Breakfast the next morning was absolutely normal. Not a hint, not a sign, not a single reason to worry.
It was afterward, when I was about to get ready to meet up with Nora, that Dad mentioned it was pickup day.
“I have a few things to go in the recycling bin if you wouldn’t mind taking them out for me, Ethan.”
“Sure.”
“They’re in my storage office,” he said, pushing back from the table. For a minute he stood there, finishing his coffee. Then he told Mom he’d be working at home today and maybe they could tackle something on her never-ending home project list if he found some free time.
“I’d love to get that new squirrel-proof bird feeder up,” Mom said.
It’s cute how excited she gets when they’re going to do something like that together. You’d think it was some kind of married couple date.
Dad leaned down, smiling, and kissed her nose as he passed by her place at the table.
“Poor squirrels,” he said. He winked at me.
The stomach lurch I’d felt at the mention of the “storage office” began to calm. As I followed him down the stairs and along the hall leading to it, I reminded myself that none of this was cause for alarm. He worked at home on a regular basis. And “bin management,” as Dad put it, was my job.
“Forgot to ask you,” he said as he punched in the door codes, “how’d you like the new bike?”
“It’s great,” I said. “Thanks.”
“Good, good.” He stepped into the room. “Just grab those boxes over there.”
On the right there was a small stack of broken-down boxes, tied with a piece of twine. I didn’t remember seeing it when I’d been in there the other day, but then I’d had other things on my mind.
“Probably a while since you were in this dusty place,” Dad said.
And then I knew that he knew.
It was a test of nerves I wasn’t ready for. Except, I had no choice.
“Actually,” I said, picking up the boxes, keeping my voice steady, “I was in here the other day.”
“Oh, yeah?” He barely sounded interested. “Looking for something?”
“Not really. I just wanted the key for your office.”
“My office? What for?” His voice and his expression offered nothing but a hint of curiosity. No alarm. No suspicion.
It was chilling. I knew he must have seen the charge for the Uber drive and realized I’d been to his office. This whole conversation was a charade, to see if I had something to hide.
I had to persuade him it was innocent.
“It was kind of dumb,” I said. “When I texted you — there’d been a fight with Nora and me, I dunno, just wanted to talk for a minute.”
“Bad timing,” he said. “I’m sorry about that.”
“No, it’s okay.” I tried to look sheepish, which wasn’t all that hard because lying that way made me feel like an idiot. “Anyway, I got this crazy idea to go to your office, like it might calm me. As if there’d be a sense of your presence or something.”
He smiled. “And was there?”
“Not really. But I think it helped, the empty space and quiet.”
“And how are things with Nora now?”
“We’re okay. It was one of those things that gets blown out of proportion.”
That he’d have no trouble believing. And I was ninety percent certain he’d bought the whole thing.
Or — was it possible my suspicions were completely unfounded? Could I have imagined there was anything more to any of this than a normal father-son exchange? How could I be sure, either way?
The truth was, I couldn’t. Which meant I had to stay vigilant until I had proof one way or the other. And act totally natural at the same time.
I nodded at the boxes I was holding. “Is this it?” I asked.
“That’s it, for now,” he said.
“K,” I said. “Well, I’m meeting Nora, so —”
He gave me a one-swipe wave and I left.
As I tucked the boxes in among all the other stuff in the bin a moment later, I mentally congratulated myself. Which felt strange. “Good job, Ethan. You’re turning out to be quite the accomplished liar.”
Not the kind of praise I ever expected to be giving myself, even if it was something I’d been forced into doing. And some of it had been the result of my dad’s own words.
“Never oversell, Ethan,” he’d told me on more than one occasion. “The biggest mistake people make when they’re trying to hustle someone is talking too much. Let them draw information out of you. Otherwise, you seem too eager, and eager looks guilty, or desperate.”
I wondered how he’d like it, knowing I’d taken his advice and used it against him. The urge to make my story more believable by adding extra details had been strong, but I’d fought it. Successfully, it seemed.
I heard a thump against the garage door as I was wheeling my bike — the new Trek, so Dad wouldn’t wonder why I’d use the old one instead — toward the side entrance. As I rounded the corner at the front I found Owen, shooting hoops.
“Hey,” I said. “I’m meeting Nora, but I’ll walk the bike as far as your place if you want.”
He tossed the ball back into the deck box and fell in beside me.
