Page 53 of The Murder Between Us
“Da-ad,” she screeched. “Oh my God, no! I have not!”
“Look, I clearly cannot throw stones—”
“Dad! No!” She groaned, exhaling through her clenched teeth as she glared at the ceiling. “Look. What have you been telling me since I was, like, five? ‘Make good choices.’ Like, every day, since I was old enough to walk. That’s what you told me after you let me touch the stove when Mom wasn’t home.”
“You didn’t touch the stove again, did you?”
She glared. “You always told me to make good choices. And I know it must be a total and complete shock to you, but… I’ve actuallylistenedto you. And Mom. I’ve put a lot of thought into it. And, yeah, half of my friends are having sex—”
“Jesus Christ.”
“But I’m not. I’m not ready. And that’s my choice.” She sliced her hands, once again covered in the cuffs of her sweatshirt, through the air as if to say, “End of.”
He pulled her close in a one-armed hug and kissed her hair. “When you think you’re ready, will you come to me? I promise not to judge you. I just want to make sure you’re safe when you decide it’s time. Get you protection. Birth control. Whatever you need. And… maybe talk to you a little bit about it.”
She melted into him, laying her head on his shoulder. “Yeah, Dad. I will. But it will be a while. I’m nowhere close to ready. I promise.”
He kissed her hair. “How did you grow up so fast? How did you get so wise?”
She groaned. “I’m not that wise, Dad. Pre-calc is still kicking my ass.”
“Language, K-Bear.”
She pretended to look guilty for a half second. “Can you help me with my homework? And can we eat breakfast? I really did come home to see you. I don’t have school today, just cheer. I thought we could spend some time together.”
Andy Garrett was cooling his heels in their cell, and Judge Vargas hadn’t yet signed the search warrant. There weren’t any 9-1-1 calls on his cell phone from the night before or that morning. For now, for a few hours, he could be a dad again. He smiled. “Yeah, K-Bear. Let’s go downstairs and make pancakes. And I’ll do my best to help you with your pre-calc.”
She threw her arms around him, squeezing him too tight. He couldn’t breathe, but he didn’t say a word, just hugged her back. “I love you, Dad.”
“I love you, too, K-Bear. Always.”
17
Hey.Can you come back over?
Cole froze, staring at his cell phone. He’d been pacing since he got out of the shower, even as he dressed, buttoning up his shirt and rolling up his cuffs. What the hell was going to happen now? All Noah wanted was to keep his sexuality private, to shield his daughter, to manage his coming-out slowly and steadily. Privately.
And then that daughter had nearly found them both half naked, covered in each other’s come, in Noah’s kitchen.
He hadn’t looked at Katie, but he’d heard her screams, heard the sound of her running away, storming upstairs. And he’d seen Noah’s devastated, destroyed expression. The look of a broken man.
Was it fate that kept turning their perfect nights against them? Were they really, truly not meant to be together?
Nothing good is ever easy. Isn’t that how the saying went?
Yeah, but how did that cover the man he—well, the man he was falling for’sdaughtercrashing their morning afterglow?
He stared at Noah’s text. Could the man be any vaguer? Any less informative? Was he bringing the car back to drop off and leave forever? Was he coming back to hang out? Who was he going to find when he got there? Noah from last night? Or Noah who ignored his existence when they met—again—at the Des Moines FBI office?
I need your address, he texted back. He’d been in too much of a fog to write it down when he drove away. How he’d made it back to the hotel was a mystery. He didn’t even remember the drive.
Noah texted, and Cole grabbed his laptop bag and the case files and got into Noah’s SUV. Ten minutes later, he pulled into Noah’s driveway. His phone buzzed.We’re on the back porch.
What the… Cole stared at his phone, then at Noah’s house. Was that a signal that he should join them? Or leave the car and walk away, call a Lyft, disappear—that Noah was so uninterested in seeing him again that he was hiding in the backyard?
Fuck it. Noah could tell him to leave to his face. Again. He slid out of the car and jogged up the porch, tentatively knocking on the front door before testing the knob. It opened, and he slipped inside, calling out, “Hello? Noah?”
The back door was open. “Out here,” Noah called. He waved to Cole from the deck, where he was sitting across from Katie at a picnic table. She’d changed into her cheer outfit, and her long hair was pulled up in a high ponytail, the ends catching on the wind and drifting. A textbook was open between them, Katie hunched over a binder as she scribbled away.
