Chapter Twenty-Seven
Harrison
I opened the door to find Caroline standing on the other side. She wore sweats and a T-shirt. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail. Even though she was dressed down, she still managed to look more alluring each time I saw her. I leaned down and gave her a kiss as she stepped inside. “It smells good in here. Steak?”
I closed the door behind her. “Filet Mignon. I’m not much of a chef, but I learned a few things throughout my lifetime. Medium rare, right?”
“Yes. There is no other way.”
I smiled and led her into the front room. “Make yourself at home. I will be in the kitchen finishing up our meal.”
“OK.”
I left her to herself as I walked back into the kitchen. The steaks sizzled on the skillet as I seasoned them to perfection. I was happy with the way things were going between us. I didn’t like her living in that apartment just as much as she didn’t like it, but I felt it was too soon to ask her to move in with me. That definitely would not be taking things slow, so I used a little discretion before I jumped the gun. Fifteen minutes had passed before I heard the doorbell ring. I had just finished the steaks, and I slid them onto our plates. “Caroline, would you mind grabbing that for me?”
“No problem.”
Just as I put our food on the table, Caroline stepped into the kitchen with a befuddled look. “Um,” she said, cautiously, “there is a woman here to see you. She said that she is… she is Sarah’s mom.”
I exhaled, then tossed one of the dish towels onto the table. “I can’t believe this shit.” I stormed past Caroline and headed straight to the front door. She stood on the other side with another expensive, designer purse on her arm. I stepped outside and closed the door behind me. “What the fuck did I tell you, Susan? Stay the fuck away from my home!”
“Who was that, Harrison?”
“None of your damned business! What is wrong with you? Why do you keep coming back here?!”
“Because we have unfinished business.”
“I don’t have any business with you.”
She grabbed a pack of cigarettes from her purse and lit the end of a stick. The inhaled the smoke as the embers glowed in front of me. In a cloud, she blew the smoke from her mouth. It had fluttered in the air before it disappeared. “I want to give us another shot.”
I laughed out loud in disbelief. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. Is this a joke? Please tell me this is a fucking joke! You… no way. No. I refuse to believe you are serious.”
“I’ve just been thinking about things, Harrison, and I know we were right for each other, it was just the wrong time. I mean, I was young. We were both young, so what did you expect? For things to be perfect?”
“No, but I didn’t expect you to vanish like a fucking ghost and leave me alone to raise our daughter.”
“Our daughter,” she said, smiling as she looked to the side. It seemed as though she was recollecting memories of Sarah. I wanted to snatch them out of her head with my bare hands. She fixed her attention back on me. “Do you have any pictures of her or anything? I would love to see how she looked.”
“Then maybe you should have brought your ass around before now. Listen, I don’t know why I am even wasting my time talking to you. You came back over here to start over, and now you are talking about MY daughter? Seriously. You need to go.”
“Wait,” she said, reaching for me as I stepped into the house.
I jerked my arm away from her. “No! I know I have told you before, but if you bring your ass around here one more time, I will call the police and report you as a trespasser. If that doesn’t get through to you, then I have a Mossberg that does not have a problem speaking to intruders when I can’t seem to find the words to say to them. Get the fuck off my property, Susan.”
I slammed the door in her face and walked back into the kitchen. Caroline nervously sat at the table as I charged into the room. I grabbed the skillet off the stove and threw it into the sink. It clanged into the dirty dishes and broke a plate before it settled down at the bottom of the sink. I pressed my hands against the edge, gripping onto it like it was Susan’s throat. Before long, Caroline approached me from behind. I felt her hand on my back before she spoke. “Harrison?”
I quickly turned around. “She has some FUCKING nerve! After all these years. All these years!? Sarah is fucking dead, and she wants to come back now?! I should’ve killed her right there! I should’ve strangled her right there on the porch! I guarantee you there is not a judge or jury that would’ve convicted me!” I was steaming and through it all, Caroline remained silent. She scooted closer to me and placed her hand on my stomach. I cried tears of anger as she tried to calm me down. “This is fucking ridiculous! You know what?” I stepped away from her and marched back to the front door, hoping she was still there.
Caroline trailed behind me, but when I opened the door, she was gone. “Don’t fucking come back!” I yelled. My voice had echoed throughout the neighborhood moments before I slammed the door shut.
