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I don’t know how he knows, but he knows.
Panic bubbles up my chest, and my instincts immediately go into overdrive, kicking my flight response into gear.
If I make a run for it now, I should make it to the airport in time to get an afternoon flight to Australia. I’ve always wanted to see a kangaroo. And who cares that the country is riddled with gigantic bloodthirsty spiders? I would rather deal with a spider over a lecture about sex from my father any day.
Snakes, however, are a different story. I’ve heard that in Australia, they have them in the thousands and that the slithery little monsters even invade people’s homes.
Fuck that.
With my plans to immigrate to the land down under suddenly less appealing, I have only one option.
Denial.
Total and utter denial.
“What are you talking about?” I ask, doing my best to paste on a blasé expression even though there’s a carnival ride of chaos wreaking havoc on my insides.
“Your face.” He says, examining me with genuine confusion.
A sense of relief washes over me that my sudden bout of paranoia was all for nothing. Still, curiosity over what has my father looking so perplexed has my fingers instinctively running over my cheeks. “My face?”
“Your cheeks are glowing.” He cants his head to the side while continuing to analyze me like a specimen under a microscope. “You’re wearing makeup, aren’t you? I told you that you don’t need that rubbish on your face.”
“No, dad,” I draw out with a roll of my eyes. “I’m not wearing makeup.”
“Hmm,” he grunts, then hands the customer in front of him their change before returning his attention to me. “Well, hurry up and get out here. I have to leave in five minutes.”
“What?” I frown at him. “Where are you going this time?”
He’s been disappearing more often than not lately. Once upon a time, not even the threat of an alien invasion could drag his ass out of this place, and if it did, it wouldn’t be voluntary. His whole life is this diner, and I couldn’t count the number of times he’d fallen asleep in that shoebox of an office out back and then woken up the next day, ready to get back to work. But in the last six months, something has shifted. His priorities have changed, and I can’t figure out why.
He glances around the room for a beat before looking back at me with a hint of pink tingeing his cheeks. “None of your business,” he blusters and waves me off. “Now get to work.”
“Okay, okay. Sheesh.” I roll my eyes.
Pushing through the doors, the sounds of bacon crackling on the stove along with Wyatt chopping onions at the counter reverberating throughout the kitchen and keeping my gaze averted from a particular head chef, I walk straight over to my apron hanging on the hook.
Removing my jacket and replacing it with the black apron, I wrap the strings around my waist and begin tying the knot.
“Morning, Mac,” Owen chirps, sounding entirely too chipper and keeping my back to him; I quickly fumble with the knot, attempting to tie it in record time so I can hightail it out of here. “How’s the chlamydia going?”
My back goes ramrod straight, and I slowly turn to face him, the shock of what he just said sending my jaw plummeting to the floor.
Feeling Wyatt’s eyes on me, my gaze shifts in his direction, noticing that his hand is frozen in midchop, and he’s looking at me with eyes so wide I’m surprised they haven’t popped out of his head.
“You have chlamydia?” he asks.
Owen’s bark of laughter seems to snap me out of my stupor and picking my jaw back up off the floor, I cut Owen a glare so lethal that I’m surprised it hasn’t incinerated his smug ass into nothing but a pile of ash.
“No, I don’t,” I snap back at Wyatt, brushing the loose tendrils of my ponytail away from my face in frustration and finding myself at a complete loss for words; I turn on my heel and storm out of the kitchen.
What the hell?
Of all the possible scenarios that were running through my mind this morning, his reverting back to his annoying self was something I never would have anticipated.
Usually, his constant ribbing would push my buttons to the point that I would feel like I was going to explode. And after what he just said, I should be mad as hell. Which I am.
However, I’m also feeling an overwhelming sense of relief.
