by Parker, Ali
I nodded. “I had to do it for Christopher. They’ll have to evacuate the airport and ground all flights. I hope that gives him a chance to find his son.”
She smiled, shaking her head as she looked at me. “You are batshit crazy, woman. You went from not being sure if you could have a relationship with him to breaking federal law to help him.”
I groaned. “I’m in so much trouble. I cannot believe I did that.”
“I think you need to have a really long conversation with yourself about why you did. You feel something big for this guy. Are you sure you can let him just walk away?”
“I don’t think I get a choice in the matter,” I mumbled.
“You do get a choice. You can choose to fight for him or choose to let him go. He has no idea what he has in you. Show him.”
“I can’t. I know he cares for me. I don’t want to make this more difficult than it has to be.”
She scoffed, waving a hand. “Relationships that are too easy aren’t worth it. There has to be some fight. A little angst goes a long way to proving it is worth having.”
“Maybe, but the man has had so much angst in his life already, I don’t want to cause him anymore.”
“Let him decide how much is too much.”
“Thank you,” I said with a smile. “We didn’t bury a body, but we are in the same realm of illegal activity.”
She sighed, shaking her head. “And my mom thinks I’m the bad influence. Get out of here before you make me an accomplice to any more of your illegal activities.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Remember, if anyone comes in asking any questions, you know nothing, and you’ve never heard of me.”
She winked. “Leila who?”
Chapter 48
Christopher
I parked in short-term parking and attempted to make my way to the doors but was turned away by police. That was when I noticed the flood of people pouring out every exit. Mothers were dragging little kids behind them; businessmen and women were rolling small suitcases as they all rushed in my direction.
“What’s going on?” I asked one harried man.
“Bomb.”
“What?” I asked fear spiraling through me. I ran over to the security guard. “Can you tell me what’s happening?”
“There’s been a bomb threat,” he said with no real concern. “It happens. I doubt it’s anything to worry about, but we have to evacuate and search the airport. All outgoing flights are grounded and inbound are being diverted.”
“My son is in there!”
“Sir, relax. There’s no reason to panic.”
I took a deep breath. “I’m not panicking, but I need to find my son. Where do I go?”
“Everyone waiting for a flight has been asked to go to the long-term parking. It’s a safe distance just in case.”
“Just in case!” I practically shouted. “You said it wasn’t a big deal.”
“Sir, it is routine procedure,” he said waving his hands and directing the crowds of people pouring out of the airport.
“My son,” I repeated, trying to remain calm.
“Sir, call him. He has a phone, right? Doesn’t everyone have a phone?”
I wanted to shake him. “I’ve tried!”
He wasn’t listening to me. A businessman in an expensive suit was demanding to know when he would be able to catch his flight. Apparently, he had an important business meeting. I rolled my eyes. Then remembered I had probably been him at one point, uncaring of real problems and focused on myself.
I walked away and fell in with the crowd moving towards the long-term parking area. I caught a glimpse of a familiar coat. I picked up my pace, trying to determine if the male wearing a red baseball cap was indeed my son.
“Olin!” I shouted his name.
The person stopped and turned to look at me. Relief flooded my body. It was him.
“Dad?”
“Olin!” I said his name and rushed towards him, pulling him into my arms and hugging him tightly. “You scared the hell out of me.”
“What are you doing here?” he asked with confusion.
I took the duffel bag from him. With my free arm, I wrapped it around his shoulders and walked against the rush of people, leading him back to where I had parked. “I’m here to get you.”
He sighed. “I’m in trouble.”
“We’re going to talk.”
We made our way to the truck. The parking lot was a mess with hundreds of other people all trying to leave at the same time. Neither of us said a word as I navigated back towards the highway. I wasn’t sure what to say. There was a lot on my mind and I didn’t think it should be said while I was operating a two-thousand-pound machine.
It was likely to get heated. I was likely to get pissed and hurt. Neither were a good combination when I was behind the wheel. I glanced over at Olin. He looked rightfully scared. He should be. I didn’t want him to get the idea what he’d pulled was okay.
I parked the truck in the garage. Both of us walked in and headed for the kitchen. It was where we tended to spend most of our time. He dropped the duffel on the floor and took a seat at the bar. “Well,” he said, encouraging me to get on with the lecture.
“Why?” I asked the simple, most pressing question.
“Why what?”
“Why would you run away? What were you thinking?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Were you planning on living in the house? With what money? Were you going to go to school?”
He shrugged again. “I don’t know. I just wanted to get out of here.”
I exhaled a long breath, praying for patience. His usual teenage response was always something along the lines of he didn’t know. This was too big to gloss over with a generic reply. “Why, Olin? Don’t tell me you don’t know. I need to know what you want from me. This is never going to work if you keep your mouth shut and don’t tell me what it is that’s bothering you. I want to help, but I can’t help if I don’t know what’s going on.”
He looked down at his hands before looking back up at me. “I don’t know. Honestly. It’s just so much has changed.”
