AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’ve been so hungry for those words. For his arms around me. For this moment. I’m so ready for the huge rush of relief that has to be coming.
But it doesn’t come.
Even when the crying slows, and I take trembling breaths against his chest, I’m still a sharp-ended mess. And I hurt. Everywhere. Like everything inside me got taken apart and thrown around, but nothing got put back together.
Vi picks that moment to walk into the great room, carrying our house key, my laptop, and the diary.
Dad holds up a hand to her and pulls back to look at me, his eyes red-rimmed and raw.
She sets everything on the chair, and I hear her heels click away.
“I want things to be different,” he says. “I’m not sure how to make that happen. But I know I want to be a better dad.”
I sniff into my shirt. “You want to stalk my social media? Read my texts? Check my homework?”
“Let’s not get carried away.” He runs a hand over my hair. “I was thinking dinner every night. And talking. About whatever you want. Even your mom.”
Talking. Spending time together. “I could maybe handle dinner.” Handle him being there for me.
“How about I order from that Chinese place around the corner later?”
I toss a quick glance over my shoulder where Vi walked away.
He touches my shoulder. “Just you and me.”
“Okay.”
“Arewe okay?” He watches me. “For now?”
I need time to process, a bottle of Tylenol, a hot shower, and a nap. My head feels like it weighs a million pounds, and my eyes ache. But I nod.
Turning toward the kitchen, he calls for Vi. When she reappears around the corner, in a move that’s completely un-Trevor Gray, he goes to her and presses his mouth to her forehead.
She shuts her eyes in what looks like relief, then steps away, making me think she just might care about my opinion about his unexpected PDA.
Although she’s still sporting heels—that match her red lipstick and nail polish—this is the first time I’ve seen her in jeans. The first time I’ve seen her as Dad’s girlfriend. It’s beyond strange. But the rolling anger I had the day I found out about them has slowed to a crawl.
“You and I have an overdue powwow,” she says to me.
Dad puts a slightly awkward arm around me in an obvious show of support.
“Not you.” Vi points a raging red nail at him.
He doesn’t budge. “She’s my daughter.”
“She’s my client. This is between her and me.”
“Victoria.” He puts her at the end of his back-it-down stare.
“Trevor.” Not one inch of her much smaller frame gives.
Their standoff is short. Within a few seconds, Dad gives in with a peck on her cheek. “I bought you blueberry bagels. I’ll be in the kitchen.”
I see it then—why they work as a couple. I still don’t like it, but I get it.
When we’re alone, Vi picks the diary up off the chair. “I read it. Your dad said it wasn’t plagiarism, but I had to be sure. Some story arcs are similar, but the words inHauntedare yours. Even the diary quotes. No one’s going to sue you. I also had breakfast with Julie Ann. A few mimosas in, I renegotiated you a new deadline.”
“Why would you do that when I ruined everything? Messed with your reputation? Embarrassed both of us?”