“Baby,” Caroline said softly, “so that was her? Wow. I mean, Sarah told me so little about her. She said that she hated her for leaving, but at one point, she still wanted to see her because she never got the chance. It is kind of eerie that I got to see her mother and she never did. She looked just like Sarah though. Just a much older version.”
“Fuck her,” I said as I walked briskly back to the kitchen. Caroline followed me as she had been doing the whole time. “Fuck her. Fuck everything about her. Everything!” I said, slamming my fist into the table. Caroline sat beside me, staring off into the distance as I spewed out hateful words towards Susan. Before long, I simmered down and focused on Caroline. “I’m sorry, babe,” I said, reaching my hand to hers. “I’m sorry. I just kind of lost it when she came here. This was the second time, and I thought she would get the picture the first time I told her to leave, but she didn’t. I’m sorry you had to see that, and I am sorry for scaring you if I did.”
“No,” she said with a glazed look in her eyes, “you don’t have to apologize. I mean, I found myself getting angry at her just listening to you. I can’t imagine what I would’ve done if one of my parents just decided to walk out of my life because they wanted to. I needed both of them growing up and that… that just wasn’t fair to Sarah. She deserved a mother and a father.”
“Yeah,” I said with a deep sigh. “Yeah, she did. I did the best I could do as her father and–”
“And you did a fucking great job, Harrison. You did better than great. You raised Sarah alone, got her through college and provided for her by starting a million-dollar business. You have done a great fucking job. Nothing else.”
I appreciated her. She was always there to calm me down, and she was proving to be the perfect balance to my life. “Thank you, Caroline. Truly. I don’t know where I would be without you right now. I think I would be a complete mess, especially with what happened to Sarah. I would be a complete mess.”
“Well, I would have, too. Sarah was the only family that I had, and when she left, I thought my world was going to fall apart. I mean, it did to some extent, but for the most part, you were there to help me put the pieces back together. We were there for each other.”
I focused on her. A few strands of hair were out of place and dangled over her forehead. Her soft eyes looked back at me, patiently waiting for me to say anything else about us, but I couldn’t. There weren’t any words that could explain what she meant to me or how she made me feel. I looked down at my plate of food. “So, I guess we should probably eat now.”
She smiled. “Yes, I agree. I can’t wait to taste what my chef came up with.”
We dug into our meal. When we finished, we walked to the front room and crashed on the couch. “That was amazing, Harrison. Are you sure you aren’t a chef? Seriously?”
I laughed. “Flattery will get you nowhere, Caroline. However, I appreciate it.”
She kissed me on the cheek, then nestled onto my shoulder. “You know, I was thinking about something I promised you a while ago that I never got to do.”
“What?”
“Helping you clean out Sarah’s room. Did you take care of that already?”
“Um, no, I didn’t. I just um… I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. But, I will one of these days. It’s nothing big.”
She laughed. “I remember a time when I was sleeping over with Sarah in her room. I think we were like 15 or 16 years old and you came into the room with a small T-shirt on. I know you probably don’t remember, but I do. Anyways, I was staring at you the whole time Sarah was talking to you, and I was just thinking how sexy you were back then. I was just like, ‘Oh my God, why is this old man so cute?’ So, when you left the room, Sarah turned around and asked me why I didn’t say anything to you when you said goodnight. I just told her that I didn’t notice that you said anything because I was too busy undressing you with my eyes.”
I laughed out loud as she continued. “She was so mad at me that night, but she had to understand because all the girls in our school had googly eyes when they looked at you. You were like… I don’t know; you looked better than most of the boys in our school. It seems crazy that I ended up with you down the road, you know? Like, if I contacted some of the girls I went to school with and told them that we were seeing each other, I wonder what they would think?”
“I don’t know,” I said, smiling. “I would like to say that I thought you were cute back then, but I feel weird saying that since you were underage back then. But, you were a cutie, and you turned into an absolutely stunning young woman.”
She blushed as I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. She slowly moved her lips onto mine as my hand shifted to her thigh. I gripped them tightly as I climbed on top of her. “Remember where we left off when you came to my apartment,” she asked with her lips moments away from mine, “I think this is a good time to pick up at that spot.”
“This is a perfect time.” I ran my hand through her hair and connected my lips with hers again. I had a lot to give her and tonight was the night for it all.