“How’s everything going?”
“Good. I think I did okay covering up why I went to his office. So, as long as I don’t make any more dumb mistakes like I did taking Ubers, I should be in the clear.”
“Just don’t tell Nora about any of this,” Owen cautioned.
I said nothing. Looked straight ahead and kept walking.
“Oh, man. It’s too late, isn’t it?” he said.
“She won’t say anything,” I said. I was glad we’d almost reached his house.
“She won’t say anything,” he repeated. There was no doubting his tone. “You have got to be kidding. The second she gets mad at you, she’s unpredictable. How do you not know that yet?”
“She wouldn’t mess me up over something big like this,” I said.
Owen threw his hands up. “I hope you’re right,” he said. And then he let it go.
That’s the way he is. He’ll tell you what he thinks but he won’t go on and on the way some people do. We disagree on a regular basis, but it never turns into anything you’d call an actual fight.
He tapped me on the shoulder and said he’d see me later, but he didn’t move, which made me think he wasn’t going back into his house. I wondered if it was a bad morning. That’s not unusual, and although his mom had been sober at suppertime yesterday, that didn’t mean she’d stayed that way. I’ve been around in the mornings for some pretty tense scenes, especially if she wakes up hungover and Phil is in a foul mood over whatever went on the night before.
Knowing that made me feel a little guilty as I stood on the pedals and started toward Nora’s. Owen doesn’t have a long list of friends and I know I’m the only one he’s close enough with to talk to about certain things.
Nora was waiting, all smiles and joy.
“Notice anything different?” she asked, twirling around, arms lifted.
“Did you get your hair cut?”
“No!” She giggled.
“Is it something you’re wearing? Because you know I don’t notice much about clothes.”
“It’s not clothes, silly. I know you’re hopeless in that department.”
She’d stopped twirling and stepped closer. I stopped trying to figure out what I’d missed when she snaked her arms around my neck and lifted her face to look me in the eyes.
“Do you want me to keep making hopeless guesses, or kiss you?” I asked.
She opted for the kiss. Then she told me what I hadn’t noticed.
“I’m all tanned!”
She tugged free and did another twirl.
“Looks great,” I said. “But you always look great. Except that time you drank all your dad’s beer and I had to hold your hair out of the way while you were heaving behind the shed.”
She laughed and gave me a playful swat.
“We need to make plans,” she said. “How about a swim?”
“Sure. I’ll have to grab a pair of trunks first. Beach or pool?”
“Crestview,” she said, which surprised me. The Crestview pool is closer, but she loves the beach at Mooney’s Bay.
When we pulled our bikes up to my place Nora decided she’d wait outside to avoid getting trapped in a conversation with one of my parents. I admit I was relieved. Even before Owen’s warning earlier I’d been regretting telling her about my father. She wouldn’t give anything away on purpose, but I could picture her asking Dad some “innocent” question about his weekend, which he’d see through in a heartbeat.
“Back in a sec,” I told her, before she could change her mind.
“Grab an extra towel too,” she said. “I forgot mine.”
As we pedaled toward Crestview, I made a comment about my mom, and how busy she is all the time, even though she doesn’t have a job.
“Must be hard for your mom to keep up with things sometimes,” I said, hoping it didn’t seem like a weird thing to bring up.
If it was, Nora missed it. She did what I was hoping she’d do, which was get talking about her mother. A lot of it was the usual grievances. Her mom never has time to do things with her. Her mom is in a bad mood a lot. That kind of thing.
But she also talked about her mom’s job, which was why I’d brought the subject up.
“She’s always complaining about how she’s not paid enough, and people don’t appreciate her. On and on. I told her if she hates it that much she should quit, but that just made her mad.”
“She’s a nurse, right?” I asked.
“No, she does something in administration,” she said. “Good thing too. Imagine being sick and having my mom take care of you.”
I filed that bit of information away just as we arrived at the pool.
It was a great day. The weather was perfect but even so the pool wasn’t crowded. The sun on the water created a mosaic that sparkled and shifted, and Nora moved through it like a sea nymph. Her eyes were bright and every time they met mine the smile that followed made my chest ache.
I even managed to overcome the pulse of fear that almost always haunts happy moments with Nora. Maybe that was because there was a different threat hovering, although I didn’t know if it had anywhere near as much power to hurt.