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“Sorry, Homeschool.” Using one of many nicknames she’s given me, she tilts her head. “I tried.” Slipping on her silver heels, she scoops her keys from the footstool and clicks across the hardwood to open Dad’s door and lean inside. “Jess and I are leaving.”
If she’s waiting for a response, she should’ve worn more comfortable shoes.
I join her in the doorway.
As predicted, Dad’s fused to his laptop behind the U-shaped desk, deep in a writing coma, muttering about missiles, sounding rockets, and explosives. Research for the latest in his special ops series.
Behind him, built-in shelves showcase his novels—hardcover, softcover, foreign covers, audio. Reviewers call him an indie Tom Clancy. He hit the bestseller lists a few years ago on his own and sells enough books to keep it that way.
I lean my shoulder on the doorframe and narrate in my bestNational Geographic. “Here in the great plains of Highland Park, Texas, observe writing God Trevor Gray in his natural habitat creating yet another edge-of-your-seat thriller.”
Vi moves in front of his desk, reaches over his laptop, and taps a fuchsia nail on his screen.
He slides her finger off.
But Vi isn’t easily dismissed. She might look like a tie-dyed poodle on the outside, but inside she’s pure Rottweiler. From the moment she discoveredHaunted—and me—after I posted on DigitalReads, she’s been determined to sign Trevor Gray as a client and make it a family affair.
Vi slowly tips down his screen. “Don’t forget Jess’s book release party Saturday night.”
Not where I thought she was going.
He shifts the laptop to the left side of his desk and pushes up the lid.
My skin tightens. Stupid because I don’t want him there. I don’t even want to be there.
“Trevor,” she says. “This is your daughter’s debut.”
This time she gets nothing. And I force myself to feel nothing.
Vi follows me into the kitchen and jerks up the handle on my suitcase a little too hard. “Your dad doesn’t mean to…”
He totally does. Dad doesn’t do labor intensive. Not when everything blew up with Mom. Not during the fallout with me. Especially not after he typedthe endon our old life and informed me we were writing a new one. His concession when I begged to homeschool after she left was to hand me his Visa to pay for online classes.
“I have good news.” Vi tosses me my backpack,Hello Kitty’s face splashed across the front trigging her mini eyeroll. “Since Julie Ann was already coming Sunday for the awards ceremony, she changed her schedule so she could fly in a day early to support her wonder girl on her book birthday.”
A slow-mo churn starts low in my gut. “My editor’s coming to my release party?”
“Isn’t it great? You can turn in your second book in person. But that’s not the best part.” Her face brightens. “A reporter from that Dallas entertainment show is covering the conference, and she contacted me about interviewing you during your release. Hashtag trendyteenauthors.”
That slow-mo churn steps into real time. “The Dallas Daily Dish?” Mom’s other addiction. “Tell the reporter no.”
“Already said yes.” Vi railroads over me. “I can’t wait to show off my writing prodigy.” There’s pride in her voice. Expectation in her eyes.
She has no idea how epically I’m about to disappoint. When Vi learns I haven’t written a second book and the truth behind the first, she’ll snap her rosary. When my editor finds out, she’ll shred my three-book contract. And when Mom sees that interview, I can forget about her ever coming home.
chapter 2
Gabe
“Don’t grow up until you have to.”
~ Meredith Morgan
(played by the award-winning Meredith Wade)
Raising Ryder: Pilot
I’ve been an adult half a day, and it already sucks.
