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Chapter Six
Daniel
Daniel was no stranger to pretending; unfortunately, over the last many years, he’d become very good at it. Lucinda had shown him exactly how to do it by instructing him how to smile, how to act, how to move around her. He wasn’t allowed to be himself. He couldn’t stray from her side, much less tire or get a moment alone, lest she lash out at him.
It had been tough work following her instructions the best he could, and even though it had been months since their divorce, his tank was still near empty. And that worried him for the impending vacation with Amelia and her family.
Could he just be himself, or would she expect him to be and act a certain way? As he waited for her to pick him up the next morning, the panic set in—was this going to be relaxing at all? Amelia seemed far nicer than Lucinda, much less high-maintenance, but all of that could change the second the pressure to perform fell on them both.
She arrived a few minutes late. Daniel was waiting in the lobby of his building and watched her pull up in a gray Honda CR-V. She had on a tank top, looking more casual than he had ever seen her.
He had a hard time not staring at her exposed arms. Seeing her in anything other than her usual work attire made his stomach flip. This was a side to her no one else at work had seen.
Amelia smiled when she saw him. He put his suitcase in the rear cargo area right next to her smaller one and climbed into the front passenger seat. The AC was lightly blowing, and she had soft, melodic music playing. Her car was perfect for two people on a trip, much better than the Miata Lucinda had insisted he buy.
She yawned. “I didn’t get any sleep last night.”
“Why don’t we stop for coffee?” he offered.
“I don’t want to add too much time to the drive,” she replied.
“I’d rather you have what you need than be miserable driving. Go ahead and stop.”
“Thank you.” Her voice sounded relieved. “I was worried you’d be the kind of person that wants to drive straight there and never stop.”
When they got to the Starbucks drive-through, she ordered him a tea and paid for it without a second glance in his direction. Usually, Lucinda made a scene of making him pay for everything.
Amelia pulled out of the parking lot and merged onto the interstate. They rode in silence for a while, and Daniel wondered if he should do something to fill the void. Lucinda always nagged him about that.
“So . . .” Amelia started. “Are you excited for a vacation with a family you don’t know?”
“Uh . . . kind of,” he said. “I’m a little nervous, actually.”
“You don’t have to worry. My mom can be a lot, but she’s really nice, and my dad is too.”
“I don’t have a good track record with fathers.” He remembered how Lucinda’s dad had threatened him with a shotgun when they first started dating. Every time he saw him after that, her father glared at Daniel as if daring him to step out of line.
“My dad’s really relaxed,” Amelia said. “I don’t think you could do anything to upset him, except maybe murder someone.”
“In my experience, dads are really weird around their daughter’s boyfriends.”
She scoffed. “You mean the shovel talk thing? Oh no, he’d never. And if he does, let me know, and I’ll have a word with him.”
“What would you say?”
“That I’m capable of making my own life choices and handling the fallout if it comes to that. But I seriously doubt he’s going to say anything. He’s never before. My mom might ask questions, so we should probably agree on a story.”
“What will she ask?”
“Probably everything to know about us as a couple. She gets in these moods where she wants to fix things. She was in one the other day.”
“Then what is our story?” he asked.
“Something simple. I asked you out a few weeks ago and we’ve been dating ever since.”
“You asked me out?”
“Can’t a woman ask a guy out these days?”
