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“I was going to call us dirty dishes left in the sink for days…Same thing.”
I tell her to go shower first, that I need to check in with my sister and let her know I’ll be back by tomorrow night for my shift. “Wait. Do you think we’ll be back by tomorrow night?”
“Oh, yeah,” she nods emphatically. “I’m thinking later on today we hit the road.”
“I’m fine with whatever. You want to stay, we stay. You want to head to Ocean City, we’ll go. But I don’t want you doing that for me.”
She winces. “Are you sure? You wouldn’t mind if we put that on the list of future epic quests?”
“Not even a little.”
And that is no lie. Truth is, I could go the rest of my life without seeing my father again, let alone reenacting that god-awful trip.
“I’m throwing my stuff in the machine, you start it up once you get your stuff in there.” She walks back out a minute later and throws me a robe. “Here you go.”
“This will be another first for me.”
“No spa days in your past?”
“Not a one.”
I almost fall asleep on the couch waiting for her to finish up in the bathroom. “Oh,” she drags the sound out on a breath. “That shower was amazing. They have those jets that hit you from every angle. I want one of those when I grow up.”
“I’m surprised you don’t have one.” I hold my hands up in defense when she narrows her eyes at me. “I’m serious. Your house looks like it would have every luxury feature that exists.”
“My house is nice, don’t get me wrong, but my dad is frugal in some ways.”
“You have a horse.”
“I said insomeways. And he doesn’t give a passing thought to what boarding a horse costs, but if my mother were to suggest, say, renovating a perfectly good bathroom to install a steam shower like the one they have? It would be a hard no. There would have to be a good reason, and I’m not saying my mom couldn’t convince him with some nonsense about needing extra jets for an achy shoulder or something, but he’s got his ways. He’s sensible and more down to Earth than you think.”
She has no idea what I think. I think her father may have been a regular Joe back in the day, but he’s far removed from that life now. He probably wouldn’t step foot back in a place like Queens unless his life depended on it. People like him don’t mix with people like me.
Try as he might to come off like a good guy, I think Sarah’s father is one ofthem, and he will not be cool with Liam Murphy hanging around his precious daughter.
Chapter Thirty-One
SARAH
“Hi, Mom.”
“Sarah,” she says my name on a relieved sigh. “Where are you? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Mom.”
There’s a reason I’m taggingMomonto everything I say. I could have just saidHiandI’m fine, but I want to let Audrey Hamilton know that she—and no one else—is my mother. I know she’s probably been going through a hell she doesn’t deserve these past two days, and I don’t want to pile any more pain onto her shoulders. I want to ease it.
“I met her.” My words hang in the air until I add, “Grace Dawson.”
“You found her?”
“Yeah, just this morning. I met her husband, too. They live in Pittsburgh.”
“I thought, well, it doesn’t matter…”
“She left a forwarding address in North Carolina, then another in a different part of Pennsylvania. I guess that’s where she went after she graduated.”
“So you’ve been driving all this time?”
