Page 16 of Icing the Enemy

Wiping away the tears, I hustle upstairs. I throw my makeup and hair accessories into my bag, then I shimmy out of the dress and lay it on the bed. Dixie whimpers. “It’s okay, girl. We’re going home,” I say as I let her out of the kennel.

Now how are we getting back to Tennessee? As I break down the kennel, I notice Corbin’s valet ticket to his truck.

“Hmm.”

I know this is wrong in all kinds of ways, but I can’t be in the same room with the father who abandoned me and believes that’s okay.

“Let’s go, Dixie.”

She whimpers again and looks at me with her big brown eyes, which look sad. When we reach the valet, the man takes my ticket. While he runs to bring the truck around, I ask the doorman where the nearest bus station is located.

When we settle into the car and follow the directions the Skyloft doorman gave me, Dixie sits on her butt, staring at me.

“We’re just borrowing it, Dixie.”

She sure knows how to make a human feel guilty. Corbin will understand. He’s the most caring person I’ve ever met. And wow, when he kissed me, desire penetrated every cell of my body. The last thing I want to do is leave, but this is an emergency.

I push the gear shift into park and put the keys under the mat before gathering my belongings and Dixie. With forty-two dollars left on my prepaid credit card, I buy a ticket to Nashville, leaving me with seven dollars to my name.

Dixie gets comfortable in my lap for the six-hour ride. I stroke her golden-brown hair as I lean my head against the window watching the Atlanta skyline fade into a blanket of midnight blue. Looking at the sky makes me think of Corbin, the wedding, and all the seemingly normal professional athletes I met.

More tears fill my lids and threaten to spill over. I bury my nose in Dixie’s hair and sob, feeling completely alone in this world.

I’ve always hidden my pain, not wanting anyone to think they have the power to break me, but in ten minutes, my biological father shattered the pieces that I had just put together. And allI can do is cry myself to sleep and hope that I’ll wake up with a plan to destroy my dad.

The Sunday sun warms my face and jostles me awake, and I can see Nashville in the distance. I need to figure out how to get home with seven dollars. A pickup service will be at least thirty dollars since I live far from downtown, so I call one of my co-workers, Jennie Rae, but it goes to voicemail.

By the time we arrive at the bus station, she hasn’t called back so Dixie and I take a bus that will get us a few miles from my apartment. My phone finally rings, and it’s Jennie Rae.

“Thanks for calling me back. Would you mind picking up Dixie and me at J Christopher’s?” I ask.

“Sure, be there in ten minutes. Just gotta get dressed.”

Jennie Rae has a million questions. “Why did you go to Atlanta? Where’s your car? Did you get it towed?”

But she isn’t really listening until I say, “A professional hockey player came to my rescue, and we went to a wedding together. We kissed, and it was freaking amazing. But then I stole his car and took a bus home.”

She glances at me with one eyebrow raised. “Say what? Now this is a story.”

“I’m exhausted. I’ll tell you all about it at work tomorrow. Thanks for picking us up,” I say and lean over to give her a hug.

“Can’t wait.”

I put some ground chicken into Dixie’s bowl with a little dry dog food on top. She loves to eat all day, so I make her work for the chicken. I collapse on the couch, thinking I should have just told Corbin I was leaving. Or asked him if he wanted to bring me home, but I didn’t want him to miss his friend’s wedding festivities.

As Dixie finds comfort in her plush pink bed, she lets out a contented sigh and closes her eyes. She wraps her paws around her favorite toy, a stuffed unicorn, and nuzzles her nose into itssoft, fluffy mane. The sound of her peaceful snores lulls me to sleep.

A few minutes or hours later, I have no idea how long we’ve been asleep, a loud knock on the door jolts Dixie awake. She perks up and looks toward the front door, her ears perked and tail wagging with excitement.

"Who could that be?" I mumble, only half-awake.

Rubbing my eyes, I slowly make my way to the door, tripping over my overnight bag. When I open the door, a uniformed police officer asks, “Ms. James?”

Dixie jumps onto the couch, and I look over my shoulder, feeling her worry.

“Yeah.”

“You’re wanted in connection with a stolen vehicle. You’ll need to come to the station with me.”

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