“Is it being in Texas?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I like it here, but I don’t really have any friends.”
I offered a small smile. “You’ve been here a month. It’s going to take some time.”
“I’ve lived in Minnesota all my life. It’s so different here.”
I nodded. “Exactly. We need different. Have you ever heard what the definition of insanity is?”
He shrugged. “Crazy. Insane.”
I smiled, slowly shaking my head. “Technically, that might be true, but Albert Einstein had a different definition. He said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Living in Minnesota was our insanity. You were going to school; I was going to work. We kept doing what we had always done and neither of us was getting any happier. Neither of us was truly moving on from losing your mother.”
“Why do we have to move on?” he asked in a quiet voice. “I don’t want to move on.”
“Because we can’t go back,” I answered. “We can never go back to the way it was before she died. We are forced to make a new normal for ourselves. Minnesota was stifling us. Everywhere we looked, there she was. The dry cleaners, her favorite restaurants, her very essence. I will never forget her and I’m not asking you to forget her. I’m asking you to pick up the pieces of your life and put them together in a way that works.”
“Is that what you’re doing?”
“Yes,” I answered immediately. “I know it’s easier to stay where you know and feel comfortable, but easy wasn’t getting us anywhere. We were stuck. I felt like I was drowning. And, I know you don’t want to hear it, but it wasn’t doing you any favors either. You were making some decisions that would have ultimately led you down a very dangerous path.”
He rolled his eyes. “It wasn’t a dangerous p
ath.”
“I’m not trying to get into all of that,” I said, not wanting to be distracted. “We’re here because this is a chance to start fresh.”
“What if I don’t want to be here?”
“Then I need a reason. Why? I don’t know isn’t going to cut it.”
He looked pained as he sat on the stool, mulling over his answer. I could survive the silence. I wasn’t going to give him an easy out. He had to tell me. He needed to voice his opinion if he expected me to hear him. I’d been making the decisions and he obviously felt unheard.
Now was his chance.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled.
“What?”
“I’m sorry I was going to run away,” he said, lifting his eyes to meet mine. “I just, I don’t—” he stopped midsentence. “I don’t have any friends, and Jen,” he said leaving it at that.
“Look, I get it. We are in a new place. There is going to be some adjustment. You can’t cut and run when something doesn’t go your way. You’re sixteen, not six. I know I’m asking a lot of you, but I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think this was the right thing to do. Things have to change Olin. We can’t keep butting heads. I screwed up early on. I admit it, but it’s time to move forward. I never abandoned you at any point in your life. I’ve always been around, even if I wasn’t front and center.”
“I know,” he muttered, clearly not thrilled to be told something contradictory to what he’d been saying. “It’s just, you weren’t there, not like Mom.”
“No, I wasn’t. I was working. I worked to make sure you would always be taken care of. I’ve admitted my mistakes and now it’s time to move on. We’re all we’ve got left.”
He let out a long breath. “Am I grounded?”
I smirked. “Should I ground you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Look, I am willing to listen to your opinions, but that requires you to actually talk to me. What are your reasons for going back to Minnesota?”
He scrunched up his nose, opened his mouth and then clamped it shut. “I don’t really know. It’s home.”
“Is it though?” I questioned. “I feel like Texas is home or it will be if you give it a chance.”
“I guess.”
“I want to do what I can to make you happy and if you can give me good solid reasons for moving back to Minnesota, then we’ll do it. But I want reasons beyond the lack of friends here.”
“Okay,” he said.
“Okay, what?”
“I’ll stay.”
“I want you to be happy, Olin,” I told him. “I am willing to do just about anything within reason to make sure you have the best chance at being happy. I’ll quit going to school if that’s what it takes. I’ll put you in a different school if you want to go that route. I’m asking you to try to be happy. You make a choice every single day you open your eyes to see the good or see the bad. We’ve both been living in a dark place for too long. Being here is a chance for us to find happiness. If you don’t want to be in Texas, we can go anywhere. Los Angeles, Miami, New York, or some tiny farm town in Nebraska. I’m game. You tell me what you want.”
He made a face that said none of those places appealed to him. “I’m fine. I don’t want to live in Nebraska or any other place.”
“Good, because I like it here.”
“I guess I’ll get used to it,” he said without any real enthusiasm.
I grinned. “I suppose you will. Now, grab your stuff and get your ass to school.”
His mouth dropped open. “Dad! I’ve already missed half the day.”
I looked at my watch. “Not quite half. I’ll be here when you get home.”
He stared at me for several long seconds before heading upstairs. A minute later I watched him drive down the driveway. I flopped down in my easy chair and closed my eyes. That had been close. Too close. I felt like I could finally breathe again after nearly suffocating with fear and worry over Olin’s departure.
