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Rust wasn’t supposed to tell me that last part. I know because he had no poker face at all; he immediately gnashed his teeth and whispered“shit”and turned his back to me.
I went on the attack.
“Ohreally? So wait, this dog sitting gig wasn’t about ‘focusing on my classes’ at all, was it?” I snickered cynically. “So tell me, what did Dad do? Enlist you as his personal spy? Are you keeping tabs on me, Rust?”
Rust lowered himself onto the sofa. With a heavy sigh, he buried his face in his hands. “Look. I don’t want to get between you two.”
“Oh no. No, no, no. You don’t get to say that now. You lost that right when you signed up tospyon me. So? What’d he say?”
Rust said nothing. So I launched myself across the sofa and started yanking at his arms, trying to pry his hands away from his face. It was hopeless, though—his thick arms were so powerful, I couldn’t move them an inch no matter how hard I tried.
With a huff of frustration, I gave up trying and popped my fist against his round shoulder. Not hard enough to hurt—not that I evencouldhurt him if I wanted to.
“Are you spying on me, Rust?” I asked angrily.
“Even if I was, I’m obviously not doing a very good job of it.”
“Wow. So that means you are.” My skin crawled. “Ugh. I feel sick.”
He groaned. “Relax. I’m notspyingon you, okay?”
“No? Then what do you call it?”
“Johnny asked me to keep an eye on you—”
I laughed out loud. “Oh, I’m sorry. You’re only keeping an eye on me.Notspying. Big difference.”
“I told him I’m not comfortable with it, Isabelle.”
“And yet, here we are.”
He turned and gave me his eyes. “Look. I didn’twantto do it. But your dad’s going through a tough time right now. So I agreed.”
“A tough time? How so?”
“He’s just going through a lot. I don’t want to say. It was said to me in confidence.”
I immediately feared the worst.
“What’s wrong? Is he okay?” I asked, my anger melting into concern. “It’s not cancer, is it?”
“No, no. I don’t mean to scare you. He’s healthy, it’s just—” Rust sighed and lowered his voice. “Look, it sounds like your parents might be going through a rocky time right now.”
I didn’t know what to say. I guess I thought Mom and Dad wouldalwaysbe together. “Oh … wow. I had no idea.”
“SoallJohnny asked me to do was keep an eye on you, because he’s worried about his daughter being out in the world on her own. Like any father would be. He felt better knowing if you had any troubles, you could come to me with them. Because he trusts me.” He shook his head in disappointment. “Which is why wecannotcontinue what we’ve been doing this past week.”
I sighed. “Then you should get a new dog sitter, because I still don’t like the idea of you spying on me.”
“Fine,” he said. “Consider it done.”
“Fine,” I agreed, folding my arms.
Minka, watching us fight from across the room, whined.
Our argument seemed to be over, yet a tension still lingered in the air. After a long silence, Rust decided he had more to say.
“By the way,” he continued, “you can call me a spy all you want, but the fact of the matter is, I haven’t told your dadshitabout what you’re really up to.”
