I figured he would be upset that I was hanging out with Trent, but I didn't want to add another lie to what I had already been keeping from him.
“Yep, I'm on my way now. I was going to pick up dinner. I don’t want to cook since cooking is all I’ll be doing in a couple of days.”
“Don’t worry about it. We'll order Chinese. Just come home. I miss you”
“So needy. Alright, see you in a couple of minutes, love you.”
“Love you more, Slick. Now get that sexy ass home,” he said before hanging up.
Kill came out to help me with the groceries as soon as I parked. He carried them all while I watched his muscles bulge, enjoying the free show. We were putting everything away when he started laughing. I looked over to see him holding the can of pumpkin I’d used as a distraction.
“Damn, Slick. How many cans of pumpkin do you need?” he asked, putting it with the others.
“Shut up, Killer. You can never have enough pumpkin.”
I’d been caught and would now have to prepare a ton of pumpkin dishes just to prove my point. He came over and kissed me lightly, erasing the pumpkin from my mind. We became wrapped up in each other quickly. He pulled away just enough to lift me up and throw me over his shoulder.
He yelled at Van and Jessie who were sitting on the couch. "The money for food's on the table by the door. Pay the man when he shows up."
Ifinagled my way out of going to The Note by telling Kill I needed to start getting things ready for Thanksgiving. Ray had shut the bar down for the week, and I didn’t need to go back to work until Wednesday. I extended my time off by taking Saturday off as well, so I could spend time with my dad and Martha.
When Kill and the boys left for their show, I grabbed my phone and called my dad. I’d been dreading this phone call. Throughout the night I’d gone over what I wanted to say to him, until I finally fell asleep, overcome by exhaustion.
My insides churned while I chewed on a handful of Tums. My stomach had been getting increasingly worse since I talked to Jason’s dad. The pain actually made my back ache, no longer confined to where the boulder rolled around in my stomach. My hope was that, by getting my dad to back off on Jason, some of the tension would help ease the pain.
Martha answered the phone, and we made small talk for a while. Most of it was me telling her again and again she didn’t need to cook anything. My dad was in the background telling her the flight info and I took it as my cue to get him on the phone.
“Hey, baby girl, are you ready to see your old man tomorrow?"
“Yep, I can’t wait to see you,” I said, biting on my lip. I wished I didn’t have to do this, but I had to if I wanted to protect him from the truth.
“What’s wrong?"
“Daddy, I need to ask you a favor.”
He always had a hard time telling me no. “What do you need?”
“I need you to stop investigating Jason,” I said quickly, wanting to just get it out in the open, and not beat around the bush.
My dad sighed at the other end. I crossed my fingers, not looking forward to the conversation we would have if he chose to fight me on this. There was no other alternative; I needed to convince him to stop.
“How did you know?"
I paused for a second, not expecting that question, and then ignoring it entirely. “I just found out. I know you're trying to look out for me, and I appreciate it; I really do. But you need to realize nothing good can come of this. I need you to let it go. I have, but I can’t move on unless everyone is with me on this.” I swiped at the tears slowly making their way down my face, wishing he’d never had the inclination to look into Jason.
“Is this really what you want?” I could hear the anguish in his voice, which made the tears flow faster.
“Yes, Daddy. Remember, it's us against the world, and right now I need you to move forward with me and forget the past.”
He stayed quiet for a couple of seconds, but in my heart I knew he wasn’t going to argue. “Alright, Faith, let’s move forward. The past can’t hurt us anymore.”
I took on a watery smile, even though he couldn’t see it, but feeling better for it, anyway. “Thanks, Daddy. I love you. I can’t wait to see you.”
“Don’t work too hard on dinner and put those boys to work. I’ll see you at the airport.”
Having my dad include the boys in our holiday, accepting them without having met them, made me love him even more.
“I love you,” I said, putting as much emotion into my words as I could. I wanted him to know I was still his daughter, and I needed him.