Chapter 11
“My independence day is not all that it’s cracked up to be.”
-Cam
When running away from the World’s Most Uncomfortable Luncheon, it’s a good idea to have a destination in mind. That way, you don’t blindly run down a hall and end up in a garage on the other side of a McMansion. I’m standing in a four-car garage that has no vehicles in it. Which is weird.
Do Wysdom and Luke park outside?
“Mija,” Papa quietly slips into the garage behind me.
I hold up my hand. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Mija,” Papa says again, grabbing my hand and dragging me over to a bench near the door. “I know you don’twantto talk about it. But, I think youneedto.”
I shake my head. There’s no way I’m getting into this with my Papa of all people.
“When your friends couldn’t reach you by phone, they had Aaron call your Mama,” Papa explains. “He’s worried about you.”
I shrug. “I don’t know why he cares all of a sudden. We broke up more than twenty years ago.”
Papa gives me the stink eye. “He says you ran into each other two months ago.”
I duck my head. Shit. I didn’t expect him to find out that I snuck into town to see Carolina.
“You weren’t going to say hello to your family? We raised you better than this,” Papa clucks his tongue.
“I needed to stay incognito,” I whine like a petulant teenager that I am reduced to every time we talk. “I couldn’t waltz into the restaurant and run the risk of the bad guys finding me, or worse, my family.”
Papa considers this for a second before he plows ahead. “You know he asks about you all the time.”
“Who? The bad guy?”
“All of this sass,Mija! Where does it come from?”
“That’s how I was raised, I guess.”
“You’re deflecting,” Papa sighs.
“Don’t go using your social worker training on me,” I point at him.
He’s about to say something else when my phone buzzes in my back pocket. I pull it out.R.M. I hit ignore.
“Mija, if there’s someone else in your life, someone we don’t know about, by the way,” Papa narrows his eyes. “This is fine. But you need to say something to that man in there. He’s been pining for you since you broke up with him.”
My stomach clenches.
“Then, you took off for that job in Alaska,” Papa continues. “And he hasn’t seen you since.”
“There’s a reason for that,” I begin.
“You seemed so good together,Mija. Why did you break up with him? Was it because of that other fella? What was his name?”
I swallow down the bile in my throat. “Owen.”
“Right, Owen, were you in love with him? Is this why you left?”
I turn to look directly at my Papa. His sharp blue eyes missed nothing when we were growing up. He still had a full head of thick hair, even though it was more salt than pepper these days. And the man kept in shape. He and Mama must be working out together.
