Chapter 22 #2
Val laughed but shook her head. "I'm using enough “mind” real estate worrying about Will fighting crime; I don't want to worry about the man I'm dating too. I want to date someone with a safe job. Why couldn't Will take a leaf out of Jace's handbook and pick a safer career?
"But pro soccer players get in nasty accidents all the time."
"That's supposed to put my mind at ease?"
A few minutes into our wait, one of Will's coworkers, Theresa, spotted us.
"Hey, girls. Waiting for Will? He's been in the captain's office for a while."
"Is he in trouble?" I asked.
She leaned in conspiratorially. "Not at all. Our captain wants to promote him."
"Now look at that!" Val exclaimed. "We didn't know."
Just then, Will stepped through the door at the far end of the room, waving at us and striding in our direction. Theresa took off with a wink. Val and I exchanged a glance. Yep, teasing was officially on the table.
"Sorry I kept you waiting. Captain wouldn't shut up," he said, kissing us each on the cheeks and pushing the elevator button.
"No problem. We've heard some interesting rumors," Val said.
"Which you failed to mention this morning," I continued. Will was glancing from Val to me, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
"Or Friday at dinner. I don't remember him mentioning he's going to be promoted,” Val said.
"Hey, maybe promotion is a bad word and we don't know it."
Will was grinning openly now. "You two going to ride my ass during the entire lunch?"
"Maybe," I conceded as the elevator dinged and the doors opened.
We walked inside the elevator, and Will waited until the doors closed to speak.
"Captain's trying to persuade me. I don't think it's for me."
"Why not?" Val asked.
"I don’t like deskwork, and the promotion would come with a lot of handshaking and paperwork."
The elevator opened, and we all remained silent as we walked through the station.
When we stepped out in the blinding sun, Will continued. “I like the work in the field, catching criminals, so they’re not a danger to anyone anymore. It still eats at me that the culprit in Mom and Dad's hit and run was never caught."
Val straightened up, expelling a breath. I'd always known this was what partially motivated Will to join the police force.
No one spoke on the way to the Mexican restaurant we'd chosen as our lunch spot. I had no idea what to say, and by the looks of it, neither did Val, which was worrying. My older sister always knew what to say.
We sat in a corner of the restaurant, and a waiter took our order right away. I wanted chili con carne. Will and Val went for beef burritos.
"How was the school event today?" she asked after the waiter left.
"Same as usual," Will replied. "By the way, I overheard a conversation between Milo and another kid. Milo asked him how it felt to have a dad and said that his had left when he was little because he didn't love him and his mother."
"What?" Val and I asked at the same time. I never badmouthed Jeff in front of him. Never. Whenever he asked about his father, I was vague on why he wasn't part of our lives.
"He must have heard us talk," my sister muttered, mirroring my thoughts. Damn it! How had I been so careless? What was going through my boy's mind? Or heart? I had half of my chili con carne left, but I all of a sudden lost my appetite.
"Jeff has sent me a couple of e-mails," I said. I shared everything with my siblings. They'd always been my rock, and I valued their advice.
"You mean beyond the yearly booty call?" Val asked through gritted teeth.
"Yes. I ignored the first e-mails, but then he said he had rights and wanted to do this amicably.”
"One of these days, I'm going to find something to charge that bastard with," Will grumbled. "Or take matters into my own hands and give him another black eye."
"He abandoned Milo. What rights exactly does he think he has?” Val asked through gritted teeth.
"I replied and asked him just that. But he didn’t reply back.”
“Typical of him,” Val said. "Don't lose any sleep over this.
We're here for you, okay? Anything you need, tell us.
" Val took one of my hands in hers, as if feeling that anxiety was gnawing at me.
I couldn't explain why I was nervous—legally, I had the upper hand.
But a pit formed in my stomach every time I thought about the semi-threatening e-mail.
After finding out Milo had overheard me insulting Jeff, I couldn't help but feel like I was failing at parenting.
"Let's circle back to the promotion," Val suggested, smiling sweetly at Will. I knew her effort was partly so she'd take my mind off my troubles. "Where the captain fails, we can succeed."
"Yeah, unlike him, we know what works on you. Also, we're related, so we have a have an ace up our sleeve—we can pull out the emotional card."
"You girls give yourselves too much credit," Will informed us.
"Might we remind you that we have a documented history of talking you into things? Remember when we convinced you to play laser tag with us after you swore you'd never do it? And we beat you?"
He slapped his forehead theatrically. "Not that again. You've been holding that over my head for too long, so I've got to come clean. I let you win that one."
I'd suspected that might have been the case for years now, but hearing it out loud still stung. I took great pride in our one and only victory.
Val chose the path of denial. "He's trying to save his own ego. We'll let him think we've bought it."