He leans over the bar and gives me a kiss on the cheek. His lips linger, his voice low so only I can hear.“Don’t forget, you have work to do on thatotherproject as well.”
Then he kisses me again, his warm lips pressed against my temple. I pull in a breath as sweet warmth cascades over me. He winks as he walks away.
When I turn back to Jessica, I realize this entire day was worth it.
She’s positively green with envy.
It is perfection.
19
Frankie
“We have a problem.”
Charlie’s voice trembles slightly when she says it. She’s still at Dad’s house with Livvie. I called right after my latest shift in the tasting room to check in, and now I’m sitting in the swivel chair by the window in my bedroom, a pair of sweatpants waiting for me on the bed.
“Do I want to know?” I ask. I get the feeling I’m about to hear something a lot more serious than whatever gossip kept them up all night.Whenever my sister loses the lightness in her voice, I know something is up.
“Dad didn’t come home last night. I’ve been calling and texting him for hours with no response. Have you heard from him?”
“No. But that’s not unusual, Char.”
She’s right to be worried, though. Our dad is shady as fuck, but he’s a homebody. No matter what kind of trouble he gets up to, he always comes home, parks himself in front of the TV, and does the tango with a twelve-pack and a liter. Growing up, I can barely remember a time when he wasn’t passed out on the couch by ten p.m.
“It’s weird,” Charlie goes on. “I heard him leave late yesterday like he was in a hurry, kicking up gravel and revving the engine. He never said anything about where he was going.”
My chest squeezes. “Did you check his office? Anything missing?”
“Not that I could tell. His desk calendar is there with nothing written on it. Desk is locked up, though I wouldn’t know what to look for anyway. You know how Dad is.”
“Yeah.” Secretive. Conniving. Often paranoid.
As it turns out, probably for good reasons.
Letting out a breath, I put the phone on speaker and tap out a text to Donovan, asking him if he can drive me around for a few hours. “What does Livvie think?”
“I haven’t told her anything yet. I don’t want her to worry.”
“Good. Listen, I’m gonna cruise around. Hit up his usual spots. Racetracks, bars, maybe some nightclubs. See if I can find him, ask around in case anyone’s heard anything.”
There’s a pause and then Charlie’s voice drops low, measured, as if she doesn’t want to be overhead. “Do you think it’s a good idea for you to go poking around alone?”
Fair point. A lot of the places our dad likes to hang out wouldn’t be safe for an MMA fighter, much less a woman alone. “I won’t be alone,” I tell her. “I’ll have Donovan with me.”
“You mean…Dante’s spy who acts as your chauffeur?”
“Yeah. That’s the one. He’s really very sweet, though,” I insist.
Charlie pauses again and I can virtually hear the wheels turning in her mind. “Fine, but make sure you turn your location on in HeyYou so I can see where you are, just in case.”
Sometimes the three of us use this app called HeyYou to send silly pictures and short videos back and forth, though Charlie and I are too busy to use it much and Livvie runs circles around us with it. It has a setting that allows you to choose which friends can see your location. I usually keep it on for my sisters, and they do the same for me. Like Charlie said, just in case.
I check the app. “It’s on. Talk to you soon. Call me if you hear from him. Love you.”
“Love you.”
After we hang up, I call Donovan and ask him to bring the car around to the front door. It’s almost two, and I’m still dressed for work in a crisp suit—which doesn’t seem like the best choice for poking around my dad’s stomping grounds. I quickly change into black skinny jeans, a plain tee shirt, and sneakers, and twist my hair into a braid. Then I grab a notepad and pen and rush downstairs and out the door.
