16 Case closed
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Case closed
RILEY
Last night had changed everything .
Parker was sitting at the island feeling extremely sorry for herself. I was on coffee duty, though my head was so far up in the clouds I’d stirred the milk too hard. It sloshed onto the counter, making a mess.
I’d driven Parker’s dad’s van back while her, Beth and Kayla had slept in the back. Not exactly safe, but wanting to escape, I hadn’t been overly focussed on road safety.
Parker was too hungover to debrief about last night. If she had, Beth would’ve mentioned she’d hijacked the van, then Parker would’ve questioned where I slept and I would’ve been forced to fess up about Will. As it was, I’d escaped the interrogation.
Usually I liked talking things through with Parker, but not this. I didn’t know what to make of it, not that there was anything to make. I’d found myself in a shit situation. Will had bailed me out. We had a past, so I guess he figured he owed me. That was all there was to it. Settled. Case closed.
I decided to lock Will Caufield in a jar and hide it in the back of the pantry.
“Riley!”
I peered up at Parker. “Yeah?”
“Your phone.”
It was vibrating on the counter. Picking it up, I noticed two missed calls from dad and a follow up message asking to meet him for lunch – now. I knew what would happen if I ignored him .
My approach with dad was similar to my mentality with going skydiving. I wanted to skydive one day, but whenever that happened, it needed to be spontaneous – a spur of the moment decision. Having it planned, knowing it was coming up, would be too tiresome. Too much weight to carry.
Comparing having lunch with my dad to jumping out of a plane was sad, but hey, beggars couldn’t be choosers.
I text back that I would meet him in an hour then headed upstairs to shower. By the time I came back down, Parker was asleep on the couch. I draped a blanket over her before grabbing my keys and heading out.
Dad was a creature of habit, so there were only a handful of places to meet. Times like this, I was jealous Tanner had the smart idea to apply to Allentown. It was close enough to his mum, but far enough from dad that he couldn’t be summoned.
In high school I’d applied to colleges far from here. West coast far. I’d gotten in too, but I couldn’t fathom leaving mum alone. The irony that she’d ultimately left me alone wasn’t lost on me.
I pulled my Jeep in besides dad’s luxury SUV. It was the kind of car celebrities were chauffeured around in. I guess dad still considered himself to be of that calibre.
Once inside, I found him sitting at the bar. Usually I avoided Lastlings, Phil-U’s most popular sports bar, but it was generally only filled with college students at night.
I slipped into the barstool beside dad. We didn’t hug or kiss each other on the cheek in greeting. I doubt we’d ever be there.
“Hey.”
He nodded. “Hi.” He cleared his deep throat. “I ordered for you.”
“Ugh, okay.”
“The salmon poke bowl. It’s what you got last time.”
And probably what I would’ve ordered again this time, which is why I decided to let his presumption drop.
His attention was focussed on the screen above us, which was playing a Bruins versus Islanders game. I didn’t care for either team, but the distraction was good.
“How are classes?” he asked.
“Good.”
“Have you spoken to your brother recently?”
“I saw him yesterday.”
“He’s good?”
I nodded. “Everything’s good, dad.” I took a sip of the soda he’d apparently also ordered for me. “How are you?”
Those three syllables were hard to get out .
I hated this awkwardness with my dad, but the reality was that it existed and I honestly couldn’t imagine it ever not existing.
“Good.”
God, if one of us said good again I was going to hurl.
The waitress appeared, setting our meals on the bar. We reached for the salt at the same time. With a small smile, dad leant back and gestured for me to go first. I handed it to him once I was done.
“How are things going with the house? My financial advisor said the payment went through.”
I nodded. “The mortgage is cleared.”
Owning a house outright at the age of twenty-one was strange. It wasn’t an amazing house by any means, but it had been something my mum worked hard for, and something that had been able to set me up.
The money I received after she died had been enough to clear the mortgage and pay for her funeral. Plus a little leftover for either a holiday after college or a down payment on a new house far from here.
There’d been no backlog of medical expenses. Dad had taken care of those.
“Are you planning to watch Tanner on Saturday?” he asked.
I nodded. “He’s sorting out my ticket. Phil-U versus Allentown, it should be a good game.”
Dad picked up his beer. “It always is.”