Caroline hadn’t returned Aidan’s calls, even after he left a message explaining that she and her daughter were in danger. She’d told her sister that she’d call the police if Aidan came anywhere near her. He wanted to believe the sister was lying. But he had to face the possibility that she wasn’t, that something had gone very wrong in his relationship with Caroline. Jason Stark had gotten to her somehow. The image of the two of them kissing outside that restaurant haunted him. It shook his faith. He felt her slipping away, and he couldn’t stand it. He had to do something dramatic to bring her back to him.
He decided to approach Hannah Stark and offer his protection in some way. Or maybe wile his way into her confidence enough that he could gauge whether she was in any danger. How much did she know about her father’s secret life? Was her dorm secure? Was she a partier, or a druggie, with shady connections of her own? He had to get close to her to find out.
But how could he do that without setting off alarm bells? Hannah might recognize him from the restaurant the other night, decide he was a stalker and call the police. He could try to stop her from doing that by telling her the truth. But how would that work? Just come right out and say that he was involved with her mother and had followed her father because he was worried Jason Stark was dangerous? First off, he couldn’t tell her about his relationship with Caroline. And second, she’d never believe him anyway. It sounded bizarre even to Aidan. No, he’d have to pretend to be a stranger and arrange to meet her by happenstance. Strike up a conversation, try to gain her confidence. As for their encounter in the restaurant, he’d have to hope that she didn’t remember. People’s eyes passed over the faces of waiters and delivery boys and checkout clerks. They were part of the scenery. A rich girl like Hannah wouldn’t register the face of the guy who poured her water at a restaurant. And if, somehow, she did, he’d pass it off as coincidence.
Aidan knew what Caroline’s daughter looked like. He’d seen Hannah Stark at the restaurant. He had a photo of her that clearly showed her face, lifted from the camera roll on Caroline’s iPhone. But it turned out that finding one particular girl on a campus as big as Stony Brook, even if you knew what she looked like, was a bigger challenge than he’d imagined. Uploading the campus map to his phone told him nothing about where to find Hannah. He didn’t know which dorm she lived in and didn’t know his way around. He couldn’t go up to someone and ask without risking getting noticed by campus security. Aidan stood out because of his age. Even with his youthful face, dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans, he was pushing it to pass for a student. He’d never been to college himself, and he felt like an impostor. The place bustled. Space-age modern buildings, Asian kids with expensive backpacks hurrying along the wide paths like they were going someplace important. Aidan didn’t belong. They’d know, they’d smell it on him. He’d get himself in trouble.
He wandered and tried to blend in, keeping his eyes peeled. He sat on a bench, looking at her photo on his phone. The paths were empty now. Everyone was in class. He would need to get inside the buildings in order to have any hope of finding her. But which building, and how? He walked up to the nearest one, glanced around, tried the door. It was locked. The map said it was a dorm. He’d better hope other buildings were open, or his brilliant plan had failed before it could get off the ground.
He drifted across the campus, crossing his arms over his sweatshirt against the wind, which was picking up. Dark clouds were blowing in. Suddenly the paths were full of students changing classes. His hopes lifted, till he realized that half the girls looked like Hannah. Eliminate the Asian ones, the black girls, the blondes, the heavy ones, the skinny ones—and what do you get? A lot of girls with long brown hair, average build, pleasant face, jeans and sweater, boots and backpack. A couple were dead ringers, to the point that he checked their faces against the photo, only to see that he’d remembered wrong.
After a couple of hours of nothing, he was cold, hungry, and frustrated. The weather had taken a serious turn for the worse, like it was threatening to storm, hard. He started telling himself he should quit while he was ahead, get out before the rain hit, or at least before some interfering employee recognized him for the vagrant he was and called the cops. But he couldn’t bring himself to leave empty-handed. This girl was his ticket to Caroline, to his future. Quitters never win, right, and winners never quit? His dad used to say that, probably because he thought of Aidan as a quitter. Well, he wasn’t quitting this time. He wanted Caroline too damn much for that. His hands were going numb from the chill, so he followed a wave of kids into a campus coffee shop, looking to get out of the wind. He’d wring a couple more hours out of this venture, hoping for his luck to change.
