AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He stiffened.
“What?” I asked.
He was already shaking his head. “Nothing. Not a damn thing.”
I blinked in surprise at his tone.
Was he mad?
What the hell had I said to piss him off so swiftly and fantastically?
“Anyway,” I said. “Dad purchased that land, and I found a job at a diner not too far from it. I start there tomorrow. Can you give me a ride home?”
He didn’t say anything to that.
Instead, he drove me home, not asking once for directions.
When we arrived at my closed gate, he came to a rough stop and stared straight ahead as he waited for me to get out.
Not sure what had come over him, and not willing to deal with this particular part of Darby Valentine, I got out of the truck and closed the door.
He didn’t waste a single second accelerating down the drive.
And I most certainly did not watch him go.
Nope.
Instead, I walked up the drive to my place, and let myself in.
I took a look around and felt like something heavy had lodged itself on my shoulders.
God, this place needed a lot of work.
I’d only been here for a week, and I was already more than aware that things were going to have to get fixed soon or the entire place would be uninhabitable.
Hell, the only thing at least remotely nice about the house was my bed.
My bed that currently had a rather large spider perched on top of the covers.
I felt bile rise in my throat at the sight.
Picking up the first thing I saw—an old iron—I walked to the bed and slammed it down onto the spider, hearing the damn thing splat.
Gagging, I lifted the iron and scrunched up my nose in disgust.
Then I tore sheets, comforters, and pillows all off and marched them straight into the laundry room.
After starting the washer, I called an exterminator.
There were a few things that I considered necessities.
Food, water, electricity and bug control.
Those were four things that I couldn’t live without, no matter what.
So using my dad’s credit card to pay for it didn’t make me feel guilty in the least.
What did make me feel guilty was considering burning the entire place to the ground and starting over.
Surely living in a trailer would be better than this, right?
I called my dad, honestly surprised when he answered.
“Hello?” he asked, sounding distracted.
“Hey, Dad. It’s me,” I said.
I could practically hear my father moving through the crowd in order to get to a quieter place.
Once he found it, he spoke again.
“Hey, baby. How’s the job search?” he asked.
I didn’t feel like telling him the depressing news of not finding anything.
Instead, I told him about the house and the spider that I killed.
He was laughing before I’d even finished my explanation.
“Oh, baby,” he said. “You never were good with spiders.”
No, I never had been.
And I’d also never had anybody to help me kill the spiders. I’d always been alone.
My father, although a good one, had been gone the majority of my life. I’d done a lot of my growing up years by myself. Either at home by myself, or with a babysitter if it was overnight while he was working a shift, or in a trailer while he slept his way around the rodeo arena.
Honestly, I didn’t even know why I called him.
It was just that sometimes, the idea of who I wanted my father to be overshadowed who he actually was.
My dad wasn’t a bad guy. He was just a bad dad.
“No,” I admitted. “Anyway, I just wanted to call and check on your ETA.”
“My estimated time of arrival would be not anytime soon,” he admitted. “I, uh, met someone.”
I swallowed hard.
“What’s that mean?” I wondered idly.
“Well,” he hesitated. “She’s pretty important to me. I think I’m gonna see where this goes down here in Houston for a while.”
I closed my eyes as his words settled heavily.
“So what do I do about the things that need fixed?” I wondered. “I can’t… I can’t afford to do them yet by myself.”
“I can send home a bit to float you,” he offered. “It won’t be much, but it’ll be enough to get you started.”
I nearly groaned as I took a look around the house that I could see potential in, but wasn’t going to be a walk in the park to get to its prime.
“Okay,” I said softly. “Well, I hope you have a great night.”
“Night, darlin’.” He hung up without a second thought.
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, allowing it to stretch out my tired neck muscles.
When I was done with my moment, I went about getting over it.
Then I cleaned the house and made it shine, even if I couldn’t make it whole.
Tomorrow was a new day. I’d start my job officially. I’d make it. I’d do what I loved in the end, even if it killed me.
