Chapter 35

Chapter Thirty-Five

Maddy

I was stirring the chilli I'd made for tea when I heard the front door slam. Heavy boots stamped along the hall, and my dad appeared looking like he was ready to kill. The veins in his neck were bulging and his nostrils were flared.

Turning the heat off, I turned to him. "What's wrong? Who's upset you?"

He threw his phone down onto the table and, with one hand on his hip, pinched the bridge of his nose. "You wouldn't believe it if I told you."

Moving over to him, I pulled out a chair. "Sit down and tell me."

He shook his head. "It's nothing for you to worry about."

"Obviously it is because you're fuming about something." I sat down and looked up at him. "Dad, what's wrong?"

He sighed and sat down heavily. He picked up his phone, looked at the screen, and then threw it down again. Scrubbed a hand down his face and then slammed his palms down on the table.

"A man came into the bar today."

I frowned. "Are you about to tell me a joke, because if you are, your delivery is rubbish?"

"I wish it was a bloody joke, sweetheart."

"Take my hand, Dad." He wrapped his fingers around mine. "Tell me all about the man who came into the bar."

He blew out his cheeks. "He said he was my dad. Your grandad."

As Dad's fingers squeezed mine, my other hand slapped against my chest, and I let out a shocked gasp. "No way."

He nodded slowly, his eyes searching mine for something. Searching for what I didn't know, but I had the feeling he was battling with his emotions.

"H-how did you feel when you met him?" I asked. "How did he even find you? Did you know he was looking for you?"

"No idea, he just turned up. Wandered into the bar and did his best impression of Darth Vader and told me he was my dad." I frowned. "Bloody hell, Maddy, when are you going to watch it. I keep telling you that you need to."

"Not happening, Dad, but I'm guessing it has something to do with Star Wars."

"Yes, it's what… you know what, it doesn't matter. The point is he turned up today and I don't know how to feel about it."

"Angry, by the look of your face." I studied him and could see that the hurt was slowly dissolving, and he was now more annoyed than anything else. "What did you say to him? Do you look like him? Did he say what happened? Why did he?—"

"Mads." Dad curled his hand around ours that were already joined and dipped his head to look me directly in the eye. "Slow down. I'll tell you everything. As much as I know anyway."

"Sorry. It's just I can't believe it. I can't believe after all this time he's come to find you."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't what I was expecting either." Letting my hand go, he sat back in his chair and rubbed his on his jean covered thighs. "I'm so angry, Maddy. Wondering how he dare walk into my bloody bar and just tell me like that. Like it wasn't anything big."

"Did you talk to him for long?"

"No, I pretty much threw him out. I didn't want to hear what he had to say."

I looked at the downturn of his mouth and the slope of his normally straight shoulders. "And now you're wondering if you should have listened to him?"

"Shit!"

When he scrubbed a hand down his face, my heart hurt for him. He'd always said he hadn't missed having a dad, that he didn't need one, but it had to have affected him. If not that, then being brought up for years by different foster parents surely had. There'd been times in my life when I'd thrown it back in Dad's face that he hadn't been there when I was born. Of course, I was just being a silly, spoiled brat, but I had thought it. I had felt like it had to be the answer when things weren't going my way, and my Dad was the best. He'd only been out of my life for the first five months; his had been missing for all his. No wonder he was angry, sad, and inquisitive all at the same time.

"Do you have his number?" I asked. "Can you call him and ask him to come back?"

He shook his head. "I just threw him out. Told him that I didn't want him in my life and to leave."

His eyes closed and his head dropped. Dejected and saddened.

"Oh, Dad." I shuffled my chair closer and pulled him into a hug. "I'm so sorry."

We stayed that like for a few minutes, until he sighed heavily and extracted himself from me.

"What's for tea? It smells good."

"Chilli and tacos. I was going to do rice, but we've had them in the cupboard for ages, so I thought we should eat them."

"That's fine by me. Sounds good."

He didn't look like it sounded good. He looked like nothing in the world would cheer him up. I hated that for him because he did everything he could to make my life happy.

"Why don't you grab a shower and I'll sort tea out."

He looked over at the pan on the stove and then back to me. "Okay. I'll be five minutes." His chair scraped on the floor when he pushed it back and dragged himself to his feet. "I'll have loads, please. I'm starving."

I went back to organising everything and had turned the oven on to warm the tacos when Dad's phone rang out. It was still on the table, surprising me because he never usually let it out of his sight. When I went over and peeked at the screen, it was flashing with a gorgeous picture of Maya laughing. I could hear the shower still going upstairs so picked it up and answered it.

"Hi, Maya, it's me, Dad's in the shower."

"Oh hiya, Maddy. How are you?"

"Good, thanks. How was your brother's wedding? Dad said it was great." After he'd asked me a thousand questions about who'd stayed over.

"It was. We had a lovely time, and your dad has some moves on the dancefloor." She giggled, and in it, I could hear that she was already falling hard for him. It was soft and light, like it had a heartfelt sigh in it.

"Yuk, I don't even want to think about it." I shuddered but had a smile on my face imaging him busting out his dad dancing. Even though he thought he was good.

"My family think he's incredible. In fact, I think my brother, Charlie, the one who got married, might fancy him more than I do."

We both giggled, and I felt happy that he had finally met someone he seemed to care about. She was lovely, and he deserved lovely.

"Maya," I said, tentatively, "can I tell you something?"

"Oh dear, that sounds serious. It's not is it? It's not something I'm going to have to keep from your dad, is it?"

"No, honestly no." I listened to check if Dad was finished, but I could hear him moving around his bedroom. "It's just he's had a bit of a crap day today, so well, say if you can't, but would you be able to come over?" I glanced at the clock on the cooker. It was almost six, so it'd probably be near to nine by the time she got here. "If you can't, then that's fine, but I think he'd love to see you."

"Are you going out?"

"No. No, I've got a fair amount of homework to do." I would be calling Zak later, but we'd agreed we both had too much homework to do to meet up. "I just think that it's you he needs more tonight."

"Oh, Maddy," she whispered, with a little crack of emotion. "Thank you."

"Are you okay? Have I overstepped the mark?"

"Of course not," she gushed. "Absolutely not. Of course I'll come over. Let's surprise him." She gasped. "You don't think he'll mind do you?"

"Not at all." I grinned. "I think he'll love it."

"Delete my call then and I'll be with you as soon as I can. I'll message him to say I'm busy and that I'll call him later."

I heard his bedroom door open. "He's coming," I hissed. "I'll see you later."

"Yep. Bye, Maddy."

As soon as the line went dead, I quickly deleted the call record and then put dad's phone back. By the time he was coming through the door, I was dishing up chilli and tacos, and he was none the wiser. As we sat down to eat he looked a little lighter, but I could still the sadness in his eyes. Until he got a message from Maya and then they lit up and I knew I'd done the right thing.