Page 97 of Wingwoman
Carrow laughed, the sound deep and throaty. “Exactly. Now get your ass in there before your dumb dad goes to sleep for the night.”
After hanging up, I lifted my fist to the door and gave three loud knocks that reverberated into the otherwise silent night.
After a moment the door swung open. I’d expected Vivian or my dad to be standing there… but because the universe hates me, it was Julianne who answered instead.
She looked just as surprised to see me there as I was to see her.
“Hope,” she said. Then as quickly as the surprise registered, it vanished. A calm washed over her features and her brows twitched, lifting very slightly.
She pointed down the hall. “They’re in there,” she said. “I was just leaving, but I can stay if you want me to.”
“I…”
My words faded. I honestly wasn’t sure if I wanted her here. Telling her she didn’t need to stay felt like the polite thing to do. She did say she was on her way out after all.
But it wasn’t imposing when it was family… right? Wasn’t that what everyone tried to tell me?
And yet, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t ask her to stay. I couldn’t ask her to be there forme. It was too vulnerable.
“I don’t want to keep you,” I said carefully. “And I’d like to talk to Vivian alone first. But… maybe you could keep my dad company for me while I do?”
She seemed suspicious at first. And who could blame her?
“Sure,” she said with a nod. “Come on in.”
I wasn’t sure what to expect seeing Vivian after our fight. If you could call it a fight. It was more like me flying off the handle and airing all kinds of dirty laundry to a woman who had nothing to do with how they got dirty in the first place.
But I didnotexpect her to beam at me when she saw me. Her smile widened, warm and reaching her eyes as she crossed the room to me, hugging me tightly. “Hope, I’m so glad you came,” she said, as though it wasn’t totally weird that I showed up on her doorstep at ten p.m. on a random Sunday night.
If I didn’t know better, it would look like she’d been expecting me to arrive.
My body tensed with her hug, but that didn’t stop Vivian.
While normally I might have given her a stiff pat on the back, Carrow’s words stuck in my brain like gum on the bottom of my shoe.Give yourself the space to grow.
So instead of wriggling out of the discomfort of the hug as quickly as possible, like I would have done in the past, I lifted my arms and hugged her back.
“Oh!” she gasped, her voice alarmed.
I immediately released my hold on her and jumped back. “I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you? Did I squeeze too hard?” I blurted out, my words racing together. “Are you okay?”
I examined her to make sure I didn’t break a bone in her slim body. Seriously, a light breeze could knock her over.
“No, sweetheart.” I dragged my gaze to meet hers which were wet and wide as she looked back at me. “I was just surprised. Good surprised. It’s the first time you’ve hugged me back.”
A sharp sizzle buzzed in my sinuses like drinking a bottle of Coke too fast. I cleared the emotion from my throat. “Yeah, about that…” The wordsI’m sorrydangled on the tip of my tongue, but in the other room, Julianne’s laugh echoed down the hall, accompanied by the harmony of my father’s laugh. A hearty laugh. A booming laugh.
A laugh I hadn’t heard from him in years.
I couldn’t do this with him in earshot. “Do you think we could go for a walk?” I asked, hitching my thumb toward the front door.
Vivian’s brow arched. “This time of night? Probably not the best idea on this property. We’ve got some coyote packs who live just through the trees.”
“Coyotes?” My eyes went wide. “And they eat people?”
She chuckled. “No, no. But they can be vicious. The wolves on the other hand, they just might eat a person or two.”
“Oh my god,” I groaned. “What is this place?”