I hoped he took what I said to heart. I was willing to move mountains for him, but I needed him to commit to sticking with me. I liked Texas and our house and my school, but if he really hated it, I would give it up. Hell, I’d given up the one woman who’d sparked something inside me for him. Moving out of state was nothing compared to saying goodbye to Leila.
After giving myself a few minutes to mull over the morning, I thought back to the airport scene. The security guard acted like it was no big deal. I had to wonder just how often that kind of thing happened. I had flown a lot, usually by private jet, but I had never experienced an evacuation. I shuddered to think of what could have happened to Olin had it not been a prank.
Chapter 49
Leila
I was hiding. I could admit it. I had been waiting for the police or the secret service or whoever it was that arrested people for calling in bomb threats to an airport. I was terrified to leave my house, even if that would be the first place they would look for me.
The blinds were closed and both doors locked. Again, I wasn’t exactly fooling anyone with my car in the driveway, but I had to pretend I was doing something to avoid being hauled off to prison. I had a class, but not until later. Instead of going in to work in my office, I was working from home. It seemed safer.
A knock on the door nearly sent me into a panic attack. I couldn’t move from the kitchen table. Could I escape? I looked down at my thick thighs and realized my ass was not going to be squeezing through the small window in the kitchen that faced the backyard. The back door would certainly be guarded.
“You’re being ridiculous,” I whispered.
“Leila!” Kami’s voice boomed. “Open the damn door. I know you’re in there.”
I rolled my eyes, shaking my head as I got up and walked to the door. I yanked it open before grabbing her arm and pulling her inside. “Can you be less obvious.”
“As if the car in the driveway isn’t?”
“I could have gotten a ride,” I argued.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.”
“Why aren’t you at work?”
I grimaced. “I’m scared,” I confessed.
She smirked. “You should be. You’re a felon. Or you should be a felon.”
“I’m not a felon.”
“You committed a felony; therefore, you are a felon.”
I groaned. “Why are you here?”
“Did you hear the news?” she asked with a smile.
I shook my head. “No. I’ve left the TV off.”
“The incident is all over the news. The chief of police and some guy from the FBI put out a message that if they find out who did it, they will be prosecuted. They also reminded the public that threats are all taken seriously. They called it a prank.”
“A prank?” I whispered.
She grinned. “Yep. They think it was some kids having fun.”
“They don’t know,” I said, relief flooding me. “I’m not in trouble.”
“Not unless you go blabbing about what you did. I think you’re in the clear.”
I clapped my hands. “Thank God. I’ve been absolutely stressed. I don’t think I slept at all last week.”
“Did he call you again?”
I shook my head. “No. I didn’t call him either. It’s better if we just leave things alone. He’s got to worry about his son, and I have to worry about my career.”
She walked into the kitchen and helped herself to a cup of coffee. “Now that we know I won’t be visiting you behind bars and you can avoid the ugly orange jumpsuit look, let’s talk about what this means.”
“It doesn’t mean anything.”
“You committed a felony for a man that says he no longer wants to see you,” she reminded me.
I shrugged. “It isn’t that he doesn’t want to see me. It’s because he can’t see me.”
She made a face. “He’s a grown man. He can do what he wants.”
“Yes and no. He’s got a kid to think about. His kid has been thr
ough something traumatic and deserves a little leeway.”
“Girl, that boy took the whole highway! Hopping on a plane and fleeing the state isn’t leeway, that’s grounds for getting your butt kicked.”
“Christopher is a patient man,” I said. “He’ll try and work through this with him rather than punish him for having some feelings about living here in Texas.”
She groaned. “Having some feelings? We all have feelings. I hope Christopher gave him a good dose of reality.”
“He would talk to him I’m sure. He wouldn’t freak out on him.”
She sipped the coffee. “I think I like this guy.”
“Christopher?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“You don’t even know him.”
She grinned. “But he’s a bad influence on you. Bad in the best way possible. He’s pulling you out of that perfect little bubble you live in and forcing you to be your baddest self. You’re breaking rules left and right. You never break rules.”
I put out my bottom lip. “I don’t like breaking rules and rocking the boat.”
“But look how much fun you’re having doing it!”
I couldn’t deny my life had been far more exciting in the last month since I had met Christopher than it had been for years. “Felonies are not exactly fun.”
“It was for a good cause. Are you going to tell him?”
“No!” I exclaimed. “I’m not telling anyone and you better not either!”
“You did it for love. What’s that song Meat Loaf sang? He would do anything for love.”
“I don’t love him,” I quickly corrected. “And I refuse to take advice from someone named Meatloaf.”
“Sure, about that?” she shot back. “People do some crazy things for the people they love. You would never do anything like that if you weren’t desperate. You would have gone to prison for him. I think that says far more than any Hallmark could.”
“Stop. I was only trying to fix what I had broken. He loves his son and I want him to be happy. I didn’t want to go to prison. I took precautions to make sure I wouldn’t.”
“You’re hiding in your house because you know it was a pretty damn good possibility that you could go to jail for what you did. You knew and you did it anyway.”
