“I did invite him, but he’s spending the holiday with his uncle and mom in Florida, where his grandparents are in a nursing home.” I checked my phone for messages, thrilled to see one from him with a turkey emoji and “missing you” after it.
I replied: Missing you more. x We’ll be putting raisins in our stuffing. I’ll refrain from spitting them out and equating it to fucking a fifty yr. old corpse. My family might not see the humor in it. Especially my dad. He will question if you’ve actually done it.
Wylder: You can tell him I’m exclusively fucking his only daughter. And the early Thanksgiving blowjob was exquisite.
I rolled my eyes.
“Is that him?” Jessica asked on a quick side glance.
“Yes. He’s being obnoxious.”
“And by obnoxious you mean inappropriate?”
“Maybe.” My cheeks flushed as I typed my reply.
Livy: Did you tell your mom about the blowjob?
I wanted to know if he’d told his family about me. The blowjob disclosure was optional.
Wylder: Not yet. I’ll mention it if I’m asked to give the blessing.
I didn’t mean to giggle out loud, but I couldn’t help it.
“Now you have to tell me what he’s texting you,” Jessica said.
“God, no. It’d be like telling my mom.” I clicked off my phone screen.
“Did he invite you to spend Thanksgiving with him and his family?”
I shrugged. “No. But I think he knew there was no way I’d leave my dad on Thanksgiving.”
“Do you think he’s as emotionally invested in your relationship?”
Emotions and relationships. Two things we didn’t discuss.
“Well, he loves me.”
“He said that?”
I nodded and grinned, staring out the window as we crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge. The whole truth sat on the tip of my tongue. The secrecy with his job. The fact that he killed a man for me. And the true depth of my emotions for him. I couldn’t say it … not to Jessica. Out of everyone in the world, I wanted her, more than anyone else, to see my strength because she’d been working so hard to give it to me.
“My mom said my dad was a complicated man. She said you can’t judge someone by the culmination of their actions. That the right person will see their soul in a way no one else can see it. She said she fell in love with his soul, and it branded her in a way that made it impossible for her to not love him with all her heart. I never thought much about it until I met Slade.”
Jess nodded slowly, keeping her eyes on the road. “Is there something about Slade that I should know about?”
He killed a man for me.
“He’s just mysterious. I feel like I know him. His soul of sorts. But he also has a mysterious side, and there are lots of rumors about him that I don’t think are true. And sometimes I like that I don’t know everything about him. You know? I like discovering him slowly. Like … he hates raisins.”
“The rumors are things like him hating raisins?” She shot me another quick sidelong glance.
I laughed. “No. Just the usual weird stuff that gets spread about anyone who keeps to themselves for the most part. Drug dealer. Male escort. Crazy stuff like that.”
“So you may or may not be dating a drug dealer slash male escort. Maybe holding off the introduction to your dad isn’t such a bad idea after all. Besides, if he hasn’t already done it, he’ll run a background check on him.”
“What?” My mouth fell open. “You’re not serious?”
She lifted a shoulder. “He’s a computer geek. He can hack just about anything. If he knows where he lives, he’s already saved everything from his birth certificate to any positive STD tests.”
My brain snagged on that little piece of information, wondering if he knew who Slade’s employer was. If he did and it was something sketchy, he would have told me. Hell, he would have physically kidnapped me and relocated me to my childhood bedroom. I let Jessica’s revelation give me comfort. Slade must have come up clean in Dad’s searches.
“So much for letting me find my own way in life.”
Jessica grunted a laugh. “Your dad? Are we talking about the same person?”
I rolled my eyes. Come to think of it, I was pretty sure it was my mom who encouraged him to do that. When she died, all common-sense parenting died with her.Chapter Twenty-OneI returned Saturday night instead of Sunday morning as planned. Dad wasn’t exactly in the best mood. No one knew why. I wondered if it was hardest during the holidays without Mom. She’d always done all the cooking.
When I realized my girls weren’t at the house, I packed a few things and headed to the firehouse. Slade said he would be home late Sunday, but I just wanted to feel close to him. I wanted to bury my head in his pillow. In fact, that was what I did as soon as I got there. I tried to video chat with Slade for the first time, hoping to get a glimpse of his family or something more personal, but he didn’t answer.