Page 5 of Forbidden Hearts
“Listen, she’s finishing her first year of grad school, she’s an audiology major, and she knows ASL. I don’t know what else you could want in a babysitter for Olivia. I know that Phoebe had that small mishap, but she’s a great kid.”
“I don’t need akidwatching my kid, Anthony. I need a trained nanny who will not get lost in her phone while my child burns the house down.” I might be a bit harsh, but it’s not like Phoebe has the best track record. That girl is a flighty mess with bad decision-making abilities. Take away the hair cutting incident, I can’t tell you how many times I pulled her over when she lived here. She drives like a maniac, but I couldn’t even ticket her because her father is my damn boss.
“Well, then you’re going to have to get another nanny who can communicate with Liv another way because you’re needed here. There is no one else who can manage the team if they’re called out. I gave you a solution to the issue. Give her a chance, Asher. You’ll be close if anything happens, but she’s not eighteen anymore.”
His solution really isn’t one, but I feel like I’m being torn apart. I can’t let Olivia or my team down. “If I do this, I need to stay in Sugarloaf so I can be close in case of any...issues.”
“If you’re required to go to another town, I’ll check in on Olivia myself. Look, you don’t know when you’re going to get a nanny, and Phoebe is home and not doing anything. This will give her a job, and it helps you out. I don’t want to see you lose the position you worked so hard for,” he says as a reminder.
I’m not sure another option is even out there. “Fine, but one screwup, and I’ll step away from SWAT, consequences be damned.”
And if that happens, I might lose my damn mind.
two
PHOEBE
“Are you going to tell me what happened?” Daddy asks as he sits on the edge of my bed.
“Nothing happened,” I lie.
What else can I do? I can’t tell him the truth about why I’m home three weeks early from my first year in grad school and not going back—at least not to that university.
My father is a strict man. A strong man who raised his daughter to be just as fierce, so I can handle the ridicule at school and the whispers, but I can’t handle disappointment from him.
So, I’ll lie to the only man who has never let me down.
Way to go, Phoebe. Another notch on your belt of awesomeness.
“Birdie, I may be a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them. We both know I can smell bullshit a mile away.”
I turn over to face him, knowing that if I want him to believe the lie, I have to believe it myself. That means looking him in the eyes when I say it.
His shiny badge glints in the small beam of sunlight streaming through my curtains, reminding me that he, in fact, is trained to cut through the crap. “I love you, but you’re going to have to trust me. Nothing happened besides finishing my classes early. All of my finals are online, so there was no need for me to sit in Iowa when I could be home with you.”
His eyes narrow, but I stand my ground. There is some truth in my words.
“Then why were you crying last night?”
Shit. He heard me.
“Because Emmeline called, and we miss each other.” Sounds plausible.
Emmeline MacAllister is my roommate, my best friend, and the only person who didn’t call me a liar. Never once did her support waver, and if it weren’t for her, I never would have survived. I know that sounds dramatic, and it probably is, but the last three months have been hell.
I’ve been taunted, have been talked about like I wasn’t there, and have been called horrible names, but the final straw was finding out that people were taunting Emmeline as well.
That was it. I couldn’t stay. No matter what happened, I couldn’t let my friend deal with the blowback of my stupidity. I went to each professor, gave some excuse about a family emergency, was granted permission to take my finals online with a ten-point deduction on each one, and I left two days later.
I hadn’t left fast enough to avoid yet another colossal fuckup that Emmeline had to help me clean up.
He sighs heavily. “I don’t believe a word you said, but I am a smart enough man to know not to push.”
I smile at him. “Thanks, Daddy.”
“Don’t thank me yet, Phoebe, I didn’t say tomorrow I wouldn’t be dumb.” My father kisses my forehead. “I’m off to work. I’ll be home around seven for dinner.”
I guess that means I’m back on kitchen duty. “I’ll be here.”
