrats.” Harper smiled and, out of habit, clicked on her email. There were five new messages. Two were junk mail, two were from clients requesting Zoom meetings and one was an answer to the message she’d sent to Buck.
Her pulse ticked up. She should probably wait to read it with Frankie, but Frankie was occupied, and Lucas’s house was no place to get into such a thing.
With no small amount of trepidation, she opened the email and began to read.
Hello Harper and Frankie!
To say I’m stunned that you’ve written to me is an understatement. The young woman who reached out to me, Willa, is she your daughter? She didn’t say.
What I can tell you is that I am definitely your father. Just typing that sends a shiver through me. I gave up hope of everfinding either of you years ago. Your mother, Sharlene, did her best to keep that from happening.
I don’t know what, if anything, she told you about me, but my gut says any information she shared with you is probably wrong. At the very least, it’s slanted to put her in a better light. I don’t mean to disparage her, just speaking the truth. We had a rocky relationship at the best of times. Her not including me on either of your birth certificates is a great example of how she treated me.
Not making excuses for my own behavior. I made plenty of bad decisions in my twenties and paid the price. If Sharlene didn’t tell you about that, I’ll be upfront. I spent time in prison for a bank robbery. There’s a lot more to it than that, but I won’t go into it here.
Thankfully, those years are behind me, and I have moved on. I currently work as a first mate on a charter fishing boat on Jekyll Island, Georgia. Been with the captain for nine years now. I am grateful that he doesn’t care about my age or my past and is willing to let me work.
I’ve gone on long enough. Ask me whatever you’d like to know, and I’ll tell you. I won’t keep any secrets from you girls. Good, bad, or ugly, you deserve to know the truth. I pray you’ve had good lives. I think of you often. I never stopped loving you.
I would be happy to know anything about you that you’d like to share. What you do for work, if you’re married, have children, pets, anything and everything. I don’t care how small.
Also, if you need money, I have a small amount saved up. My wife knows it’s been set aside in case we ever reconnected. Her name is Glenda, by the way. She’s a church secretary at the church we attend.
Sincerely,
Buck
