Chapter 35 #2
“Is that the last of it?” my dad asks as we slide the dresser into my truck.
“Yeah. I think so.” I push the gate up and lock it in place.
“You need any help unloading it?”
“No. Tess and Kelly and a couple of Ewan’s friends are already there helping unload the truck full of stuff I had in my storage unit in Seattle,” I tell him.
If I’m lucky, Tess will have unpacked my kitchen by the time I return.
She was putting away my glasses when I left. “One of them will be able to help.”
“Alright. Well, let me know if you need anything,” he says, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.
“Will do. Thanks, dad.” I give him a quick hug, then hop in my truck to take the last of the stuff to my new place.
Tre and Kelly are carrying in the coffee table when I park at the curb.
The entire driveway is occupied by the moving truck full of my life from Seattle.
I could’ve gotten rid of more than I did before moving back to Kalomish, but…
even though I bought Dr. Restin’s practice, I guess I wasn’t certain I’d be staying long term.
I’m not sure when that changed, but it did.
“Hey Fiona,” Kelly calls, seeing me first since she’s walking backward toward the front door.
“Hey Kell. Hey Tre,” I say as I rush to get the door for Kelly, holding it open as they pass and I follow them through. “Where’s Lucas? I could use some help with the dresser in my truck.”
“Pretty sure he’s busy flirting with Tess,” Tre grumbles as they set the coffee table down, and Kelly laughs.
“Ah. I saw him casting glances in her direction before I left, but he’d been doing that for most of the morning.”
“I’ll give you a hand,” Tre says, moving back toward the door.
“Thanks.”
“So… How long until we let our friends know we’re dating?” Tre asks when we reach my truck. “Because your ass looks amazing in those shorts, and that shirt—”
“Really highlights my eyes?” I smirk, and he steps closer.
“Yes. Your eyes,” he agrees as his gaze lingers on my boobs. “And I’d really like to kiss you.”
“I don’t know. Another few weeks? If you can hold out that long,” I tease.
I’m still worried about the ATF. They don’t show any signs of leaving, and they can still come after both of us.
It’s not like our friends would say anything, but I’d also rather not put them in the position of having to lie for us.
He groans as the tailgate thunks down. “Fine. But only because I can see the finish line.”
“Tell me about it. Want to spend the night? Christen the new place?”
“Absolutely.”
“Good.” I smile as I jump into my truck and push the dresser toward Tre. “Damn,” I mutter.
“What?”
“I forgot my bike. I was going to ride it to work on Monday. I guess I can grab it tomorrow.”
“Don’t you and Kelly have plans to go climbing tomorrow?”
“Shit,” I groan. “We do.”
“So we’ll get it now,” Tre suggests. “Put the dresser in the bedroom and then go grab your bike. We’ll be back in half an hour. They won’t even notice we’re gone.”
“You just want a chance to be alone with me, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
I laugh. “Alright.” Tre extends his hand. I take it and then jump to the ground. We grab the dresser and haul it inside.
Five minutes later, we’re in the icy air conditioning of my truck, and Tre’s fingertips are trailing up and down my thigh.
“You know that’s incredibly distracting, right?”
“Want me to stop?” he asks, and there’s a bit of a dare underlying his words.
“No.”
After a few more minutes pass, he says, “We could christen your truck too. My car. Your office…”
“Yeah? Anywhere else you have in mind?”
“I can probably come up with something,” he tells me as I pull into my dad’s driveway.
“C’mon. You can take a look at the garage. See if you want to christen that too.”
Tre gets out when I do. “I’m pretty sure the answer is yes.”
As soon as we’re out of view from the street, he wraps an arm around my waist and I lean into him.
“In fact, if you want to do that now…” he murmurs, kissing the side of my neck.
“No, sorry. There are spiders everywhere in here.”
“You’re afraid of spiders?” Tre asks, sounding surprised.
“Not afraid. I just don’t like them.”
“So, afraid. Got it.”
I roll my eyes but say nothing, opting to grab my bike and get away from the spiders instead.
“Hold on a sec,” I say, leaning my bike against the house as we near the front. “I have to pee. You can come in. Say hi to my dad.”
“Or I could wait out here.”
“Are you afraid of my dad?” I ask, grinning.
“Yes. Definitely. Your father is terrifying, Fiona. And he hates me.”
“Yeah, well, he’s gonna have to get over it sometime. Come on.” I grab Tre’s hand and pull him toward the front door, unlocking it and stepping inside.
And then…
And then my brain breaks, and I stand there blinking, unable to move.
“Fiona,” Tre whispers, tugging on my hand, and my dad bolts upright. Off the topless woman he was making out with on our couch.
