He’d had ample opportunities to kiss me and hadn’t taken one of them. The night before last, I’d even resorted to trying to give him a subliminal message. The inspiration came to me when Luna was having a dinner picnic watching The Little Mermaid. While Hank was reading to Luna, I’d rewound it, paused it at a very opportune moment and then pushed play and pretended to be watching it when he came out of her room. I walked him to the front door with “Kiss the Girl” playing in the background. He hadn’t taken the hint.
I still wasn’t sure that I wanted to date him, but I was absolutely freakin’ certain that I wanted to kiss him. I needed to kiss him. I felt like I was going to explode if I didn’t kiss him.
But it wouldn’t be tonight.
When I got home from work last night, or should I say early this morning, I’d found a note from him saying that a couple of his guys had called out the past week and he’d be pulling doubles the next few days to catch up so he could come in on schedule.
I’ll admit, the thought of not seeing him for even a few days was much more depressing than it should be. I’d known him such a short amount of time, the fact that I was this attached to him wasn’t healthy. And I wasn’t the only one. Luna had made him a friendship bracelet while she was over at Mrs. Birch’s and she insisted we leave it on his door tonight.
I’d love to see his face when he comes home to find a braided friendship bracelet with black and pink thread in an envelope for Mr. Hank. I did tell her that I didn’t think he’d be able to wear it when he worked because it might get caught in his tools and be dangerous, so I had given him an out that wouldn’t hurt her feelings, but she still insisted on dropping it off.
The thought of him wearing it did put a smile on my face as I turned the water on and started doing the dinner dishes. I’d just rinsed out the pan I’d fried pork chops in when my phone rang. My heart skipped a beat as I looked down expecting to see Hank’s number. After getting my number under the guise of giving me Mrs. Birch’s he had never actually used it, but I figured he must’ve found the bracelet.
I glanced down and saw that it wasn’t Hank. It was Richie’s mother. My stomach sank with dread.
Mr. and Mrs. DiNardo had never called me out of the blue. They called on holidays and Luna’s birthday but never on a random Thursday. I almost didn’t pick it up, scared of what news they might be sharing with me.
Had something happened to Richie?
Was the call I’d been dreading for five years finally here?
How would my life, Luna’s life change after I answered the phone?
Knowing that avoidance would only buy me a short reprieve, one that would be filled with anxiety of what was to come. I dried my hands and took a deep breath shoring myself to face whatever the news was head-on.
My voice was shaky as I answered. “Hi, Mrs. DiNardo, how are—”
“Do you know where Richie is?” Mary DiNardo cut off my greeting.
“Um…no. I don’t,” I answered honestly.
“Skylar.” Frank DiNardo’s voice came on the line.
“Hi, Mr. DiNardo.”
“When is the last time you saw Richie?” he asked in a clipped tone.
“He stopped by a few weeks ago.” At the time, I’d thought it might be a good sign that he was stopping by to see Luna. That maybe she could be a catalyst for him getting sober. But it turned out he was just there to steal my debit card.
“How did he look?” Frank asked.
I knew there was no reason to sugar-coat it. Richie looked like a junkie the last time I’d seen him which was the night before the break-in.
“Bad. He looked bad.”
“If he looked bad, why didn’t you call us?” Mary’s voice raised. “We’re his parents! Why didn’t you call us?”
Worried that Luna—who was in her room playing with the new dollhouse that Hank had built her after he learned how much she loved the one at Mrs. Birch’s—would overhear any part of this conversation, I stepped out onto the newly screened-in, covered porch and shut the back door behind me. I was trying to gather my thoughts to respond when Mr. DiNardo beat me to the punch.
“Mary, calm down. It’s going to be okay,” he comforted his wife before addressing me once again. “We just got a call from him. He said he needs fifty thousand dollars or he is going to die. Do you know anything about that?”
Unfortunately, I did.
“Um…”
“And where are you?” he continued. “We went by your place and your neighbor, the babysitter, told us you’d moved out.”
“Yeah, I—”
“She wouldn’t tell us where you are.” Mrs. DiNardo was crying now. “Where are you? Where’s Luna?”
“I’m in Georgia. We’re in Georgia. She’s safe.”
“Georgia?!” Mrs. DiNardo was near hysteria and I didn’t blame her. Richie was her only child and I couldn’t imagine the emotional roller coaster she was on. Actually, I could imagine. I’d been riding it myself for the past five years. I wished that they would have taken me more seriously when I’d tried to speak to them six months ago after I learned he was deeper in his addiction.
“Why didn’t you tell us you moved?” Mrs. DiNardo cried. “She’s our grandchild. You can’t just take her away from us.”
“I would never keep Luna from you.” I didn’t point out that we’d lived less than two hours away for five years and they’d come to visit their grandchild a total of zero times, despite me inviting them dozens of times. Or that the only time they’d seen her was when I’d driven her to them. I didn’t think that now was the time to bring that up. “I was going to call you after I got settled.”
There was a knock at my door, and I looked at the time. It was close to nine p.m. The only person who ever came over was Hank, but he’d said that he wouldn’t be around for the next few days.
“Listen, there’s someone at the door. Can I call you back tomorrow?”
“Fine,” Mr. DiNardo curtly agreed. I could still hear Mrs. DiNardo crying in the background when the call disconnected.
I was using whoever was at the door as an excuse to get off the phone. The call had shaken me up, and I needed some time to collect myself and prepare for the difficult and private conversation that I needed to have with them. I needed to tell them everything. The break-in, Richie taking my money, all of it. But I didn’t want to do that with Luna in the house. I’d see if I could drop Luna off an hour before my shift tomorrow and call them then. I’d even make a list of all the things I needed to say to them to make sure that I didn’t forget anything.
My mind was starting to put the list together when I peeked out the side window next to the front door. Hank stood on my front porch holding a stack of books and wearing the bracelet. My heart practically jumped out of my chest. Just seeing him made all the tension that I’d been carrying around leave my body. I hadn’t even realized how upset and anxious the call had made me until I saw him. I wanted to open the door and fall into his large, capable arms, but I knew that I couldn’t, so I did my best to pull myself together.
I pasted a smile on my face and opened the door. “Hey, I thought you said you weren’t going to be around for the next few days.”