Chapter 21 #2
Zara gave him a jaunty little salute as she grabbed the garlic bread.
Rick froze partway through toeing off his second shoe.
“Dad,” Nika chided. “Be nice.”
“I’m nice,” he said, affronted. “Mostly.”
She sighed, but left to follow Camryn, throwing Rick an expression of apology.
Her dad stepped in front of him, his arms crossed. Rick straightened up, standing stock-still as her dad examined him. “You’re Rick?”
“Yes,” Rick said. “Sir,” he added belatedly.
That seemed to amuse him, and he held out a hand. “Dawson.”
Rick shook his hand, hoping he would have fingers afterward, though Dawson surprised him by only offering a firm handshake.
“You sleep here the other night?” he asked.
Rick hesitated—the smart thing would be to lie.
In his experience, fathers did not want boys sleeping in the same house as their daughters, especially when they weren’t home.
But he sensed that Dawson, like Nika, preferred the truth, and he didn’t want to start things off by fucking that up. “On the couch.”
“Do you think that was okay?” He gave no indication to Rick how to answer that question. He couldn’t tell if they were in trouble or not, so he kept going the way he’d started.
“I don’t know,” Rick said. “I figured you wouldn’t be happy about it, but…” Rick swallowed. Nika’s dad watched him, waiting for him to finish. “She was scared and not sleeping. I guess I thought if I was on the couch, she’d get some sleep.”
“And if you got caught?”
“She needed me there, so I was there.” Rick shrugged. “Worth it.”
Dawson nodded, putting a hand on Rick’s shoulder. “Thank you for putting my daughter first. You ever stop putting her first, even for a second, and no one will find your body.”
“Then we shouldn’t have a problem, sir.”
“I suppose given the circumstances, I shouldn’t joke about murdering you. I’ll have to come up with a different threat.” He gave Rick’s shoulder a squeeze. “You know I wasn’t being literal, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
Dawson sighed. “And the ‘sir’ thing was amusing, but it’s going to get old fast. Call me Dawson, everyone else does. Now, who’s hungry?”
They all sat down at the table, taking a few minutes to fill their plates and settle in. While they ate, Nika and Rick took turns telling them about Allison Haysmith.
“She told you a lot,” Martina said, “which is surprising, since she didn’t like you at all.”
“She’s doing her classes online.” Rick served himself a much smaller portion than he usually would. “I think she’s lonely.”
“I’m not arguing with you,” Nika said, “but I also think she was throwing sheep eyes at Rick a lot.”
Rick paused. “What does that mean?”
Nika batted her eyes at him. “That’s what I mean.”
Rick flushed. “I don’t think it was that.”
“You wouldn’t,” Martina said evenly.
Zara pushed her food around with her fork, barely looking up. “So, did she say what sent her over the edge?”
“I think it was the combination of things,” Nika said, cutting into a stuffed shell with her fork.
Zara relaxed. “That’s good.”
Cam looked up at her sharply.
“I mean, not good,” Zara said quickly, “but you know what I mean.”
Rick wasn’t entirely sure what she meant but was distracted by Nika, who was staring at her dad intently.
“Dad, are you okay?” she asked.
Halfway through Rick and Nika’s recitation, Dawson had put his head in his hands, his fingertips rubbing his temples. “Can’t say I’m loving the fact that you’ve decided it was okay to try to track down a murderer.”
“Am I grounded?” Nika asked, sounding at least a little contrite.
He looked up, fingers still at his temples. “Would that help?”
She took a bite and chewed, considering. “Probably not?”
“I’d prefer it if you stopped.” He collapsed back into his chair. “But please be careful.”
Nika reached over and patted his hand. “It’s okay, Dad. I had my Mace.”
He buried his face in his hands again, muttering, “Have children, they said. It will be fun, they said.”
“Pretty sure no one has ever said that,” Martina offered. “And if they did, you got snowed.”
“Be nice,” Dawson said, picking up his fork again. “You’re eating my food.”
“Dinner is great, by the way,” Camryn chirped.
Dawson just looked at her.
Camryn grinned.
He handed her the basket of garlic bread. “You, I like.”
“It sounds like her dad has custody of her now—or am I understanding that wrong?” Martina asked, taking them back to the original topic.
“Yeah,” Rick said. “I guess he’d been trying since the separation, but Allison’s mom had been fighting him. Allison made it sound like she hasn’t seen much of her mom in a while.”
Dawson frowned, reaching for a piece of garlic bread. “He has full custody?”
When Nika nodded, Dawson’s frown deepened as he tore the piece of garlic bread in two.
“Speaking as someone who has gone through the process, that’s not easy to do unless one parent either signs off on it or the courts have a really good reason.
Not when they live close enough to share custody easily. ”
“Allison didn’t go into it too much,” Rick said, taking another bite, “but I think her mom was pretty controlling. Lots of pressure. Her dad, not so much.” With the talking to distract him, he’d managed to eat a few bites, and suddenly he’d been ravenous. He was moving on to seconds.
Zara looked skeptical as she pushed the last of her food around her plate with her fork. “You buying her story?”
Nika put another small helping of salad into her bowl. “I think so, yes.”
“She seemed, I don’t know, a lot more chill, for one,” Rick said. “She told me to tell Martina she was sorry for what she said, and I think she meant it. I don’t forgive her, but I think she meant it.”
Martina made a face but didn’t comment.
“So where does that leave us?” Martina asked.
“At a dead end,” Nika admitted.
Zara groaned. “We’re never getting back to school.”
“You want to go back?” Martina asked.
“Not if it’s a safety risk, but my brother’s home, too. He plays trombone, and he’s practicing night and day to make first chair.” Zara stabbed a bite of salad aggressively with her fork. “If I have to listen to that much longer, I might welcome the sweet arms of death.”
Nika’s dad pointed his fork at her. “Not funny.” He returned to his meal. “We’ll just have to hope that it will be over soon. Until then, I’d like to remind all of you not to go anywhere alone if you can help it.”
Nika pushed around the salad with her fork. “I think it might be smart for us to start sharing our locations with each other. Just…you know. Just in case.”
Zara pulled out her phone. “I’ll drop it in the chat. Let Alexis and Landon know. If they say no, it’s fine, but after Paxton…”
Rick suddenly regretted eating anything at all. He set down his fork, willing his stomach to settle.
“After Paxton, any safety precaution seems like a good idea,” Camryn finished quietly.
No one argued with her.