Unfinished Business

Chapter 3

Owen

Her smile was fake. I have seen her real smile. I have been the reason behind the real thing and that was not it. I see an emotion flash across her face, but before I can say anything to her, her attention is drawn to Bree.

"You're so pretty. Even prettier than my mom," Bree's are wide like she is in shock. Bree's mom is a model so you can guess that she is very beautiful, but not even close to Abby.

"Yes, she is," I whisper to myself. I guess she heard me though because she lifted her head from looking at Bree and raised an eyebrow. Fuck.

"You okay?" Caleb asks coming up beside her and throwing an arm over her shoulder. Abby looks at him and nod, fake smile planted on her face. Her brother doesn't even know it's fake, but I do.

"If you will all excuse me," she smiles at my parents, then Bree, then her brother. Not once me. She turns and leaves us all standing there.

"We are going to put our stuff away," mom says suddenly before grabbing my dad's arm and pulling him up the stairs. Why is everyone acting so weird?

I know I'm frowning. I mean I didn't expect her to run into my arms when I got here, but I expected something other than this, I guess. Something is wrong. "Is she okay?" I hesitantly ask, looking at Caleb.

He sighs watching my parents head up the stairs. "Abby had kind of a tough time when we left for college," he rubs his chin. He has more to say and I'm not sure I want to hear it. Did her hard time have anything to do with me? I doubt it. She didn't even call me once after I left. No text or emails either.

"Bree," I say before Caleb can say anything more that I don't want to hear. Bree looks at me with a smile. "Should we go see if there are any cookies in the kitchen?" Bree nods with excitement and jumps up for me to carry her. When we walk in, Abby is bent over, taking something from the oven. I hear a slight groan come from me and thank God that it wasn't able to be heard over Bree's delightful squeals when she sees Mrs. Kelly putting more dough on a cookie sheet. Abby turns around and looks at me for all of two seconds before turning toward the counter and making herself look busy.

Mrs. Kelly turns toward us and looks at us with a smile. She reaches her hands out and I place Bree in her arms. Bree loves helping bake. I watch them for a bit as Mrs. Kelly hands Bree a cookie from a plate of already cooled ones. My eyes drift across the room to where Abby is still pretending she is very busy with nothing and sigh. Walking up behind her quietly, I lean forward until my lips lightly brush her ear, "Are you okay?" She spins around and shows me that fake smile again.

Abby spun around quickly, nearly running into me. Steadying herself, she tilted her neck back to look up at me and smiled. "Of course, I am." I raised an eyebrow at her. She was lying, I could tell.

"You know, I know when your smile is fake," I remind her. "I know when."

"Just stop," Abby hold up her hand to stop me from continuing, "I am not the same person I used to be. You don't know a thing about me." With that, she turned around and went back to pretending to be busy.

"Can we please talk sometime this weekend?" I ask her.

"I feel like we will be pretty busy this weekend, Owen. You know, since my parents have their anniversary party and all." She doesn't turn back around or even try to look at me and I feel a little hurt after our past. I decided to keep pushing.

"I think we can find a minute or two to talk, Abby," I tell her with a sigh. All I get in response is a shrug of her shoulder. I sigh again and turn around to find Mrs. Kelly, watching us. She smiles at me before turning back around to hand Bree another cookie.

"Okay, Bree. I think you have had enough cookies. Let's go wash up for dinner," I tell my daughter walking over to pick her up from the counter Mrs. Kelly had sat her on.

"But I am helping," Bree pouts.

I chuckle, "I know, but you I also know that a princess would never be dirty at the table. Your dress won't look at pretty if you're dirty." Bree sighs but nods.

"Thank you, Bree for helping me. Abby's here so she can help me finish up. You go and get ready," Mrs. Kelly smiles at Bree. I smile at her and turn to leave the kitchen. "Oh, Owen," she gains my attention as I reach the door frame. I turn and raise an eyebrow, waiting for her to continue. "If you see Caleb, tell him I need to talk to him." I nod my head at her with a smile and go to my room to get Bree in the bath and ready for dinner.

After I had her cleaned and into her dress, I plugged in the curling iron to curl her hair just like she likes it. "Daddy," she started as I ran a comb through her hair.

"What is it?"

"Can I sit next to Queen Abby at dinner?" I smiled, knowing that Bree liked Abby already.

"You will have to ask her when we get to the dining table," I tell her. Curling a piece of hair around the iron, I think about how good I've gotten at doing all the girly things with her. I know that to people like Abby, who haven't seen me in years and only remember the playboy teenager, I was long ago, it would come as a shock. But I love being a dad to the little girl in front of me. She is my whole world.

"Queen Abby is so pretty," she tells me swinging her legs.

"Yes, she is."

"Does she have a king?" I stop to think of the answer. Though out the years Caleb had given me little updates about Abby. I made sure to never ask about her but nearly every time she started dating someone new, he would rant to me about how much he didn't like or trust the guy. When they would break up, he would be so glad that she had gotten rid of the guy, that he usually would invite me out to celebrate with drinks. I can't remember when the last time that either happened, so I wasn't sure if she was seeing anyone.

"I'm not sure, princess." I'm not happy not knowing the answer to this at all. I guess I will just have to hope that it gets brought up. My mom like gossip, I'm sure she will end up asking. Or Bree could too. I don't want her in the middle of everything, but she likes to ask questions and I won't stop her if she feels the need to ask Abby about herself.

After finishing Bree's hair, I put on a tie and Bree adjust it. She likes to help me make sure that I look like a man worthy of being next to her royal majesty. I don't at all but especially tonight. I want to be a man that Queen Abby could see herself standing next to.

"You look perfect, Daddy," Bree smiles at me from her place on the bed.

"Thank you. You look perfect too," I help her down from the bed.

"Let's go!" She tells me, moving toward the door, "I want to see what Queen Abby is wearing!" I chuckle and follow her out the door. I also want to see what Queen Abby is wearing, I think to myself.