Page 29 of Heartstruck at Dawn
“Good evening, Mr. Murphy,” Caleb said, taking a few steps back and holding his hands in a tight fist in front of him. The lines of his face were cold as stone.
“Good evening, Caleb,” my father replied with an equally leveled tone.Shit! “You look lovely tonight.” He kissed my cheek. “Don’t you agree, Caleb?”
Dad!What the hell!
Caleb cleared his throat, noticeably uncomfortable. My fatherwasexpecting an answer because he wasn’t looking away from him.
“Ah—” Caleb hesitated, unable to find the correct answer to my father’s trick question.
“Dad, we’re going to be late. We should go,” I suggested instead, grabbing his arm. My father gave Caleb one last look and asked him to lock my apartment after grabbing my purse. Caleb had a key, and I’m sure my father regretted that decision.
If this is how my father reacted to a simple hug, imagine if he knew about all theother stuffthat happened.
But there wasn’t going to be anystuffhappening with Caleb anymore. I understood now why he’d been so uncomfortable with the situation. My father could be a little exaggerated when it came to hislittle girl,andCaleb was aware of it.
As the three of us uncomfortably made our way to the lobby, my father’s phone rang. He excused himself to take the call outside. Senad held the door for us. Caleb was waiting for me to walk out of the building, but I pulled his arm.
“Hey,” I whispered. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure he didn’t take it the wrong way.” Caleb stood stiff as a board with his bodyguard stance, looking everywhere except my way.
“Miss Murphy, I suggest we start moving out,” he said with a flat and grave tone, nodding once at the door.
“It’s going to be okay. It’s my fault. I was the one who hugged you.” I kept whispering, looking over my shoulder a few times.
He seemed significantly affected. I wanted to reassure him that there wasn’t going to be any trouble because of it. I knew how to handle my father. He would ask a few questions, and I would answer them in a way that would make him feel at ease.
Caleb’s gaze traveled from the distant horizon to where my hand now rested on his arm.
“Caleb, look at me!” He kept a straight face and refused to make eye contact. I was done begging. I turned around and huffed my way out of the building. He followed me, of course, because he had to.
David was already sitting behind the wheel, and my father had just ended his call. A huge, bulky man in a black suit stood beside him. He looked somewhere around 6’5” and sported a completely shaved head—by far the scariest man I’d ever seen. But his brown eyes seemed friendly enough once he directed his gaze at me. I hoped.
“Mike, this is my daughter Billie,” my father said to him.
“Nice to meet you, Miss Murphy,” he said with a deep voice, extending his hand out to me. I shook it and said it was nice meeting him too.
After the quick introduction, my father instructed Mike to take his car to the restaurant and that we would meet him there. He wanted to ride with me.
My phone buzzed when I took a seat inside the SUV.
W.S:Hej, älskling.
W.S:What are you up to? Any exciting blind dates tonight?
My father glanced at my phone and cocked his head with a creasing brow. “I hadn’t realized you were using an iPhone now. When did you get it?”
“Well, my Blackberry fell into a pool during the summer when I was at William’s house in the Hamptons for the photoshoot. So, I … bought this one as a replacement,” I lied. I wasn’t going to tell him that William had bought it for me.
Caleb must’ve heard my phony explanation, but I didn’t care. He surely preferred it if I didn’t start talking about William.
I put my phone away and decided to reply to William after dinner. It wasn’t going to do him any harm to wait for my response.
My father took my hand in between his and said, “I’ve been getting reports about you going on blind dates, sweetheart.” I didn’t understand why he brought it up in the car where Caleb’s bionic hearing abilities could listen in without obstruction. “Caleb, I’m interested in your opinion about this topic. Do you think it’s safe for Billie to go on these dates?” That’s why.
Caleb sat still as a pond in winter. He turned around and replied firmly, “Mr. Murphy, I don’t think that’s for me to decide. It’s our responsibility to keep her safe no matter what, as we always do.”
“But according to the standard protocols in place, what would you advise?” My father insisted.
“Dad,” I whispered. “I don’t think I’ll be going on any more blind dates. My friends set me up on both without my consent, but I talked to them, and it’s not something that will be happening again,” I assured him, but he wasn’t backing down.
