“Rock?” she asked, leaning back to glance at my face. She had tear tracks running down her cheeks, but I didn’t wipe them away. She didn’t like it when people touched her face, only letting me get near it if I was using a washcloth.
“You know it. You ready?”
She smacked the side of her suit and I nodded. “I know. We need to put the floaty things back in. We’ll do that when we get there.”
I got her back in the car and looked over the door at Mel. “Can you drive?”
“No problem,” she murmured, rounding the car and sliding into the driver’s seat.
“Goddammit,” I whispered one more time before opening my door.
* * *
“Dad, I’ve been calling you for hours,” I huffed into the phone as I opened my car door. “I have to work and you’re supposed to be watching Reb. I’m on the way to your house right now, so you better be home.” I pressed my finger hard against the screen of my phone, irritated that I couldn’t slam it shut. Flip phones really had been satisfying when you were pissed at someone.
It was two weeks after I’d seen Will at the gas station, and shit had gone mostly back to normal. We’d had a good day with Rocky and Mel, and by the time we’d gotten home that afternoon, Reb had been too tired to pester me about Will. She’d pretty much just sat on the couch and watched Sesame Street for the few hours before bed.
The next morning, she’d been back with the questions, though. I guess it was just one question, really. All day, every day. “Will?”
There wasn’t any answer she accepted. I could distract her for a while, but it always came back to Will.
I ground my teeth as I headed toward my dad’s house. I was starting my first night shift at the hospital and I was already so tired, I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it. Rebel woke up at four in the morning pretty much every day, so both of us were usually dragging ass by the afternoon. I hadn’t asked for the shift change, but apparently, I didn’t have a choice in the matter. Unfortunately, the daycare we loved that Rebel had attended for years wasn’t open in the evenings. Thankfully, my dad had a room for Reb at his house, and he’d agreed that she could stay the night with him when I was working. I wasn’t sure how other single parents did it.
We pulled slowly up my dad’s driveway as I tried to avoid all of the holes that the winter rains had dug into the gravel. My dad lived on some property outside of town, and every year, he had to have his road re-graded because water had completely decimated it during the rainy season. It drove me nuts that he refused to pave it. It wasn’t like he didn’t have the money.
When we got to the house, there was a car in the driveway that I didn’t recognize, and it irritated me because he knew he was supposed to be watching Rebel. I wasn’t sure if it was a client or a woman, but I didn’t really give a shit. I only had a half an hour to get to work on time, so they were just going to have to deal with a busy three year old running around the house.
“Come on, Reb,” I said, climbing out of the car. She was busy on the Kindle she’d gotten last Christmas, and didn’t even bother acknowledging me as I moved around to her side of the car and unbuckled her from her seat belt.
I carried her toward the front porch, practically dragging her overnight bag behind us. The thing was packed full of her pajamas, three pairs of clean socks, her blanket, four stuffed animals, a change of clothes for the next day, and the ratty old towel that Will had put her to bed with when she was little and she couldn’t sleep without. My dad’s door was closed, and he didn’t answer when I kicked it repeatedly with my foot. I reached out and flung it open, glad it wasn’t locked so I didn’t have to go back to the car for my keys.#p#分页标题#e#
“Dad, you better be decent!” I yelled as I closed the door behind me. “You said you’d watch Reb tonight!”
I moved into the house, and only after I’d gotten like six feet from the front door did I notice how unnaturally quiet the place was. The hair on the back of my neck prickled, but before I could turn around, it was too late.
“Come in,” an accented voice called from the kitchen, making my head snap up.
There were two men standing there, one older and fat, the other tall and bulky. The short one had his arms crossed and was relaxing against the countertop, and the big one was standing with his legs braced wide, his hands loose at his sides.
My dad was tied to a chair in the middle of the kitchen, and his face was almost unrecognizable.
I made a noise in the back of my throat, and for a split second, I wanted to run toward him. But then Rebel shifted a little in my arms and I immediately took a step backward as some character on her Kindle giggled.