Page 77 of Break Your Fall

I got the address from the letters. Reyna’s father wanted her to find him here. At an art gallery called D. Wescott Gallery & Studio.Hisart gallery.

My reflection stares back at me through the door before my eyes latch on toDominic Wescottprinted out on the glass. The place looks empty of people, but I pull the door and it gives, inviting me into a huge open space with high ceilings, hanging lights, and hanging art all over the white walls. I don’t take the time to explore the rest of the space before I’m calling out a hello.

“Hey, yeah—” A male voice startles out from behind the wall in front of me, then cuts off. There’s shuffling, then a man in a black tank top and denim jeans appears around the corner, immediately approaching me with good-natured embarrassment. “Sorry, no one’s supposed to be here,” the man explains with a laugh. “We open in an hour.”

This man has to be Reyna’s father. Dominic Wescott. Now that I’m seeing him, I’m seeing so much of her. His blond hair is longish, about an inch past his ears, and he has a five o’clock shadow.

“The door was unlocked,” I say as my own explanation for barging in before hours.

“Knew I forgot something,” the man says, poking fun at himself before he studies me, unable to recall my face. He’s probably seen everyone that’s come through this place. “Are you from around here? What kind of art are you into?”

“Oh, I’m not here to. . .” I trail off as I gesture around the gallery, then direct us to why Iamhere. “You’re Dominic Wescott?” I ask first to be sure.

“Dom,” he shortens. “But yeah. You?”

“Thomas Holloway,” I say, then give my shortened name. “Tommy.” I’ll call him by his shortened name once he’s proved himself to the daughter he abandoned.

“No Dom and Tom, then?” he jokes. He’s quick, and I laugh.

“No,” I confirm and he feigns disappointment.

I’m liking him. He seems cool, easy to talk to. Has that never-met-a-stranger vibe that I’m sure he’s perfected for his line of work, but like Reyna in that way. They need to know each other.

“I’m into your daughter’s art,” I answer carefully to his second question, and he nods like he understands.

“So, are you one of Jessa’s friends?”

I hold his stare, preparing myself for the divulge. “Your other daughter.”

Dominic’s face goes lax as he studies me again, his head tilting back slightly and his brows lifting as my words come together in his mind. Then that embarrassment returns as his opened mouth shuts into a scrunched smile, and I grow somewhat impatient as I wait for him to divulge himself. I want inside his head to make sure his thoughts are as good-natured as his fluster.

“Is she here?” he asks suddenly with a look toward the entrance.

I smile, wishing Reyna was here to witness his eagerness to see her. “No, I’m alone,” I say.

“She send you to scope out the old man?” He’s back to joking.

“No, but that’s what I’m doing,” I admit, flustering myself now.

“How am I doing so far?”

I nod with a smile. “Not bad.”

He nods back. “What can I do to get to ‘pretty good’?”

I crack a laugh. “They’re basically the same.”

“Well, good,” he chirps, laughing with me until our camaraderie slowly dies out as the mood turns serious again.

“Why didn’t you come see her yourself?” I ask, judgment lacing the words. “When you knew she wasn’t getting your letters?”

“It’s complicated,” he says with no hesitation, a simple status.

I fix my stare with a slight lift of my chin, my stance letting him know I’m not taking non-answers for something this important. “Simplify it.”

Dominic takes a deep inhale through his nose, then says, “I wouldn’t just be seeing her.”

Valerie.He doesn’t want to deal with the woman he’s slept with. Reyna’s mother pokes her dysfunction and bad choices into everything she touches, but Reyna’s been dealing with Valerie herself for eighteen years, so I’m not exactly sympathetic to the man who left his daughter with her.

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