Page 84 of Bring me Back

“Nothing.” It was quick, but he spoke over me. “Don’t lie.”

I sighed. Daddy wasn’t dumb. Of course something happened. I left for the night, something I never did before, and came back crushed. Even though he never witnessed how I looked when I arrived from Daniel’s, my misery was palpable.

Dad stepped inside the room, a vein on his neck pulsed. That wasn’t the Preston White I knew, the easygoing, loose laugh at the hardware store. He looked bigger, broader, commanding

. “Bug…” He shook his head, daring me to lie once more.

“I can’t now,” I told him. “I can’t talk right now.”

A beat. Dad was so tall, so big in the eyes of his only daughter. He looked ready to murder, and I wiped a lonely tear away. He took his eyes from me and looked at Mom’s portrait, like she was there, a mediator between us.

For a second, we both stared at her, silently begging she would barge at the front door, talking fast and a lot. To fill the house with her voice, with her mess, with her loud TV as she cooked. All those little fragments of memories. I gripped onto them and prayed she came alive from the picture and resumed activities sixteen years after her death.

She didn’t. So eventually, we faced each other. The only ones still alive. The hole in our house never felt so big. I always needed a mother, but now? I screamed for one. I craved a lap to cry on, kind words and a caress in my hair.

“I’ll wait, bug,” Dad said. “I’ll wait until you’re ready.”

The tiniest of smiles came over my lips. Grateful, if not for anything. I was grateful for Dad.

Iditched the tray to the side and hurried to the kitchen. A busboy made a face when I almost bumped into him on my way in. Heart thumping fast in my chest, I let out a breath, combing my hair out of my face just to catch Torres at the grill watching me.

I opened my mouth to explain myself. But what explanation did I have?

I was supposed to be working when I couldn’t feign illness anymore, and now I was hiding in the kitchen. But I couldn’t go out there.

The whole of Bluehaven knew something happened between Daniel, Katie and me. The scene in front of his house wasn’t left unnoticed and of course all kinds of gossip flew about. Things about Daniel being a predator and getting on with us when we were at Bluehaven High. Talks of a love triangle, a threesome and everything in between.

Every single night I waited for Dad to come talk to me, demand answers for whatever he heard around town. But like the last time, the stories didn’t reach him, thank goodness. Maybe people had just a little sense.

It wasn’t new to me. I could handle Bluehaven gossip. What I couldn’t handle was to be in the same room ashim. So I was holding on well, ignoring the whispers and just going about my business, but when I saw the flash of caramel hair, the plaid shirt, and forearms dotted with blond hairs…

I couldn’t.

I ran.

Marian entered the kitchen, wagging a yellow pencil in my direction. “Why are you hiding in my kitchen?”

I lifted a shoulder.

“You’re hiding, right?”

I twisted my lips, but eventually nodded fast. She dipped her chin. “I’ll cover for you.”

I breathed relieved, and Torres offered me a can of soda with a smile. I took it and drank, thinking about what I was supposed to do if Daniel came to Torres’ every day. How the hell was I supposed to work?

Ten minutes later, Marian was back. “You know, I was ready to talk you through a breakup when you were a teenager. This talk is overdue.”

I hopped down from the counter I was sitting on and straightened up my apron. “You don’t have to talk me through anything.”

“You hear that?” she asked her husband, who flipped a burger while snickering. “She’s hiding in my kitchen and tells me it’s all good.”

Torres chuckled, and I frowned at his back. “I said I don’t need to talk through it. Not that it’s ok.”

Marian looked me up and down. “The man looks like a damn movie star and when he said your name, it was like he was slashing a part of his arm. What did he do so bad, Hallie?”

To this, even Torres stopped working to face me. I closed my eyes, and I shook my head.

“Tell me you don’t listen to gossip, Hals,” Marian said. “That story about him and…”