Page 31 of Dear Debbie

“Were you spying on me?” she snaps at me. “Is that why you came out on the porch and were being so weird?”

To be fair, I am always being weird in Lexi’s assessment. “I wasn’t spying on you. I swear.”

But only because the window was closed and I couldn’t hear anything.

“So why did you open the front door?” she demands to know.

“I was looking for your father,” I say weakly.

Lexi doesn’t believe me, which is probably fair. She regards the vacuum with sudden disdain. “I don’t really feel like doing chores right now. I’m going to go upstairs.”

“But…” The cord finally pops free from the closet. I brandish the vacuum in my right hand. “Just do a quick lap around the living room. It will be fun.”

“Fun?” Her voice is dripping with sarcasm. “I don’t think being your maid is fun. And anyway, I’ve got homework to do.”

And I’ve lost her.

She stomps up the stairs to her room without another word. I should have been more careful. I should never have brought up Zane. When she’s ready, she’ll tell me. Or maybe she won’t tell me, and I’ll just notice he’s not around anymore.

And if he does anything to hurt her, he’ll be very sorry.

23

An hour later, Cooper comes home.

He’s been gone for two hours total, which is quite a long time for a fast-food run. Fast food is fast—it’s in the name. He walks through the front door, clutching a bag of french fries that have stained the brown paper with their grease. The smell is intoxicating, but I don’t have much of an appetite.

Cooper has been gone most of the evening, and I don’t know where he’s been. Not only that, but it’s not the first time he’s disappeared like that. Always with an excuse.

And he always turns off his location sharing.

I rise from the sofa to confront him. “Where have you been?”

“I told you, I grabbed some dinner.” His eyes avoid mine. “Then I was just…you know, driving around a bit. I had to clear my head.”

“I see…”

“Sorry.” He holds out the bag of fries, and I obligingly take it from him. “If I thought you needed me home sooner, I wouldn’t have stayed out.”

Except that’s another lie.

“I was worried,” I say. “I tried to see where you were, but Findly didn’t show your location.”

“Sorry… I was on some back roads. Probably going in and out of dead zones.”

And another.

I bring the bag of french fries to the kitchen, and Cooper follows behind. I pour each of us a cup of diet cola and pass his across the kitchen table, where he drops into one of the seats. He stares down at the drink, eventually taking a sip, but he doesn’t reach for the fries. Neither do I.

“Cooper,” I say.

“There’s something I need to tell you, Debbie.” He takes a shaky breath. “I…”

I brace myself for whatever is coming. Whatever he has to say isn’t going to be something I want to hear. He’s not going to tell me, Hey, Debbie, I just won the lottery. Let’s go buy a mansion. He drops his eyes, staring down at his hands.

“I quit,” he says.

“What?”