Page 10 of Room Service

It could be either one, and it didn’t look like this girl was going to tell me! I felt like if I had to wait much longer I’d go mad or get angry enough to start shouting, and then she’d have something to look all frightened about.

“Can you please just tell me?” I asked one more time.

“Um,” she floundered, waving a hand in the air between us. “You just got back, though! Aren’t you tired, or anything? Did you bring any luggage with you? You could have it sent upstairs, maybe freshen up and have a meal… You must have been on the road for a while to get here this early in the day…”

I’d been on the road for hours, though I’d taken a stop at a cafe on the way to rest because I didn’t want to end up with a broken back from those roads. Still, I’d only caught four hours of sleep the night before and it was tough getting back on the road again. I’d been worried the entire time too that I wasn’t going fast enough. That by the time I arrived at the hospital it would be too late. It was only as I drove into Charlotte and saw the sign for the first hospital that I realized I had no idea where to go. Charlotte had no shortage of hospitals and Dad could be in any of them. I’d driven to the house hoping Emily could give me an answer when she didn’t answer her phone.

And here I was, and this girl was refusing to answer my questions.

“You know what? I’m a busy man, Emily. I would like to see my father before anything else. Then I’m going to work on what needs to be done while he rests. So if you won’t tell me, I’ll find out on my own.”

I went to turn away, but her voice stopped me.

“Wait, Trent!”

I paused, slowly turned back to her to wait for what she had to say. I wasn’t there to play some waiting game with her when there were more important things to do, but I would indulge her this once. Frankly, the girl could probably do with a little less indulgence in her life.

“Well?” I prompted when she still said nothing.

“Are you sure you don’t want something to eat?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes, at the end of my patience, and left the salon. Getting information on my father myself wouldn’t be hard.

But I didn’t see where I was going as I walked out the room and bumped into someone. Or rather, a smaller, soft body bumped into mine. She gave a small yelp as we collided, and I held her by the tops of her arms until she righted herself.

“Sorry about that,” she said. “I didn’t see where I was going—”

She looked up into my face, then cut herself off as she recognized who I was. I knew who she was, too.

Jessi.

Emily wasn’t the only woman who’d grown around here. The last time I saw Jessi, she’d been this awkward, gangly girl, not unlike what Emily was like as in her early teens. I could hardly see that same person in her now.

But she was staring at me with her eyes wide and jaw dropped.

Another woman was looking at me like she’d seen a ghost. At least she was looking at me, and not through or around me. But this was Jessi, not my half-sister whom I had an awkward half-sibling relationship with. On the contrary, we had no relationship. None at all.

I took a moment to get a good look. Jessi had grown into a beautiful woman.

Just when did that happen?