I looked at him, then at her, then at him again. “You can’t do this. It’s insane.”
“Well,” Opal said, clearing her throat. “That’s also a strong word.”
“You don’t want to do this,” I told her. “He’s leaving. You know that, right? For Hawaii.”
“Mclean,” my dad said.
“No,” I told him. “It was one thing when it was Lindsay, or Sherry in Petree, or Lisa in Montford Falls, or Emily in Westcott.” Opal raised her eyebrows, looking at my dad, who moved the pillow again. “But I like you, Opal. You’ve been nice to me. And you should know what’s going to happen. He’s just going to disappear, and you’ll be here, calling and wondering why he doesn’t call back, and—”
“Mclean,” my dad repeated. “Stop.”
“No,” I said. “Youstop. Don’t do this.”
“I’m not,” he replied.
I just stood there, not sure what to say. I could see Opal out of the corner of my eye, watching me carefully, but I kept my eyes on my dad. At least, for a moment. Then, I shifted my gaze, suddenly noticing the kitchen behind him. There were grocery bags piled on the countertops, and a couple of cabinets were open, revealing cans and a few boxes of food inside. Some noodles and a couple of tomatoes sat piled by a cutting board, and there was a new glass pan, sitting rinsed on the dish rack, waiting to be used.
“What’s going on here?” I asked, turning my gaze back to him.
He smiled at me, then looked at Opal. “Come sit down,” he said. “We’ll fill you in.”
Seventeen
“Oh, no,” Deb said. “What happened to my STOW sheet? Has anyone seen it?”
“Nope,” Heather, who was bent over a corner of the model, sticking on bushes in a local arboretum, replied. “Maybe you lost it.”
“Heather, stop,” Riley told her. “Deb, it’s got to be around here someplac. Where was the last place you had it?”
“If I knew that, it wouldn’t be lost,” Deb said, walking to the table and pushing some papers around. “This is crazy! I can’t finish this tonight without the STOW!”
“Uh-oh,” Ellis, on the other side of the model, said. “Get ready for a FODF.”
I looked up from where I was adding some sidewalk tiles. “FODF? ”
“Full-On Deb Freak-out,” Heather explained.
“I heard that!” Deb called out. “And FYI, that is not even a good acronym. It’s supposed to be a real word, not a made-up one.”
“FODF isn’t a real word?” Ellis asked. “Since when?”
“Time?” Deb asked, bustling past. “Anyone?”
“You have a watch on,” Heather told her.
“It’s nine thirty-two,” Riley said. “Which means—”
“Twenty-eight minutes!” Deb shrieked. “Twenty-eightminutes before we absolutely have to be out of here. Opal’s orders.”
“I thought Opal didn’t even work at Luna Blu anymore,” Riley said.
“She doesn’t,” Deb said. “But she owns the building. So she makes the rules.”
I picked up another bush, carefully adding it on. “She doesn’t own it yet,” I said. “And even when she does, it’ll just be a percentage. The Melmans and some other partners will own the rest.”
“The Melmans?” Riley asked.
“Previous owners,” I told her. “They started this place, way back when.”
