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“I didn’t love her!” Riley cried. “She thought I was ugly and stupid, and the only person she liked was Trinity!”
“That’s not true,” Jack said. “She loved you very much.”
“How do you know?”
He faltered. “I—I know, that’s all. Now I don’t want to hear any more. You’ve caused enough trouble, and you’ll do what I tell you.”
“No, I won’t.” Dry-eyed and furious, she curled her hands into fists. “I’ll kill myself if you make me go back! I will! I know how. I can find Mom’s pills. And Aunt Gayle’s, too. I’ll swallow all of them. And—and I’ll cut myself like Mackenzie’s big sister. And then I’ll die!”
Mad Jack was clearly shaken. Dean had gone pale, and April tugged on her silver rings. Riley started to cry and rushed toward her. “Please, April! Please, let me stay with you.” April’s arms instinctively curled around her.
“April can’t take care of you,” Jack said brusquely. “She has things to do.”
Tears rolled down Riley’s cheeks. She was staring at the ribbon tie on April’s top, but she was talking to her father. “Then you stay. You stay and take care of me.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not? You could stay for like two weeks.” In a display of youthful courage, she regarded April with pleading eyes. “That would be okay, wouldn’t it, April? If he stayed for two weeks?” She took a tentative step toward her father. “You don’t have any gigs or anything until September. I heard you say you need to get away somewhere so you can work on some new songs. You could get away here. Or at the cottage. April’s cottage is really, really quiet. You could write your new songs there.”
“It’s not my cottage, Riley,” April said gently. “It’s Dean’s. So is this house.”
Riley’s chin trembled. She dragged her gaze from April and focused on Dean’s chest. Blue felt his skin burning through his T-shirt.
“I know I’m fat and everything,” Riley said in a small voice. “And I know you don’t like me, but I’ll be quiet, and Dad will be, too.” She lifted those heartbreaking eyes so she was looking directly at Dean. “He doesn’t pay attention to anybody when he’s writing songs. He wouldn’t bother you or anything. And I could even help. Like, I could—I could sweep up stuff and wash the dishes maybe.” Dean stood frozen as Riley’s tears blurred her next words. “Or…if you…if you needed somebody to throw the football so you could practice and everything—I could maybe try.”
Dean squeezed his eyes shut. He barely seemed to be breathing. Jack snapped open his phone. “I don’t want to hear any more. You’re coming with me.”
“No, I’m not!”
Dean jerked away from Blue, and his voice cracked like an ice dam breaking. “Can’t you give the kid two lousy weeks out of your big, busy schedule?”
Riley went still. April’s head came slowly up. Jack didn’t move.
“Her mother just died, for chrissake! She needs you. Or are you going to run away from her, too?” Dean realized what he’d said and stalked toward the door. The window over the sink rattled as he slammed the door behind him.
A tiny muscle ticked at the corner of Jack’s jaw. He cleared his throat, shifted his weight. “All right, Riley, you’ve got one week. One, not two.”
Riley’s eyes widened. “Really? I can stay? You’ll stay here with me?”
“First, we’re going back to Nashville to pack up. And you have to promise me that you won’t ever try to run away again.”
“I promise!”
“We’ll come back on Monday. And you’d better keep that promise, because if you try anything like this again, I’ll send you to school in Europe, someplace where it won’t be so easy to run away. I mean it, Riley.”
“I won’t! I promise.”
Jack shoved his cell back in his pocket. Riley gazed around the kitchen, as if she were seeing it for the first time. April slipped to Blue’s side. “See if he’s all right,” she said softly.
Chapter Thirteen
Blue finally located Dean in the weeds behind the barn. He had his hands on his hips, and he was gazing at the rusted frame of a red pickup truck. Through the gaping hole where the passenger door had once been, she could see springs poking through what was left of the upholstery. A pair of dragonflies flitted over the rotted wood, bald tires, and unidentifiable pieces of farm machinery that littered the truck bed. She followed the path he’d made through the weeds. As she got closer, she spotted the remnants of a bird’s nest roosting on the steering wheel column. “I know it’s tempting to trade in your Vanquish now that you’ve seen this,” she said, “but I’m against it.”
His hands fell from his hips. His eyes were bleak. “It just gets better and better, doesn’t it?”
“There’s nothing like a little drama to get your adrenaline pumping.” She resisted the urge to put her arm around him again. “Jack told Riley he’d stay for a week,” she said softly. “But he’s taking her to Nashville for the weekend. We’ll see if he comes back.”
His face contorted. “How did this fucking happen? All these years I’ve kept him away from me, and now, in a few seconds, I blow the whole thing.”
