Chapter 12 #2
"He's not the average dad."
"No," I said, thinking of my childhood wish for a normal dad. One who would take care of me instead of needing me to watch out for him. "No, he's not."
"The Winters know you're behind Cynthia's party. They know who you are."
"I assumed they knew who I was since they had you spy on me to make sure I didn't cause any trouble," I said bitterly. Evers didn't contradict my harsh words. Instead, he surprised me.
"They want to meet you. I tried to talk them into waiting until we know what your father is mixed up in, but they don't care. Aiden said it's time."
"Why? Why now? If they've known all this time who I am, that I was around, why wait?"
Evers rubbed a hand against the back of his neck and looked away.
"It's partly our fault. You seemed innocent enough, but your dad has always been sketchy.
They've had enough scandal in their lives.
When you turned up, practically on their doorstep, I talked them into waiting.
Then, by the time I was sure you weren't a threat, your dad—"
Evers shook his head. "Maybe we're all a little overprotective.
I was a kid when James and Anna were murdered and in college when Hugh and Olivia died.
The media were relentless. Vicious. Your father is a loose cannon, and when we saw what he was capable of, we wanted to keep him far away from the family. "
"And that meant keeping me away," I said, putting the pieces together.
"We could have handled it differently," he admitted. "Maybe we should have. Jacob liked you when he met you during Axel's thing. He voted to bring you into the family."
"And you talked him out of it," I said flatly.
"Not at first. Not until I looked into your dad."
I sighed. I wanted to be angry. Looking around the shabby, sordid disaster of my father's life, I couldn't argue with the Sinclairs wanting to keep us away from their friends.
I didn't want their money, but my dad would have hit them up for cash while they were still shaking hands.
"It doesn't matter now," Evers said. "I talked to Aiden yesterday. They want to meet you before the party."
"I… I wasn't going to… I saw the guest list and…"
Evers laughed and shook his head. "What were you going to do? Hide? I've seen you run parties before, you're out on the floor the entire time. How are you going to manage the party from your office?"
My shoulders slumped, and I gave a little shrug, laughing at myself. "I hadn't worked that out yet. Honestly, I've had enough to worry about getting the party put together. And, just so you know, I could absolutely run the party from my office if I had to."
"Well, now you don't have to. They want to meet you. It won't be all of them. Vance and Maggie, Aiden and Violet, Charlie and Lucas, and Lise and Riley. The rest of them can't make it. Lucas and Riley work for us. They'll be at the party doubling as security, working undercover."
"Can we put it off? Do it another time?" I asked, nerves creeping in. The Winters family was larger than life. I wasn't ready to meet them. Not yet. Not with everything else that was going on.
"You might be able to put off the rest of them, but if you try to hide from Charlie, she'll hunt you down. Nobody told her about you, and she is pissed. You don't want to see Charlie when she's pissed. It was all Lucas could do to convince her to wait until Friday."
"But why? Why would they care? I'm a nobody."
Evers' eyes narrowed on my face, confusion and annoyance flashing through them. "You're not a nobody, Summer."
"I'm a nobody compared to the Winters family."
"No, you're somebody no matter who you're compared with.
And you're a part of the Winters family.
You think they have relatives coming out of the woodwork to hassle them, but they don't. You and your father.
That's it. Daniel had two sons who are both dead, and Amelia never had children. They've lost enough family."
"This is weird, " I blurted out. "You don't understand, Evers, my dad made me promise. He doesn't get worked up about much, but he made me swear I'd stay away from them."
"Your dad's not here."
An idea occurred to me, and I looked down at my phone, wondering. "My dad's not answering my calls," I said slowly, gears turning in my mind, "but I wonder what would happen if I told him I was going to a party with the Winters. I wonder if that would get him to call."
Evers gave me a speculative look. "Do it. Call him. If you call now, he'll have plenty of time to try to stop you."
I pulled up my dad's number and hit the call button. As I'd expected, it went straight to voicemail. When I finished listening to my dad's vague half-asleep voice invite me to leave a message, I did.
"Dad, it's Summer. I've been trying to call you.
Listen, remember how you told me not to get in touch with the Winters?
Well, I'm doing a party next week, and they're all invited.
They said they want to meet me. So if that's a problem, if you still want me to stay away, call me back, okay?
I don't want to break my promise, but I'm not sure I can get out of it without a good reason. "
I paused, the whole crazy situation swirling in my head, wondering what else to say. Where are you? What have you done? What are you mixed up in?
All I said was, "I love you, Dad."
There was nothing more we could do in the abandoned ranch house. I got back in the car while Evers locked up, clutching my phone in my hand. I willed it to ring. Willed my father to reach out. To call. To give me answers.
The party grew closer, and still, he didn't call. Every day that passed without hearing his voice, my worry grew.
Finally, the day of the party arrived.
Smokey Winters was out of time.
So was I.