With Strings Attached (26 page)

“This asshole’s bothering you,” he muttered. “Come on, buddy, let’s you and me take a walk outta here.” He grabbed the man’s jacket. Corey blinked at Matt’s show of aggression. Not that he was a wimp, far from it, but it was unusual for him to get physical in response to a problem. Usually he cracked a joke and made everyone laugh. But not this time. She eyed his bulging biceps beneath the short sleeves of his T-shirt, suddenly very aware of the size difference between him and Mr. Markham, who was not a small man by any means, but who was completely dominated by Matt’s height and muscle.

“Hey!” Mr. Markham lifted his arm in a sharp movement that dislodged Matt’s grip. Huh. Mr. Markham wasn’t a wimp either. Matt growled again and charged the guy.

“Stop! Stop! What are you doing?” Corey cried. “Matt stop, he’s a customer!”

“He’s an asshole,” Matt said again. “He was looking at you.”

“Oh for…”

“I’m not an asshole,” Mr. Markham snapped back, the two of them nose to nose. Though Matt definitely outweighed him, he wasn’t intimidated. “And I wasn’t looking at her like that, you idiot.”

“Oh yeah, you were…”

“He helped me!” Corey told Matt, her hands clutched together in front of her. “Another guy was bugging me, and he helped me…”

“I don’t give a shit,” Matt snarled. “Get lost or I’m gonna punch your face in, you creep.”

“This is ridiculous,” Mr. Markham said. “I’m not trying to pick her up, for Chrissake! She’s my daughter!”

Chapter Seventeen

Corey froze. What did he say?
“She’s my daughter”?
Who was he talking about? She glanced around but there was no other female there he could be referring to. Dear God, did he think
she
was his daughter? The man was deranged! What the hell was going on in the world lately?

“What the fuck?” Matt said, pausing. “Your daughter?”

“Yeah.” Mr. Markham grabbed Matt’s hands and pushed them away, forcefully but not violently. He turned to Corey. “I’m sorry, Corey. I didn’t intend for this to happen.” He shot Matt an annoyed glance.

She stared at him openmouthed. Tried to get some words out. Couldn’t. Couldn’t even put a sentence together in her head.

“What are you doing here?” Matt demanded, still ridiculously protective. Her heart tightened as she looked at his face.

Mr. Markham…was that his name? Because that wasn’t her dad’s name. Oh dear God. Her dad’s name was Mark. Mark Neely. This guy was Neil Markham. Oh Jesus! Everything inside her tightened as she connected the dots in a flash of realization. She covered her eyes with a shaky hand. “Why?” she croaked. “Why are you doing this?”

“I wanted to see you.” He spoke in a low voice.

A young couple approached her booth to look at her chocolates and Corey tried to gather up her scattered wits and deal with them, hyperaware of Mr. …uh…her dad…and Matt standing there stiffly, giving each other wary looks. When the couple had made their purchase and left, she looked at her father.

Her father.

“Why?” she whispered again.

“Do we have to have this conversation here?” he asked, his voice rough. His eyes were full of pain and his mouth was a straight line. “Could we meet for coffee or something when you’re done?”

“No.”

“Please, Corey. I’ll answer any questions you want me to. I’ll explain.” He pleaded with those sad eyes.

He’d seemed like a nice man. He’d bought so many chocolates from her and even though it had all been a little odd, she’d thought he seemed like a nice man. He’d rescued her from that lech earlier.

She looked at Matt.

“D’you want me to come with you?” he asked quietly.

She bit her lip. She hated to need him, but yeah, she wanted him there. Her mouth pushed out like she was going to cry and her eyes burned a little. She straightened her shoulders and opened her mouth so say no, but before she could, he snapped, “Never mind. I’m coming.”

She didn’t argue.

She glanced at her watch. “I only have a few boxes left. I should be done in half an hour. We can meet at the Black Bean Coffee Shop.”

“I know where it is.” Her father eyed her with a faintly shrewd look now. “I’ll head that way now and wait for you there.”

