Page 56 of Shy Girl
The next fire sprang to life in my mind.
Anthony.
What must I have looked like when we collided, and I looked up to realizewhohe was? My thoughts felt fractured even now as I tried to puzzle that mess back together. Hadn’t I crashed into his wife the same way? Perhaps that was my fate with the Dunkin family. Slam into them like a wrecking ball. Threads of my original plan lingered in that idea, but I brushed it aside.
Not anymore. The NDA would stay in my backpack and I'd return to Pineville without another word to Anthony.
Did I imagine it, or did Anthony seem to have recognized something in me? Did I look like Mom, perhaps? Did he notice, like I did, that my nose was an exact replica of his? My hair color so similar? The crash had been fast, but I’d still grabbed onto details that I’d always wondered about. Attached earlobes, like mine. Anthony and I didn’t share many obvious traits. I’d inherited Mom’s shoulders. Her eyes. No, he hadn't given me much that made me easily identifiable.
Except a stutter.
Speech impediments had some genetic tendencies, or so doctors believed, when so little is understood about the brain and how we communicate. Of all the things I’d never expected to share with my biological father, the multi-millionaire, the stutter was it. What conniving fate gifted me with such a burden from a biological father that didn’t want me? Mom could take her universe powers and stuff it.
Slowly, my thoughts gathered themselves back together, and I guided them gently back to Anthony, to what he said, while I stared at the underside of the ceiling and pondered the fact that I hadn’t, at least, screamed, “I’m your forgotten daughter!”
A win.
The sound of a shuffle came outside, so I grabbed my phone. How long had I been here? The last text from Serafina had come forty minutes ago. I’d texted her for at least twenty minutes. An hour of just laying here, staring at nothing by the abyss of my thoughts. Jayson must have noticed something cagey in me and gracefully given me time to deal with it.
Too many emotions ran ragged through me to process now. I lay on my side, my body curled in a ball, and watched the stars in the sky through the double doors. A tear trickled out of the corner of my eye, then slid down my nose to plop on the floor. Another followed. I let them go, a sense of release in their presence.
Eventually, my weary eyes closed and I fell into a deep sleep.
When I woke up the next morning, I lay in bed.
For a moment, my fuzzy brain could only comprehend the roaring sound of waves outside. My thoughts spun until they caught up with the events of last night. Startled, I sat up with a gasp. A blanket covered my shoulders and body. I still wore the summer dress, but my shoes had been set aside and the sand cleaned off the floor where I’d fallen asleep. The thought of Hernandez coming in and finding me asleep on the ground sent a jab of something through me.
Affection?
Terror?
Regret?
Hints of sunlight filtered into the room in bare streaks of color. The brightening horizon lay dark and still against a vague band of black ocean not far away. Waves rushed quietly, a gentle roar that reminded me of a heartbeat. It must be very early in the morning. The rigid muscles that held me upright relaxed a little.
Today, Grady and Helene would officially tie the knot. The official day of Jayson’s responsibilities had finally come around, and I realized with another stab of guilt that I had no ideawhatthose responsibilities entailed.
Movement next to me caught my eye and I froze.
Jayson stirred on the bed where he lay on his stomach, his face turned away from me. He slept all the way on the edge like he wanted to give me space. He wore an old t-shirt and a pair of basketball shorts, but the shirt crept halfway up his back. I forced myself to look away, but my gaze went right back to the rigid, muscular lines there. I blinked away sleep to study him, startled by his relaxed expression. The blanket he’d draped on me felt soft as I pushed it higher around my shoulders. A rush of warmth followed the thought that he must have been concerned.
I lay back down, the initial rush of panic fading. My half-sleep tangled mind began to clear as I shook the mental cobwebs free. His husky voice followed seconds later.
“You okay, Dagny?”
The question was quiet, a gentle roll. He hadn’t shifted, or opened his eyes, or even turned to look in my direction. After so many years at his job, his instincts must have been honed to other people.
“F-fine.”
He shifted a little, but still didn’t look my way. “I wasn’t sure if you felt sick or not, so I wanted to stay with you just in case.”
Tears welled up in my eyes, hot and stinging. “Th-thank you.”
For a long moment, we lay in the quiet. Finally, he turned his head to face me. Sleepy, dark eyes stared at me for a moment before he broke the lingering morning with another low, rumbled response.
“I made a mistake last night.”
My brow dropped.
