Page 5 of If I Could

She has a good point. Why am I still standing here? Watching the asshole walk away?

I should leave, but I can’t seem to look away from him. He’s mysterious. And hot. Damn, he’s hot. Not just his looks, but his demeanor. His smooth deep voice. The way he carries himself. He seems sophisticated.

That’s why I’m still standing here. Because I’m trying to figure this out. It doesn’t make sense. Why would a hot, sophisticated guy be walking a motorcycle along a country road in rural Kansas?

CHAPTERTWO

SAGE

“Sage,are you in that damn car yet?” I hear Nina yell from my phone.

“I’m going,” I say, my eyes still on the mystery man.

“I want you to stay on this phone until you’re in your house, safely locked inside.”

“Yeah, got it,” I tell her, getting in the car. I set the phone down and start the engine, then slowly drive down the road. As I approach the guy, I stop and yell out the window in a sarcastic tone, “Nice meeting you! My name’s Sage, by the way!”

He ignores me so I drive off, my car kicking up dust at him.

Nina’s voice bellows from my phone. “Why the hell did you tell him your name?”

I put the phone to my ear. “I’m not worried about him. He’s not a psychopath.”

“And you know that based on what? A five second encounter with the guy? He wouldn’t even talk to you. He’s probably bat-shit crazy!”

“He’s a little odd but he’s not crazy. Besides, he’s not sticking around. He’s heading away from town. I doubt I’ll ever see him again.”

“You need to be more careful. Being in a small town doesn’t mean you’re safe. You can know someone for years and then find out—” She stops suddenly, then mutters, “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

“I wasn’t talking about your dad,” she says, rushing her words. “I was just talking in general. I mean, like when—”

“Nina, it’s fine. You don’t have to explain. I know what you meant.”

She’s quiet for the rest of the drive. I am too, my mind now on my dad. I’m trying to forget what he did, but unfortunately, living here is a constant reminder.

My dad took off when I was six, right after my parents’ divorce. I didn’t see or hear from him again until my junior year of college when he showed up at my dorm, begging me to let him back into my life.

He looked different than I remembered. He was wearing a shirt and tie and a tailored suit. His dark hair had speckles of gray and was cut shorter than I’d ever seen it. His hair had always been on the long side and kind of messy. And I’d never seen him wear a suit. When I was a kid, he worked a variety of odd jobs, none of which required wearing a suit.

When he showed up I was tempted to tell him to leave, thinking he didn’t deserve a second chance after taking off the way he did. But I desperately wanted him back in my life so I went to dinner with him and listened to him tell me his reasons for leaving. He gave me a sob story about how he was lost and confused and needed to go find himself before he could be a father again. His words were all bullshit but at the time I believed him. I also believed his story about owning a successful investment firm. Turns out it was only successful for him, not the people who invested with him. They all ended up broke, including me.

My own father stole from me. He convinced me he could take my college fund and double it. At first I didn’t trust him, but over the course of that year, he not only gained my trust, but also my mom’s. In fact, she and my dad started dating again, and just last April, he asked her to marry him for the second time. They set a wedding date for the fall and my dad moved into my mom’s house, a small but nice house just outside Kansas City.

Soon after their engagement, my dad convinced me to give him access to my savings account so he could invest the money. By then, I had no hesitations. He’d been back in my life for almost two years and I figured if my mom trusted him and forgave him, I should too. My mom, who has always been frugal and managed to save a lot over the years, also handed over her money to my dad. The fact that he could convince both of us to trust him that much after he disappeared for all those years just shows what a great liar he is and how skilled he is at the art of persuasion.

Everything came crashing down in May, my last day of finals. I was thrilled to be done and was getting ready to go out and celebrate with friends at a club near campus. As I was picking out what to wear, my mom called and asked if I’d talked to my dad. I told her I hadn’t heard from him for a few days. She said she hadn’t either and that he’d taken off on a business trip to Miami and hadn’t checked in with her or returned any of her calls. Worried something happened to him, she called all the hospitals in Miami but none had any records of him being there. She was about to go to the police station to report him missing but then the police showed up at her house.

My college is only a couple hours away so I raced home to be with my mom. An investigator from the police department was there when I arrived. I sat beside my mom on the couch as we listened to the investigator tell us that everything my dad had told us was a lie. His investment firm was all a scam. He convinced people to give him their money, promising them a big return on their investments but instead, he stole it all, including all the money my mom and I had given him.

We were both stunned. We didn’t have a clue he’d been conning us. Nobody did, until people started calling and asking for their money. Eventually the police got involved and that’s how they ended up at our door.

“You there yet?” Nina asks as I pull into the garage.

“Yeah. You can hang up now.” I get out of the car.

“Did you close the garage door?”

---