“Okay.”

He hesitated, as if unsure if she would really show up, then turned and walked across the park and disappeared between two booths.

She turned to Matt wide-eyed. “Oh my God.”

Matt gave her a crooked smile. “Jesus. I nearly punched your dad.”

“Oh my God.” She shook her head, unable to find any other words at that moment. She was distracted again by more customers and in a short time had sold out, meaning she could pack up and leave. Matt helped her.

“I can’t believe this, Matt. I told my mom I didn’t want to see him. Why would she do this? I’m going to have a few words for her…”

“Wait, Cor,” Matt said quietly, rubbing her back in a gesture that made her calm down a little. She took a deep breath. “Wait till you talk to him and find out what’s going on.”

“Okay.”

They put Corey’s boxes into her car in the parking lot, then walked the short distance to the Black Bean. They passed by the empty store Corey’d looked at and she cast a longing look at it, then hardened her heart against the disappointment. It wasn’t meant to happen right now, and things happened for a reason. It would all work out when the time was right. She didn’t know quite why the time wasn’t right just then, dammit, but… She sighed. It would work out.

Inside the nearly empty coffee shop, they spotted her father sitting at a table at the back with a cup of coffee in front of him. He saw them and nodded, and they paused at the counter to order coffees.

“Oh wait,” Corey said. “I can pay…”

“Corey.” Matt’s voice was clipped.

She nodded and picked up her cup, turned to walk through the café. She felt like she was walking through thick mud, her steps slow and labored as she moved toward the table where her dad sat.

Her dad. It seemed weird. She had no memories of him. There’d been no instant recognition or connection when they’d met. Although now she thought about it, he had looked at her…like he’d been studying her.

Her stomach tightened and burned inside, and her pulse raced as she sat at the table. “Hi,” she said.

“Hi.”

Matt pulled a chair up too and sat beside her.

“So this is your boyfriend,” her father said. “Care to introduce me?”

“He’s not…” The words got stuck in her throat and she coughed. “He’s a…friend.” For the first time ever, it didn’t feel right saying that. Matt was so much more than a friend. A wave of dizziness overtook her momentarily and she fought for lucidity. “This is Matt Ferber. Matt…my father. Mark Neely.”

They shook hands.

“Sorry about the, er…altercation back there,” Matt said with a smile that always charmed pretty much anyone. “I didn’t realize who you were. Of course.”

“Of course. Why would you?”

“Did Mom tell you where I live?” Corey burst out. “Because I told her not to.”

“She did not,” her dad answered. “She told me that she’d asked you and you didn’t want to see me. As far as she’s concerned it ended there.”

“Then…?”

“I hired a private investigator to find you,” he said. “It wasn’t that hard. I came here hoping to see you. Without you knowing. I just wanted to know you were okay, to know what you looked like…” He paused and his throat worked. He looked away briefly, then back. “I found out about your chocolate business so I thought that was a good pretext. I thought I’d just walk into your store, but then I found out you don’t really have one so it got a little complicated. That day you brought me the chocolates at the bed and breakfast…I was blown away to see you. Corey. You’re so beautiful.”

She looked down, heat washing into her face. “No, I’m not.”

Both men snorted and her head whipped up to see them exchanging an amused glance. Her eyes widened.

“I just wanted to see you again,” he continued. “So I came to the market. I’m sorry about that incident with that other guy. The way he was looking at you and talking to you was ticking me off.”

“Then you know how I felt,” Matt added dryly. Another male look passed between them. Corey’s mouth turned up at one corner.

“Yeah, I guess I do.”

She bent her head and looked down into her coffee for a moment, her head whirling with a complex mix of emotions and thoughts. “Why now…” She almost called him Dad, but it felt wrong to call a stranger that. Wrong, but yet…right. So she called him nothing. “Why did you decide after all this time you wanted to see me?”

