Daddy's Girl: A Daddy Issues Novel, Rebel Wild [top 10 most read books in the world .TXT] 📗

scan a few rows of students, looking for her until I hear him call her name. I flip through the program that was handed out earlier, but I didn’t bother to read. Sure enough, her name is there as a speaker. As she approaches the podium, I stand up. My eyes lock with hers. I try to read her face and it looks to be a cross between shock and happiness. I’ll gladly take that and it makes me relax a little. Realizing the reason she sees me is that I’m the only one standing, I give her a nod and sit down. She smiles that brilliant smile at me.

My memories haven’t done her justice. My cock is making it hard to get comfortable. He’s happy again after a year of being stagnant. She clears her throat before she begins, scanning the crowd, looking at random people to make what she’s saying seem more personable. I grin, knowing damn well she isn’t looking at them, but at their foreheads. She has them eating out of the palm of her hand. Damn, I’ve missed listening to her talk.

With a round of applause, she sits down, letting Brianna’s cousin deliver her speech. I’m sure I’d be impressed if I was listening to her. I find myself wishing she would hurry up. I’m itching to talk to Sydney. My mind is racing as to what I’m going to say to her.

Jesus Christ, how many performances and speeches are they allowing? They’ve dragged this out for over an hour. Every damn body and their mother have something to say. Finally, they hand out the awards. When it’s all over I beeline to her, ignoring the blonde that’s trying to let me know she’s interested in me.

Her smile widens the closer I get until she’s looking up at me with those beautiful green eyes.

“Congratulations, Miss Warren,” I tell her, flashing a smile.

“Thank you,” she says.

The chancellor is calling her name to join them for pictures and I want to tell him to fuck off, but I refrain from ruining this for her.

“May I speak with you after?” I ask her.

“Yes,” she quickly says.

Satisfied, I let her go, albeit reluctantly, and she joins her classmates. Somewhere between watching her take pictures and the start of the celebration dinner, I get cold feet. I have Joe tell Sydney that I was called away on an emergency. I watch as he approaches her as she eagerly waits in an open space away from the crowd so that I can easily spot her. Her head is moving all around, scanning people, as she wants one of them to be me. She smiles when she sees Joe, but her smile quickly fades when he delivers the news. She nods her head and they exchange a few more pleasantries before saying their goodbyes. I know he’s pissed. He just gave me my dream come true on a silver platter, and once again, I let it slip through my fingers. I go straight to Maloney.

“Tristan, what brings you—”

“I’m fucked up,” I tell him. “Fix me so that I can be with Sydney.”

“Sydney?” He says, shocked at the mention of her.

“I saw her today at an award ceremony.”

“I see,” he says, pointing to a seat and I sit down. “At the risk of sounding cliché, how did that make you feel?”

“Alive,” I tell him. “For the first time in a year, I don’t feel dead inside.”

“But what’s changed? Last I dared mention her name, you were adamant that you were moving on.”

“It was easy to pretend when I thought she was far away in Montreal. When Joe dropped that list of students with her name on it on my desk and I saw it right there in black and white, I couldn’t pretend anymore. Just seeing her fucking name gave me a new purpose and when I saw her, I knew I couldn’t live without her. I know I can’t.”

“What if she’s moved on? It’s been a year without any contact from you. What if she’s found someone else?”

“I’ve already thought about the possibility of her being with another man and I hate it, but I don’t mind fighting for her. I know I’ll win, but to even compete, I have to have something to offer her.”

“And what exactly is it that you’re offering her?”

“That’s why I’m here. I need to figure my shit out and fast.”

He smiles, as his chest swells with pride at me finally, after all this time, coming to him willing and ready to work on my issues.

“Cancel my appointments for this evening,” he tells his secretary. “And bring in some dinner menus. Mr. Garrett’s treating us.”

I shake my head at the arrogant prick.

One Month Later

“Are you sure this is her place?” I check in with Joe on the phone as I pull up outside a vintage bookstore in Stanford.

I flew up today under the guise of business, but the truth is I never really left. I’ve been staying at the Hotel Rosewood. I fly back to LA to have intense sessions with Maloney. He’s made me face up to my self-loathing. We’ve been peeling back the layers of the toxic dump that is my relationship with my father. I’ve had to come to terms with his influence over me. I had to admit he’s why I feel I’m unworthy of happiness with her and why I feel I’ll only end up destroying all that’s good in her. I was so afraid of becoming like him that I was making it happen. Man, he fucked me up.

The shrine dedicated to him was unceremoniously put into storage. I would have gotten rid of the whole damn library, but it reminds me of Sydney too much.

Maloney’s also made me see that she’s not a kid anymore, that she’s a woman who’s capable of making up her mind, and if by some act of God she sees something worth her while in me, I should trust her instincts.