Page 127 of Freefall

32

HARPER

My parents’ porch swing sways beneath me as I check my phone for what feels like the hundredth time.

TJ should be here any minute. I should probably double-check my batteries and make sure all of the memory cards are clear, but all I can think about is Nate.

I came to your house.

The words have been on loop in my head ever since he walked out a week ago.

I spent nine years believing he wanted nothing to do with me because my mom made a choice that wasn’t hers to make. I almost marched over here to confront her a dozen times, but each time, I chickened out.

What do I even say?

I know you’re the reason my daughter didn't have a father for the first eight years of her life.

None of it even makes sense. She’s the one who’s welcomed Nate with open arms these past few weeks. If anyone were to run him off, I thought it would have been my dad. Then again, she knew why he wasn’t in our lives. Dad didn’t.

As if I had conjured him up, the screen door creaks open behind me.

“Are you sure you don’t want us to keep Daisy overnight?” my dad asks.

I look through the doorway to where Daisy is lying on her belly on the living room floor, completely absorbed in her coloring.

“No,” I say quietly.

The photoshoot location with TJ is about an hour away, but it should wrap up by dinner. Even though I’ve been avoiding my mom, I asked them to babysit. Maybe I should have asked Nate instead. He would have agreed, but I asked for space, and I have to honor that.

“I’ll be home before bedtime.”

He nods. “Everything okay, kiddo?”

Not even close.

“Yeah.” I force a small smile as headlights sweep across the driveway and TJ’s cobalt blue pickup crunches along the gravel. “Thanks again for watching her.”

“Anytime.”

I sling my camera bag over my shoulder and head towards the truck. “I thought you were standing me up,” I tease.

“Sorry. Traffic was brutal coming out of Emberfield,” TJ says gruffly. “People getting an early start on the weekend, I guess.”

I quirk a brow. “Sounds like a convenient excuse.”

He laughs as he hops out and helps me load my gear into the truck bed. We ride in comfortable silence for a while, but I don’t miss the way TJ glances at me every so often.

“Is everything okay?” he finally asks.

I let out a long sigh. Even though I quite literally just lied to my dad’s face, I don’t think I have another one in me. “Honestly? I’ve been better.”

“Want to talk about it?”

I hesitate for half a second before I decide to rip the band-aid off. “Real talk?”

He nods. “Always.”

“I think I may have fucked something up, but it’s too late to do anything about it.”