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There it was again, her change of subject. This was another taboo topic.
I wasn’t going to push the conversation. Her expression when I’d brought up her stepfather had been more anger than remorse. He’d obviously wronged her somehow.
There was a story hidden there, and I wasn’t trusted enough yet to share it. Perhaps someday I would be. She wasn’t one to grant trust quickly, it seemed, but I could be patient.
I wouldn’t back down from a challenge either, and I had enough of my Coke left, so I accepted the chip and put on a brave face while it scorched my mouth.
Chapter 24
Jennifer
Dennis didn’t hesitate.“Anything for you.”
He took the chip and shoved it into his mouth, chewing loudly. He swallowed and opened his mouth, taking a deep breath and blowing out before finishing his Coke and chugging half his water glass.
I loaded up another chip and held it up to him.
He didn’t flinch and ate the second just as quickly, washing it down with more water. The sweat on his brow showed he wasn’t immune to the heat.
“Did I pass the test?” he asked.
I nodded with a giggle. Mom had told me one of the indicators of a guy’s interest was how much of your bad cooking he’d put up with. I got goosebumps realizing Dennis’s interest in me matched mine in him.
“Can we go back now?” I asked.
He took his tray to the trash, and I followed with mine.
A seagull cawed loudly as it flew by, looking right at me with accusatory eyes.
I cringed.
“You cold, Angel?”
“I’m fine,” I lied.
I wasn’t fine, and even the bird knew it.
Now I’d lied to Dennis.
I hadn’t meant to, but when he asked if I’d been here before I couldn’t share that Dad and I had once ridden bikes on the beach path near here all the way to Marina Del Ray. That had been the last weekend I’d shared with Dad before the accident.
We’d laughed, raced a bit, stopped for food, laughed some more, and had a great afternoon. It was the way I wanted to remember him: carefree, happy, and alive. Then he was gone.
Instead of walking back south, Dennis pulled me along to the north.
“Hey, that’s the wrong way.”
The gull cawed again and swooped toward us.
Dennis was stronger than me, and the tug-of-war was no contest. He stopped, and I was instantly in his arms, shielded from the angry bird.
I didn’t fight him. Instead I relished the contact, the safety of his embrace.
I knew he hadn’t meant to hurt me by asking about Dad, but that didn’t make the questions any easier. They were normal questions about family, siblings, parents, and history, but it was a history I couldn’t share with him.
He still had a full complement of family members. He couldn’t understand the anguish of losing one, much less two.
It was hard to talk about, like the loose sand was harder to walk on than the cement of the path we’d taken here.
