Page 47 of Playing for Keeps
She was a fool. Del had never said those words to her and she hadn’t thought she wanted to hear them. Sure, he’d been hurt and confused himself, but he’d also been intentionally mean and judgmental and that’s what bothered her more. A part of her wanted to run over to his place right now and tell him what a colossal ass he’d been blaming her and believing she could do such a thing, but she wouldn’t. Pride kept her from doing anything else to make a fool of herself for a man she should’ve never been with in the first place.
“I’m gonna go home now,” she said with a wavering smile to her father.
“Listen to me, Rylan. I’m gonna go and clear the air with him. If what I said did something to get him into trouble, I want him to know why I said it. That’s what a man does when he makes a mistake.”
“You didn’t make a mistake, Daddy. You had no idea what Mal was up to. Hell, I’m not even sure I know all the ins and outs to what happened.” She blinked furiously because those stupid tears definitely wanted to fall. “And you know what, it doesn’t matter. This feud between Mal and Del has nothing to do with me.” And whatever she’d thought was between Del had been a mistake, his actions today had made that perfectly clear.
Rylan was home alone on Christmas Eve.
The medium-size tree Del had purchased for her stood in between the dining and living room portion of her apartment, decorated with multi-colored lights and ornaments. The all-day, all-Christmas radio station played holiday tunes and she’d turned it up whenThe Christmas Songhad come on about half an hour ago. So, her music was loud when she answered the door wearing thermal winter wonderland pajamas and thick red socks.
“Merry Christmas, babygirl.”
Her father stood on the other side of the door smiling at her. Rylan didn’t return the smile. She wasn’t in the mood for company. Hadn’t been for the past couple of days.
“Hi Dad,” she replied because to continue standing there in silence was rude.
“Can I come in?”
Rylan stepped to the side. She hadn’t wanted any company and had hoped that he would come to that conclusion by her lack of invitation. Obviously, that wasn’t the case.
“I’m really tired,” she began as she closed her door and noticed her father going deeper into the apartment until stopping in the dining room. “I was going to finish wrapping a few things and then turn in early.”
“I won’t take much of your time,” he said and dropped a folder onto the round table.
Rylan tried not to sigh with exasperation. She really was tired of talking to people this week. No matter how well meaning they thought they were being, she was just talked out.
“I thought about some things you’ve said in the past weeks,” he told her.
She stopped a few feet away from him, folding her arms over her chest. “And what was that?”
Rylan had said a lot to her father since that awful day last week. She’d already questioned him after Del left the shop in a rage that day and she’d gotten most of the answers to a very unfortunate situation. In the time since then Camy had come to her apartment, then to the shop and she’d called numerous times a day giving her bits and pieces of more things they’d found out about Mal and his twisted intentions against Del. But she sensed her father was talking about something different.
“You’ve said a lot,” he replied and then chuckled. “Most of it I needed to hear. And some I guess you were saying out of hurt.” Will lowered his head. He stared at his feet for a moment and then looked over to the Christmas tree. “This used to be the most wonderful time of the year,” he said.
Boy did it, she thought but refused to speak.
“I talked to my lawyer and the finance man on Friday, just like I’d planned,” he continued. “I had them draw these papers up. Told them I needed them right away, before Christmas.”
“If you want me to review the sale papers, Dad, that’s fine but I can’t do it until next Monday. I’m taking this week off.”
She needed a month or two off, in another town, or perhaps another country.
“No. I don’t need you to go over the papers. I told the finance guy what I wanted to do and he gave me some numbers. Then I had the lawyer draw up these papers transferring the body shop to you.”
Rylan wasn’t sure she heard him correctly. “What did you say?”
“I’m giving you the body shop,” he said. “Minus a few of those older tools I liked to use while you preferred to work strictly with the computer on some problems. And the Pontiac.”
She was shaking her head as she moved to the table and lifted the envelope. Rylan pulled out the stack of papers and flipped through them. They were deed transfers for the land and corporation transfers.
“Wait, you sold the Pontiac?”
The 1969 GTO had been one of her father’s first cars. He’d pampered that car more than he had his children.
He nodded. “Yep. My finance guy bought it,” he replied with a chuckle. “Those proceeds were enough to pay off all the body shop debt. I still have to work on my personal debt, but at least the body shop is free and clear.”
He was right, that’s what she read during her quick perusal of the papers. “But why? Why would you sell the Pontiac now, when you didn’t do it to bail yourself out before?”
