Page 21 of Dirty Mind
I refused to feel intimidated by anyone, so I strode across the foyer to the open kitchen. “Good morning, Mr.—”
“Chee,” he growled, glaring at me. “Thought I told you that already.”
“Right.” I took a deep breath. “What brings you by so early?”
He gestured to his daughter. “Isn’t it obvious? I wanted to see what the hell’s goin’ on here. My wife tells me Charli’s gonna be stayin’ here with you and I wanna know why.”
“Look,” I said, bracing my hands on the counter. “I’m sorry that you and your family have been dragged into this mess. I obviously should have practiced more discretion at the wedding and—”
“No,” he said, stabbing a beefy finger in my direction. “You should have kept your goddamn hands off my daughter!”
“Hey!” Charli turned on him, pointing the spatula. “I have a mind of my own and I can speak for myself, thank you. I didn’t do anything I didn’t want to do. And for the record, I have no regrets.”
This girl was killing me. No one had ever gone to bat for me against an adversary as scary as her old man and I tried letting her know with a soft smile that I appreciated it, but I could defend myself.
“Charlie and I are both adults.” I looked him in the eye. “You may not like what happened, but you don’t have the right to come here and—”
“I don’t have the right?” He narrowed his eyes, like he was thinking about tearing a strip off me. “She’s my baby girl. That gives me the right.”
I had no doubt Chee had been a menace in his day and probably still had some dirty ties to a criminal world I wanted to know nothing about, but if he sensed I was gonna back down, he’d stomp all over me.
“Charli,” I said, quietly. “Would you mind giving me a few minutes with your dad?”
“But…” She gestured helplessly to the skillets on the stove. “Breakfast is almost ready and…” She blew out a breath, ruffling her sideswept bangs. “I really don’t want y’all to get into it over—”
“Please.” I sent her a look that let her know I wasn’t asking. I was telling her I needed to do this.
“Fine.” She dumped the food onto a platter and turned on her father, arms crossed. “But know this. I want to work for Dade. And if you screw this up for me, I’ll be pissed.”
To me she said, “I’ll just go and grab a shower.”
I nodded, waiting for her to make her way upstairs before I opened my arms and leaned back on the counter. “Okay, you came here to have it out with me. Let’s have it out. What’s your problem?”
He practically growled when he leaned in and smacked his palm on the solid countertop. “I’ll tell you my problem. I hate opportunists like you. You think just ‘cause you’re rich and famous you can treat women like shit—”
“I do not,” I said, through clenched teeth. “Treat women like shit. I don’t care what you’ve heard. You don’t even know me. You don’t know the kind of man I am.” I slapped my hand against my chest. “But you really wanna know? Ask people who’ve known me for years, like Cece and Knox.”
“I don’t know how the hell you managed to snow them, but you have. They think you’re the goddamn paragon of virtue, and it’s your exes fault things didn’t work out, but I’m not buyin’ it.”
“You don’t have to buy it. I’m not trying to sell you shit. You can think whatever you want, but just know this, I do like your daughter. And I am gonna do right by her. I may have made a mistake at the wedding, being so public about my interest in her—”
“Then you admit you are interested in her?”
Charli was the most interesting woman I’d met in years. She was everything I would have wanted… had I met her when I wasn’t so cynical and jaded. “I’m interesting in helping her out of this mess thatIcreated.” I pointed at my chest. “I know I screwed up. I shouldn’t have dragged her into—”
“Why do you care?”
“What?”
“Why do you care if the paparazzi stalks her, gives her a hard time?” He was studying me now, leaning back on the bar stool, inked arms crossed, looking pensive and still mad as hell. “No skin off your ass if they think you’ve got a pretty new toy.”
If anyone else had called Charli my new toy I would have busted them in the chops, but I knew her father was just trying to bait me, and I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of thinking he’d won.
“Contrary to what you might think, public opinion is important in my business. My image is everything. If people don’t like me, they won’t buy my records and my career’s gone, just like that,” I said, snapping my fingers. “I’ve worked too hard to let that happen.”
“So this is all about your career then? This do-gooder act? I should’ve known you had some selfish ulterior motive.”
“Look, after my last break-up I did an interview or two, made an announcement on social media asking my fans to bear with me, to try and understand what I was going through. My fans have been great. The people profiting off my story have been assholes.” That was putting it mildly. They were the scum on the bottom of my boots. “If people think I wasn’t being sincere, that I’m falling back into old habits, with Charli…” I knew this didn’t paint me in a positive light, but I was trying to be honest with a man I was pretty sure could sniff out bullshit a mile away.