Wouldn’t you know, she was right there, sitting at a corner table with a latte and a laptop open in front of her. He didn’t even need to check his phone to make sure. It was definitely her.
He got in line and paid for yet another stupid-expensive coffee drink that he didn’t even want. The whole time his mind was working, trying to figure out his approach. Once the drink was in his hand, instinct took over. The place was full. The seat next to Hannah was empty. She was a girl. Girls liked him. He walked up to her and smiled, like she was anyone.
“Hey, mind if I sit here?”
Her eyes flicked up tentatively. “No, go ahead,” she said, and looked down again, blushing.
All right, she was shy. This would be easy. Piece of cake. He almost felt bad, lying to her. He reminded himself that he was here to help, and he shouldn’t let himself feel intimidated. Hannah Stark wasn’t better than him. Everything she possessed had been handed to her on a silver platter. This impressive campus. The freedom to sit around a coffee shop with a four-buck latte and a two-grand MacBook Pro in front of her in the middle of the afternoon. Not because she worked nights like he did, but because she didn’t work at all. At Hannah’s age, Aidan was—well, at her age, he was locked up, that was the ugly truth. But later, when he got out, he’d swabbed floors and cleaned grease off the grill at the diner while waiting patiently for a promotion to waiting tables.
It wouldn’t be smart to seem overeager. That would only creep her out and chase her away. He looked at his phone, sipped his coffee, and waited for her to notice him.
Ten minutes had passed, and she still hadn’t spoken to him. Either she was shy, or else she thought he was a lowlife and had no intention of speaking to him. Didn’t really matter which. The place was clearing out. She was starting to gather her things. It must be coming up on time for the next class. He had to make his move.
“Uh, excuse me, miss. Do you go to school here?” he asked.
She looked at him like, Duh, why else would I be sitting here?
“Yeah, sure,” she said. “Don’t you?”
“I don’t.”
“You’re not a student here? Because you look really familiar.”
“You look familiar, too. Maybe we met in a past life.”
She laughed. A positive sign.
“Actually,” he said, “I’m here for a tour. Thinking about coming here next year.”
Her brows knit skeptically. “I thought I saw an email that they cancelled the tours today, because of the storm that’s coming.”
Aidan thought quickly. “Yeah, but I didn’t get the message in time, so I drove all the way out here for nothing. I hope you don’t mind me interrupting your studying. It’s just, if I could ask you a few questions, I could maybe get something out of this trip.”
“Sure. But wait, are you in high school? You don’t look like it.”
“No. I’m a vet. Pulled two tours in Afghanistan. Now Uncle Sam’s gonna send me to college on the GI Bill. Law school, too, or even medical school if I want. I’m here checking this place out, wondering if it would be a good fit for someone like me. Someone who’s been around, seen things. You know?”
He had her interested now. She sat up straight, closed her computer, played with her hair.
“I’m Aidan, by the way.”
He held out his hand. She shook it awkwardly. Her hand was warm and slightly damp.
“Hannah,” she said, leaning closer and lowering her voice. “Honestly, I don’t know if this would be the right place for you. Everyone here is super boring. And it’s kind of a commuter school. Dead on the weekends.”
“Really? What are you doing here, then? You don’t seem boring.”
She colored. “Really? Thanks. The thing is, I haven’t made many friends yet. People are cold. They keep to themselves, you know?”
“I do know. That’s why I miss the military. The closeness, the solidarity. I’ve felt really alone since I got out.”
He looked off into the far distance, putting on his best damaged-young-man-who-needs-rescuing expression.
“I can’t even imagine,” she said. “I’ve barely been anywhere outside New York. Just to Florida a few times to visit my aunt, because she goes there in the winter, and I’m super close to her.”
“That must be nice.”
“It’s really nice. We hang out and do girl stuff. You’d probably think it’s boring, since you’re used to more excitement. What was it like, being in Afghanistan?”
