Page 57 of Inviting Trouble
“How you adjusting to civilian life?”
“It’s a little weird not to have a schedule, but…” He trailed off as Mad walked in, looking all pissy. Her eye makeup was gone, her red hair rumpled and sticking up. She wore a V-neck undershirt that was too big for her and baggy sweats. He tried not to think too hard on why that was appealing. It was probably the wing of the hawk tattoo peeking out of the shirt that had his undivided attention.
“Hi,” she said, getting herself some coffee.
“Morning, sunshine,” her dad said. “Who pissed you off?”
She dropped a piece of bread in the toaster and pressed the toaster lever down. “I’m fine.”
Park quickly looked away.
His dad joined him at the table, rubbed the apple on the front of his shirt, and took a bite. A few minutes later, Mad joined them, chomping her toast. She met his eyes across the table and glared. He shifted his gaze to his coffee.
“There a problem I should know about?” his dad asked, looking at Mad and then Park.
“I don’t have a problem,” Mad said, looking right at Park.
“No problem here,” Park said, looking only at his dad.
His dad looked back and forth between them for a moment. “Yeah, okay.”
An awkward silence fell.
After he finished his apple, his dad stood. “Welp, I know this might be hard to believe, but I have a date for New Year’s.”
“Who?” Mad asked. “Where did you meet her?” Park wondered the same thing. His dad hadn’t been on a date in years.
“Let me just see how it goes,” his dad said. “I’ll be heading out tonight for Boston and I’ll be back on the second. Don’t burn the house down while I’m gone.”
Park studied him, thinking it extremely odd that his dad had a date at all, let alone a long-weekend kind of date. Did he suspect Park and Mad had hooked up? Was this his way of giving them a chance to be alone?
His dad smiled, his expression giving nothing away. “I’m going to shower and head to bed.”
Park waited until he left before turning his gaze back to Mad.
She smiled, one of her scary smiles that communicated dangerous intent. “Could you go to my women’s self-defense class in an hour?”
“So you can whale on me? No, thanks.”
“So the other women can practice on you. We need someone big.”
He leaned back in his seat. “Go find another big guy.”
“But you’re the perfect guy for the job.”
No comment. He knew she was pissed and would like nothing better than to have an excuse to let that out.
“Fine, stay here, then,” she said. “I’ll just tell the women you were too scared.”
“Yup.”
She frowned, probably because she didn’t get a rise out of him, and headed upstairs. He stayed downstairs and got on his dad’s laptop to work on his résumé and comb job sites for something that would fit. At some point he heard the front door open and close without a word of goodbye. She’d get over it. They’d go back to normal soon.
Mad stayed away all day. Soon it was night and his dad left to visit his friend in Boston for the long weekend. Park hadn’t been able to get any details out of him either. Very odd.
He didn’t know where Mad went or who she was with and didn’t relax until she finally returned home late that night. She glared at him where he sat on the living room sofa and went upstairs. He hadn’t been waiting up for her. He really couldn’t help it if the only TV in the house was near the front door.
The next day, New Year’s Eve, dragged. Mad went out with her friends right after breakfast. He finished his résumé, emailed it to Josh, who had a good eye for detail, and then sent it out to a bunch of places.
