When they’re all loud laughter, my dad says, “Dial it back. There are female ears present now.”
I blush. “I don’t mind.”
“See, Hart? I bet Hailey would like to play this game,” Dean says.
Now that I’m out here in the woods with him every day, I won’t be able to dodge talking to Dean forever like I’d hoped. But for now, I avoid returning his smile by zeroing in on my dad’s reaction.
“Absolutely not,” he barks.
“What game?” I ask, my curiosity getting the best of me.
“Oh, come on, Supt. It’ll be fun! You can tell her all about how she?—”
“Not funny, McCafferty,” my dad says, and I hear this rumbly sound follow it.
Is he…laughing?
I look over at him, and his shoulders bounce.
Heislaughing.
I’m sure I’ve heard my dad laugh at some point. But for the life of me, I don’t remember it. It’s the most lighthearted sound.
I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to understand it. In this light, with these guys… He belongs here. I may not know this version of him that they do, but I want to. And I think this game might be the way to do that.
“I want to hear it!” I burst out.
Mostly because I can’t believe my dad dated someone. When did he have the time?
With an eyeroll, he begrudgingly lets Jackson continue.
“So, Aunt May was here for the winter carnival last year.It’s this big event the town hosts where businesses have elaborate sculptures carved out of ice and enter them into a competition. She’s a huge fantasy fan. And when she saw a sculpture of a dragon, she asked Hart to take her picture riding it. But he couldn’t figure out how to get the camera open.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Ramirez says, and the whole crew laughs along with him.
I glance at my dad and he’s touching his mustache in nervous strokes, but he’s still smiling.
“She was sitting on that thing for a good three minutes until he finally got the shot,” he continues. “And when she stood up… she ripped the crotch clean out of her pants.”
“No!” I gasp.
My dad’s cheeks blanch. It’s endearing.
“He had to fashion his coat into a diaper to get her out of there.”
He looks at me then, and we share the first smile we have in a long time.
I like this game. Done Me Dirty, they call it. I’ve been on a lot of awful dates in my life, so it’s not hard to come up with one. Maybe slightly more embarrassing with my fatheranda guy who I’m crushing on present. But if I want them to be vulnerable with me, I need to be vulnerable back. One dirty dating story for another.
“I’ll go next,” I offer.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
REED
My teeth clench when Hailey starts in on her dating story.
“The first EMT job I ever took was with the Public Health Department. I was assigned to a homeless outreach program, and one of the guys I was helping was a transplant from Texas. We’d conduct health assessments, treat infections, administer vaccines, but this guy didn’t need any of that. He needed a job.
