“Ah.”
I nod woodenly.
“Do you want to go back to the party and get it?” he asks.
“No.”
“Okay.” Ray hesitates, then says, “I can get you in without a key, if you really want me to.”
I look over at him. “You can?”
He nods.
“Will it damage the door?”
“Nope.”
I sag with relief. “Are you my own personal superhero?”
He smirks as he reaches over and opens the glove compartment. “I don’t think superheroes pick locks.”
I eye up the black pouch he grabs, but I don’t remark on it as we get out of the car.
Ray walks up to the house first, opening the little leather pouch and drawing out a thin silver tool. “Since we’re keeping secrets tonight, don’t tell your mom I did this in front of you.”
“If I were in a better mood, I’d ask for a tutorial. I like learning new things.”
He jams the silver thing and turns it. “You don’t need to know how to pick locks.”
“If I did, I would’ve been able to get into my own house tonight,” I tell him.
He turns the knob and just like that, the door opens. He gestures for me to walk inside, so I do, then I turn around to face him. He’s looking down, putting the pick away.
“Can I ask you a question?” I ask.
He glances up at me. “Shoot.”
“Why do you have that?”
He shrugs and reaches back to tuck the pouch into his back pocket. “Old habits.”
I nod, looking down, but even though I’m distracted by my own mess tonight, I can’t help feeling a faint tug. Since I ignored my last instinct and tonight happened, I pay more attention to this one. “Can I ask another question?”
“Yep,” he says, but his tone this time says he knows what’s coming.
“You’re not still doing criminal stuff, right?” Before he can even answer, I go on, “I’m not asking from a judgmental place, I swear. It’s just… my mom is crazy about you, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re really protective of each other. If you break her heart, we’re gonna have big problems, and even if you don’t mean to, if you get arrested again—”
“Riley,” he says, calmly cutting me off.
I stop talking and meet his gaze.
“I promise that’s not going to happen. I’m not doing anything I could get in trouble for. I have the tools because I have a different past than you, that’s all. Trust me, kid, I know how lucky I am to have this shot at a second act. Your mother is an incredible woman and I love her very much. I’m pretty fond of you, too,” he says with a wink.
Somehow, I find a little smile tugging at my lips. “Same here. You make her really happy.”
“She makes me really happy, too,” he says. “I’m not going to do anything to mess this up, you have my word on that. I meant it when I said I wanted us to be a family. You can always call on me if you need me—both of you can.” He pauses briefly, then adds, “And if someone at that party was out of line tonight… you can tell me. I’d be happy to pay ’em a visit, have a little chat with them.”
My heart sinks at his mention of the party. I don’t want to deal with that, and despite what Hunter did, I find myself not wanting to tell on him either, so I shake my head. “It’s fine,” I assure him. “Just dumb high school stuff. It doesn’t matter. I appreciate that, though.”
He nods, holding my gaze meaningfully. “I mean it. You’re as good as my daughter, as far as I’m concerned. Anyone messes with you, you tell me. We’ll figure it out.”
“Thanks, Ray.”
When I close the door and turn around, the house feels emptier than it usually does when I’m home alone.
The events of tonight threaten to monopolize my headspace, but that’s the last thing I want to think about. Shoving them away, I search frantically for anything else to focus on as I walk to the bathroom and prepare to shower.
My phone buzzes again as I’m getting undressed. I check it and see another message from Sara, so I shoot her a quick text to assure her the drama at the party had nothing to do with Wally, but I don’t want to talk about it right now. I tell her I’m tired, that I’m going to shower and get some sleep and I’ll catch her up tomorrow.
My phone buzzes again.
Expecting it’s Sara, I check it.
It’s Hunter.
My heart drops as I read, “Where did you go?”
My fingers shake as I rapidly type back, “Don’t text me again.”
“I needed to know you were okay,” he shoots back.
“Like you care,” I answer. “I mean it, Hunter, if you text me again, I’ll block your number.”
Apparently not taking my warning seriously, he sends back, “We need to talk.”
Aggravated and out of sorts, I do what I said I would—I block his ass.
There.
I should feel better as I set my phone down on the countertop, but I don’t. I feel terrible if I allow myself to think about it for even a moment, so I stop. I can’t turn my brain off, but I can fill it with a million other things.
As I step into the shower to scrub Hunter off of me, that’s exactly what I do.
Chapter Twenty Three
Riley
Mercifully, it is weekend.
Two days away from school isn’t nearly enough, but since I couldn’t sleep last night, I’m happy to sleep in Saturday morning.
Every time I tried to sleep, my mind filled up with thoughts of everything that happened at that awful party.
I dreaded school during the years Hunter was gone, too, but it’s so much worse now that he’s back. My dread was a passive thing before. Sure, it was an unpleasant environment full of people who didn’t want anything to do with me, but I could more or less ignore it. I had never been friends with any of those people, anyway. It wasn’t as if I was losing anything or having it taken from me, I simply never had those normal high school experiences.
I’m a senior, and the party last night at Valerie’s house is the first one I’ve ever been invited to—and only then because I was the plus one of a football player.
But now I’m not just the girl everyone ignores most of the time, now it’s not a quiet thing that doesn’t stir up my anxieties.
Now there are social media posts about me, posts by people I’ve never even spoken to. Strangers are commenting on and ridiculing my sex life, calling me awful names and dredging up bullshit rumors from last year.
They shouldn’t even be surprised I fucked Valerie’s boyfriend in her bedroom—I did have that affair with a faculty member junior year, after all.
In a world that revolves around the prettiest, most popular girl in school, apparently I’m the villain.
It’s infuriating that people play into this bullshit. I’ve never willfully hurt a person in my whole entire life. Valerie does it for sport.
Try as I might, I can’t completely ignore the white noise. It’s hard to tune it out when you know so much of the buzzing is about you.
I make a valiant effort, though.