He sighed. “I don’t know if I can even explain it in a way you’ll understand. I tried to tell your mother. I just turned fifty. It’s not like I’m dying or anything, but I started to feel like I needed to live the rest of my life in a better way. Without guilt and regret hanging over me.” He shrugged. “Maybe I’ll never be able to get away from that, but I’ve always felt like there was this hole in my life, like a piece of a puzzle missing, and I wanted to know…you. I wanted to fill in that hole. And I wanted to do something, to try to make it up to you. Or to at least apologize. I had no idea what I was going to find. I’ve had no contact with your mother or you since we divorced and that was nearly twenty years ago. I didn’t know about her breakdown.” His eyes searched her face and she saw the worry and guilt there. She didn’t want to soften toward him, but she did. A little. “I knew she was difficult to live with. Impossible, really. Impossible for me, anyway. I couldn’t deal with it. I’m not proud of it. I was young and selfish, but she really did have serious problems and I had no idea how to help her. I didn’t know she was ill. I’m so, so sorry, Corey.”

She nodded, a large lump in her throat aching.

“She told me about what happened to you two. How you got put into foster care.”

Corey’s throat tightened even more. “Did she tell you…?”

“Yes. That the families you were placed with weren’t…good.”

“Yeah. I guess you could say that.” The first family hadn’t been abusive, but she’d never felt any kind of love or affection from them. Just used. When they’d decided they couldn’t keep her in their home any longer, she’d been sent to another family, who had in fact been abusive. The first time the father had touched her inappropriately, she’d tried to pretend it hadn’t happened. The second time, she’d run.

His eyes got glossy and he looked like someone was pulling out his fingernails.

“I ran away,” she said. “When I was seventeen. I lived on the streets.” She met his eyes defiantly. She wasn’t ashamed of what she’d had to do to save herself.

Again he nodded. “She told me that.”

“It was a pretty scary life.” She looked down. “I think I was terrified every moment of every day. But it was better than what I’d run from. I got lucky. I got hooked up with a group that helps homeless kids. They were awesome. They don’t try to change your life, just help you, with food, and clothes and a place to have a hot shower once in a while. But if you want to change your life, they will help, and I did. They linked me up with another group that helps families with mental illness. They helped me finish high school and get into college. Get a job. Get a place to live.”

Matt reached out and took her hand in his. His was so big and warm, she knew hers must feel icy. She curled her fingers around his and absorbed his warmth. He knew all this. Few people in the world knew, but he did.

“I did it on my own,” she continued. “Mom wasn’t there for me. My foster parents weren’t there for me. And you sure as hell weren’t there for me.”

“You’re an amazing woman, Corey,” her father said quietly. “I don’t deserve to be proud of you because Lord knows I had no part in making you the woman you are, but even so…I am proud.”

“So am I,” she said in a tiny voice. She looked at Matt and met his eyes. He smiled, his eyes crinkling up, and warmth unfurled inside her.

“So am I,” he whispered. Their hands tightened.

She swallowed, once, twice, tried to get control of her voice. “So as you can see, I’m doing fine and you have no need to worry about me.”

“I want to help you, Corey.”

She shot him a puzzled look. “Help me?”

“Somehow. I want to do something for you. I want to help you because I was never there for you before.”

“I don’t need any help,” she said. “Especially from you.”

“I heard you telling Jasmine at the B&B about renting that store.”

She sat back in her chair. “Yeah.”

“Are you going to do it?”

Her mouth twisted. “No. I can’t afford it. The rent’s pretty high.”

“This seems like a nice neighborhood, though. Perfect for the kind of business you do.”

“Yes. It would be perfect. But…” She shrugged. “Timing’s not right.”

“I can loan you money.”

Once again her mouth dropped open. “Don’t be ridiculous. I said I don’t need any help and I don’t want your money.”

He leaned forward, his expression earnest. “I’m serious, Corey. I’m doing pretty well. I never paid a dime of child support to your mother. At the time I didn’t even think of it, I’m ashamed to say…and she never asked. When I got married and had two new stepdaughters, I realized how much I’d let you down. I’ve carried that guilt around for so long.”