Once Bound

Turning to Riley and April, she asked, “Where did the two of you take off to, anyway?”

Riley gulped.

She hated to lie to Jilly, but this would surely be a bad time to tell her about April’s gun.

Fortunately, April said, “We just had an errand to run.”

Ryan looked up at April.

“Hey, sweetie,” he said. “Don’t I get a hug or something?”

April didn’t make eye contact with him. She just stood there shuffling her feet for a moment.

Finally she said in a sullen voice, “Hi, Daddy.”

Looking like she was about to burst into tears, April turned around and trotted up the stairs to her room.

Ryan’s mouth dropped open.

“What was that all about?” he said.

Riley sat down alone on the couch, trying to figure out how best to handle the situation.

She asked again, “What are you doing here, Ryan?”

Ryan shrugged.

“Jilly and I are talking about her schoolwork – or at least I’m trying to get her to talk about her schoolwork. Have her grades been slipping? Is that what she doesn’t want to tell me?”

“My grades are fine,” Jilly said.

“So tell me all about school, why don’t you?” Ryan asked.

“School’s fine – Mr. Paige,” Jilly said.

Riley cringed, and Ryan looked wounded.

Jilly had started calling Ryan “Dad” just before he had left.

Before that, she had called him “Ryan.” Riley was sure that Jilly had never called him Mr. Paige before. The girl was expressing her attitude very clearly.

Jilly got up from her chair and said, “If it’s OK with everybody, I’ve got some homework to do.”

“Do you want any help?” Ryan asked.

Jilly ignored the question and trotted up the stairs.

Ryan looked at Riley with a stricken expression.

“What’s going on here?” he said. “Why are the girls so mad at me?”

Riley sighed bitterly. Sometimes her ex was just as immature as they’d both been when they married so young.

“Ryan, what on earth did you expect?” she asked, as patiently as she could manage. “When you moved in, the girls were just thrilled to have you around. Especially Jilly. Ryan, that poor girl’s father was an abusive drunk. She almost became a prostitute to get away from him – and she’s just thirteen years old! It meant so much to her to have a father figure like you in her life. Don’t you understand how crushed she was when you took off?”

Ryan just stared at her with a puzzled expression, as if he had no idea what she was talking about.

But Riley remembered all too well what Ryan had told her on the phone.

“I need some space. This whole family thing – I thought I was ready for it, but I wasn’t.”

And he hadn’t shown a lot of concern about Jilly at the time.

“Riley, Jilly was your decision. I admire you for it. But I never signed up for it. Somebody else’s troubled teenager is too much for me. It’s not fair.”

And now here he was, acting hurt because Jilly didn’t want to call him “Dad” anymore.

It really was infuriating.

Riley found it small wonder that the two girls had stormed off just now. She more than half wanted to do the same thing. Unfortunately, somebody had to be an adult in this situation. And since Ryan seemed to be incapable of that, Riley was stuck with the job.

Before she could think of what to say next, Ryan got up from his chair and sat down beside her. He reached toward her.

Riley pushed him away.

“Ryan, what are you doing?”

“What do you think I’m doing?”

Ryan’s voice sounded amorous now.

Riley’s fury was mounting by the second.

“Don’t even think about it,” she said. “How many girlfriends have you been through since you’ve been gone?”

“Girlfriends?” Ryan asked, obviously trying to sound baffled by the very question.

“You heard me. Or did you forget? One of them mistakenly called here while you were still around. She sounded drunk. You said her name was Lina. But I don’t guess Lina was the last. How many more have there been? Do you even know? Do you even remember all their names?”

Ryan didn’t reply. He looked guilty now.

Everything was starting to make sense to Riley. This whole thing had happened before, and she felt stupid for not having expected it.

Ryan was between girlfriends, and he figured Riley would do under the circumstances.

He didn’t really care about the girls at all – not even his own daughter. They were just a pretext for getting together with Riley.

Riley clenched her teeth and said, “I think you’d better leave.”