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My entire life crashed down all around me when her eyes teared over, because I understood everything she said was the God’s honest truth.
Raising my finger at Anna, I motioned back the hall to the director’s suite. “Can you guys give us a few minutes to catch up, please?”
She darted around us and laid her hand on my back. “Take your time. He has a phone call waiting, anyway.”
I swayed aside to make Faith look at me. “When did you talk to my mother?”
There wasn’t a devious bone in her body, so how she worked so hard not to look at me when she danced around the truth told me everything. “I’m sorry. I must have misunderstood what she said.” Clearing her throat of that giant lump thinning out her voice, she fanned her face with her hand. “You work here?”
She pleaded with me to stop digging for answers with that lip quiver, so I jerked the front of my white jacket to show her the embroidery instead. I’d be working with her every day until one of us retired, so there was no way in hell I would let either of us blow that interview for her. “Doctor.”
“Oh.” The bag on her arm slid down, and she clasped her hands around the strap in front of her as she dried her eyes with a blast of air through her lips. “That explains it.” Laughing at herself, she playfully rolled her eyes away as she tried to diffuse the giant bomb she just dropped on me. “Here I was searching for the rich and famous Texas attorney to the stars all this time. No wonder I never found you in the state bar database.”
It’s weird stepping through that veil into reality when you’ve been wandering through lies for so long. Thinking my life has been one way and finding out it was something else entirely had me shell-shocked, and I could barely put another thought together. “Um. No.” I shook my head as I kicked at a scuff on the otherwise polished floor and tried to wrap my head around what was happening. “I was in a bad car accident my Freshman year, and I guess that inspired me to go another way.”
Stepping closer to me, she laid her hand on my arm. “I’m so proud of you, Dom.” That chemistry between us was as strong as it was the last time she touched me, and she hesitated to pull her fingers away like we were glued together. “For this and for doing what makes you happy. That’s all I ever wanted for you.”
We were only kids in the lunchroom again on the first day of school, exchanging uncomfortable glances and smiles until I pinched her cheek. “Master’s degree? Huh?” When she twisted her lips back at me and glanced away, I peeked down to check her ring finger. “How did that happen?”
Her eyes opened a little wider. “I know. Crazy? Right?”
Now that I had the M.D. after my name, I realized that she had a whole-ass learning disability in math. So how hard it must have been for her to get through college twice like that was about the most impressive thing I had ever heard of. “Not at all. I always knew you’d figure it out once you found a subject that grabbed you.”
Seeing her with some other man and a houseful of kids would have only sent me headfirst into another tree, so I never found the courage to ever search for her all that time. But she was there in my face, and I couldn’t hide from the truth anymore, no matter what it was. “Since they pay me in peanuts, they can’t be giving you what you’re worth. So, what did bring you back here?”
Uncurling her thumb, she swung back and pointed at the elevator. “I wanted to make up some time with Dad before it’s too late.”
When Anna peeked around the corner to check up on us, I laid my hand on Faith’s back to lead her down the hall. “I think they’re waiting for us, but before I get called away or something, you’re coming to the reunion tonight. Aren’t you?”
As soon as she opened her mouth to give some excuse why she couldn’t make it, I put my hand up to stop her. “Or I can drop by your dad’s house or wherever else you want to meet up. But I feel like we have an important conversation that needs to happen. Don’t you?”
With a nod and a fleeting smile, she gently squeezed my hand before she stepped through the doorway. “I’ll meet you in our spot.”
18
Numb
Faith
It should have made me nervous or flustered or something to have Dom sitting in the chair next to me like that after all that time. But I felt more relaxed than I ever had before, instead.
The calm and chatty to my anxious and backward, he was at my shoulder to guide me through the hard stuff and boost my confidence when I needed an extra dose again. “You look beautiful, by the way.”
Pulling his lips from my ear as Anna closed the door, Dom shrugged when I glanced at him. “Not that you haven’t always, but that shade of pink makes your eyes pop.”
Still stuck on the call he’d been on since we sat down, Mister Stryker sat with his back to us, so I shoved my elbow at Dom and whispered to him. “I see you’re still the sweetest talker in town.”
Grinning at me in that way he knew I couldn’t resist, he flickered his eyebrow as he kept some kind of rhythm against the chair’s arm with his thumb. “I can’t help that the truth sounds so good dripping off my tongue.”
The secretary leaned out of her chair, attempting to wedge herself into our conversation with her wide eyes pointed at me. “Doctor Vasser here said the two of you went to high school together?”
Dom’s shoulders jumped when he laughed at hearing our love story condensed into such a bland description. So I pushed him away a bit when I saw the offended look on Anna’s face. “He was my very best friend in the whole world. Hands down.”
Blowing out in frustration, Mister Stryker turned around again and dropped his phone to the desktop. “Sorry about the interruption. My wife said the painters used the wrong shade of white in my living room, and the world is coming to an end, apparently.” He clasped his hands in front of him. “I hated to have to drag you in here like this, Miss Bennett. But, of course, we have to do the whole routine since we’re hiring from the outside.” Puffing his lips, he flung out his fingers. “Even if we don’t have anybody else to fill the vacancy and haven’t had a single bite on the job post in two years.”
I had a bit of an upper hand in my negotiations with them, securing me six-hour princess shifts instead of eight. Despite the compromise, I was still doing them a huge favor by accepting such a lowball salary, and they were well aware of it, too. So when I told them I could only meet for one tiny half-hour block the day before I’d start, they were happy to fit me in. “I appreciate you all accommodating me this morning. My storage container with all my stuff is coming at eleven, and I wanted to intercept it before my father starts picking through everything.”
Turning down his lips, James lifted his hand as he rocked his chair. “No problem whatsoever. We have a pile of meetings this morning, so this time block worked out well for us, too.” He wiggled his finger between me and Dom. “I didn’t realize you two knew each other already, though.”
