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“And what would that be?” I found myself asking.
“Lying to everyone about a fake ailment.” He gestured to me. “No wonder you had your business burned down. No one wants to deal with that kind of drama.”
I shook my head. My father wasn’t even making sense anymore.
“Dad,” I said, staying exactly where I was. “I know this is really hard to believe, but I’m happy now. Please leave me alone. Don’t call. Don’t write. Don’t stop me in the middle of a restaurant to talk.” I looked at him pointedly. “And if it’s all the same to you, you can act like I don’t exist at all.”
My dad rolled his eyes. “I’m not actually talking to you because you’re my daughter. I’m talking to you because I agree with this lady right here.” He pointed at the lady that’d gone back to her meal, completely ignoring us and everyone else in the restaurant, instead focusing on her cheesecake. “But it’s hilarious you think I care.”
I knew he cared.
I knew that I bothered him on a daily basis.
Why else would he go to such great lengths to control my life?
Wake stood up and helped Dutch out of her chair.
He threw down four hundred-dollar bills, which likely would go way over what we spent, and held his hand out for his wife.
She took it, and the two of them walked in front of my dad, blocking our view of each other.
Something was said between Wake and my father, and when Aodhan stood and made his way toward the door, it was with me on his back.
I didn’t look back to see if my father was watching.
I also didn’t look forward.
I pressed my face against Aodhan’s neck and breathed him in, completely ignoring everyone and everything as we made our way out to the parking lot.
He placed me on the back of his bike sideways before he reached for his bouquet, then he attached it to his bike.
Folsom followed behind me, her face buried in her phone.
When she arrived at my side, she did it bumping into Kobe.
She snarled at him, lifting her nose and baring her teeth. “Watch where you’re walking.”
I placed my hand over my mouth to hide the laughter as he looked at her like she’d gone crazy.
She dismissed him, then walked up to me and sat on Aodhan’s bike next to me, barely fitting but uncaring as she did.
I looked over at her phone to see her fingers flying, and the screen displaying a bunch of zeros and ones. Code.
“What are you doing?” I whispered at her as the group of people gathered around the seven bikes in the parking lot.
“Giving your dad the same virus that I gave to the district attorney,” she grumbled. “I know that he doesn’t get on his computer much, because it’s too modern of an advancement for him, but when he gets on to pay his bills next month, he’ll have to take it into the shop because he can’t use it. Which will inconvenience him.”
I smiled.
Only my friend.
My eyes wandered past Aodhan’s big body, and where he was securely attaching my gift to a cranny on his bike that looked like it might not catch much wind, and studied the parking lot.
My dad’s old beat-up pickup was parked a few rows over, and a few rows over from that, there was one single car in the distance that caught my attention. But before I could study it too hard, it backed out of its parking space and left the parking lot.
“What’s got you frowning like that?” Aodhan’s finger caught my chin, turning my face so that I was staring up into his eyes.
“I was just looking at that car.” I nodded toward said car. “How much longer do you have until you have to leave for your overnight trip?”