There was an announcement that the café would close early, in half an hour, because of the storm. But they stayed and talked as the place emptied out around them. He regaled her with war stories, convincing ones, borrowed from tales he’d heard Mike Castro tell during long nights at the bar, after he’d had a few. Mike was one of Tommy’s guys, and he’d had a tough war, but Aidan didn’t see any reason not to profit from that. He’d used Mike’s stories on women before, often enough to have perfected the telling of them. He knew the right note to strike. Be humble. Don’t be a hero. Au contraire, the hero was your buddy who caught the IED. That weighed on a man, watching his best friend make the ultimate sacrifice. He managed to seem brave and heroic, but wise and sad at the same time. It was the perfect recipe to convince the girl to take him into her confidence. Eventually, he started asking her the questions that weighed on his mind, and she answered willingly.
“What are your parents like? Are they still together? Are they happy?” he asked.
“They used to be so happy together. I don’t know what went wrong. They split up recently, but now they’re back together, and I can’t tell if it’s for real.”
“They’re back together?” he said, and his throat tightened, so the words came out hoarse. The thing he feared was true.
“Yeah, they reconciled. I don’t know if it will last, though.”
“Did your father cheat on her?”
Hannah squinted at him. “What makes you ask that?”
Aidan cleared his throat and smoothed his features into a better poker face. “It’s the most common reason couples split, isn’t it?” he said.
“You hit the nail on the head. She claims he cheated. But I know my dad, and he wouldn’t do that. If anyone would cheat, it’s her.”
“I’m surprised you’d say that about your own mother.”
“My mom’s not very maternal.”
“No? She’s not a good mother to you?”
“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. Sometimes I think I’m not the right daughter for her. I’m not smart or pretty enough. She’s not abusive or anything. She doesn’t say mean things, but she’s always trying to fix me. You know, like Hannah, you should take this class, go on that diet, get a makeover. She constantly buys me clothes that aren’t my style. That kind of thing.”
“I’m sure she does it out of love.”
“You might be right. But my aunt Lynn accepts me for who I am. So does my dad, and that feels better, you know?”
Aidan didn’t like listening to criticism of Caroline. But he couldn’t rush to her defense without giving himself away.
“What’s your dad like?” he said, changing the subject.
“He’s awesome. Really kind and loving. He works hard to take care of us. My mom digs the lavish lifestyle. I think he went into finance to support her in the style to which she’s accustomed, you know? He’d probably rather be doing something more worthwhile, but he needs to bring home the bucks for her, so he’s stuck.”
Poor Hannah had it all wrong. She had no idea what kind of man her father really was. Judging by the stars in her eyes when she spoke of Jason Stark, Aidan had better tread carefully. He couldn’t come out and tell her what he knew, because she’d never accept it. He needed to take a roundabout approach.
“What about his friends?” he asked.
“What about them?”
“Have you met them? Do they seem like decent people?”
She looked him in the eye. “That’s a weird question. Why are you so interested in my parents? Do you know them, or something?”
“No, of course not,” Aidan said, flustered. “I’m not interested in them. I’m interested in you.”
That made her blush and flutter her lashes. “Wow. Thank you. I have to say, I’m kind of surprised. Guys don’t always get me right away. But I really like you, too,” she said.
Crap. He’d made a serious mistake. He couldn’t have Hannah thinking he was coming on to her, not if he planned to be her stepfather someday. But before he could correct his error, there was announcement that the café was officially closed, and they had to leave.
“I feel so bad that they canceled the tour on you,” she said, standing up and gathering her things. “The least I can do is show you around. My dorm’s on Roosevelt Quad. It’s like the most happening part of campus, so we should go to my room.” She lowered her voice. “Plus, I know where my roommate keeps her vodka.”
Should he tell her he didn’t like her like that? He couldn’t correct this awful misimpression without alienating Hannah completely. She’d feel humiliated and drop him. The thing was, he actually did want to see her dorm room, to check whether it was secure. Was she on the ground floor, so that Russian thug could climb in her window? Were there security cameras in the building? A lock on her bedroom door? He could let her think he was interested long enough to get a look. He’d refuse the vodka, of course, and keep things strictly friendly. He didn’t like leading her on, but he had to make sure she was safe. Once his very brief reconnaissance was complete, he’d make an excuse and slip away.
“Sure, I’d love to see your dorm room,” he said to Hannah. “Lead the way.”