“Is that,” Tre continues, voice low, “your nurse?” at the same time I blurt, “Natalie?”
“Fiona? Shit!” Natalie shrieks as she sits up, her hands covering her boobs.
SOS. Come over when you’re done, I text Ewan. Bring more beer
“So your nurse’s name is Natalie?” Tre asks. He’s behind the wheel of my truck, driving us back to my new place.
“Tre.”
“I never knew that.”
“Not really the time, Tre,” I grumble.
“Yeah. Sorry.”
We fall into silence, and my brain immediately fills with the image of my dad’s face turning a deep crimson as he picked up Natalie’s shirt from the floor and shouted at me to ‘Get OUT, Fiona! Get out right now!’ Then Tre was pulling me backward and shutting the door without another word.
“So the festival,” I say, then fall silent again.
“What about the festival?” Tre finally asks.
“I don’t know. I was hoping you’d start talking. I could use the distraction.”
“Oh. Okay. Well. Jacob’s going to be a huge pain in the ass, obviously. I don’t know if he actually wants to be involved, or if he wants to swoop in at the last minute to claim credit if things go well.”
“Mmm.”
“What do you think about holding a raffle? And then donating the proceeds to the food bank?”
“Sounds like a good idea,” I reply noncommittally. “You’ll need prizes.”
“I know. I can donate some gift certificates for Betty’s, and I should be able to convince a lot of the other businesses to do the same.”
“That would work,” I agree.
Tre does his best to distract me with talk of the festival, but my brain is only partially paying attention. I keep turning over the scene at my dad’s house. Whatever that was, it definitely wasn’t a new thing.
How long have they been dating? I wonder.
Has it been since I got back and hired Natalie?
Why hide it? How did they even meet? Was it one of the times he came by my office to fix something?
Did no one know about this? All those nights he was gone…
was that where he was? What do I say on Monday?
I should probably just pretend it never happened…
“What’s your take on pie eating contests?”
“Hmm. What?”
“Pie eating contests. Should we have one?” Tre asks.
“Sure, why not? How about a three-legged race and a sack hop too?” I say, and I’m not sure if I’m joking. “Maybe the thing with the egg on the spoon.”
Tre snorts.
“A petting zoo,” I throw out.
“Apparently, you should be traumatized by the sight of your half-naked dad more often. It makes you surprisingly helpful.”
“Not funny,” I reply, lightly jabbing an elbow into his side.
“You’re right. Too soon.” He grins. “You think that’ll help or hurt my standing with him?”
“Honestly? I have no idea.”
By the time we make it back to my place, the last of the stuff from the moving truck has been brought inside, and Lucas is in the living room setting up my TV.
“Hey. I was going to ask you where you wanted this, but I didn’t know where you guys went, so I decided this seemed like a good spot. I can move it if you don’t like it, though,” he says, his voice a deep rumble.
“No. That’s good. Thanks for the help today. I’m going to order some pizzas. What do you want?”
“Whatever’s fine,” he says unhelpfully.
“Kelly, Tess!” I shout. “What do you guys want on the pizzas?”
“Tomatoes and mushrooms,” Tess yells.
“Sausage and onion,” Kelly calls, her voice echoing. She must be in the bathroom.
“Did you seriously send me an SOS text because you ran out of beer?” Ewan asks when he appears from the side of the house an hour and a half later. We’re all seated around the firepit, and the pizza boxes are mostly empty.
“What?”
“You sent me an SOS text and said to bring beer,” he reminds me.
“Oh. That.”
“Yeah. That.” He sets a case of beer next to the pizza boxes before searching through them for what’s left. “So what’s up?”
I glance at Tre, and he shrugs.
“I sort of walked in on dad this afternoon.”
“Ooh,” Tess murmurs as Kelly snickers.
“Walked in on dad…?”
“On top of a half-naked woman on the living room couch.”
Ewan bursts out laughing.
“It gets worse,” I say.
“How?” Lucas asks.
“It… was the nurse from my office. The half-naked woman was Natalie,” I explain, knowing none of them know her, and none of them will run their mouths about it.
“Oh damn,” Kelly says. “That’s awkward.”
“Yeah. Just a bit.”
“Not as awkward as the time I walked in on him and mom on the kitchen table,” Ewan says around a mouthful of pizza.
“You what? When the fuck did that happen?”
“The summer after eighth grade. Mid-act. And I had to sit across that table from them and eat dinner for almost two years. On a scale of one to awkward, I’d say this is a three at best.”
“I walked in on my parents when I was ten. Got the ‘when a man loves a woman talk’ real early,” Kelly chimes in, and we all burst out laughing.