I shuddered just thinking about returning to their camp tonight. Drake would expect it, but how was I going to look Landon in the eye? I thought I did a good job of acting like his lips reminded me of my grandpa, but what if I was giving myself too much credit? What if he could tell that I was mad at myself for wanting to kiss him?
“You’re uh….you’re daydreaming a bit there,” said Reagan, nudging me in the ribs as we sat in front of the morning fire.
I shook my head and offered a distracted smile. “Sorry, long night.”
Reagan’s eyes widened and her face went white.
“I think your long night is about to make today a lot longer.”
I’m not sure what I expected when my eyes followed her hand as she rose it to point across the campsite, but I certainly didn’t expect to see was my father, in full uniform, talking quickly and holding his little police notebook like everything spilling out of Mrs. Riley’s mouth was going directly back to the station for a full report.
“What is he doing here?” I whispered, feeling an angry blush creeping up over the neckline of my khaki vest.
Just then Mrs. Riley tore her eyes away from my father and pointed them in our direction. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that I was in trouble and Reagan was likely going down as an unwilling accomplice.
“I’ll tell them you didn’t know,” I promised, but Reagan was already headed toward our tent to pack for home, which meant when my dad made his brisk walk across the campsite to where I sat, placed his hand on the holster of his gun and asked me to “Come with him.” There was no one to turn to and whisper run!
I wanted to kill Drake for his completely stupid, poorly executed plan to get some while I was away at camp, but I wanted to kill Landon a lot harder for telling my dad about it. There was no way a father’s intuition brought Dad out to camp to check on me. I’d been to camp plenty of other times without interference. This was Landon getting what he came for, an opportunity to show my dad I couldn’t be trusted and earn his trust in the process.
For the first twenty minutes of the drive neither of us spoke.
Finally Dad exhaled and turned down the radio.
“You’re going to tell me who this boy is, and then I’m going to tell you exactly how old you’ll be the next time you’re allowed to date.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I’m the chief of police. I have unlimited resources, his first name and a general description of his appearance. I’ll know either way.”
“Then I guess you don’t really need me to answer.”
It was a dumb response and would probably tack two weeks on to my indefinite grounding, but I wasn’t giving dad that information. Part of me knew that he couldn’t throw Drake in jail for creeping around with his daughter, but a bigger part of me was afraid jail wasn’t what he was going to do to him so if he wanted to know who Drake was he was going to have to work for it. The irony of course was that if dad and I actually had a close relationship the fact that I had a boyfriend wouldn’t be a surprise to him.
I watched Dad’s knuckles go white as he clinched the steering wheel tighter.
“Your sister never pulled any of this. Maybe if she had...”
“Maybe if she had what?”
He kept his eyes on the road ahead of us, but his shoulders slumped.
“Maybe I would be better at this by now.”
Half a dozen thoughts zipped past my brain. What was that supposed to mean? Alice was so perfect that he and mom couldn’t manage a screw up like me? Or did he really genuinely feel like he let me down?
I didn’t say anything. What would I say anyway? I had gotten in trouble, again, and I didn’t have a defense. Telling him Drake came without asking me was not going to make my dad feel any better.
“I’m not going to punish you,” said Dad.
My head snapped involuntarily in his direction. “Why?” I asked, slow and cautious. There was going to be a catch. My dad did not know how to not punish.
“I tell my guys that you can’t punish bad behavior out of a person, but I’ve been trying to do that with you.” he replied, his grip on the steering wheel had loosened and he actually took the time to look at me while he spoke.
“So, we’re just gonna act like nothing happened?” I asked. “In like a real cool father and daughter bond by not telling mom sort of way?”
Dad laughed. “I’m not going to punish you. I can’t speak for your mother. Who,” he added, “already knows by the way.”
My face fell. It was nice having hope for those three brief seconds. “
“You know, dad, I would be happy to call Alice and let her know she screwed up by not screwing up enough. You can count on me for that.”
“Oh, I bet I can,” said Dad with a shake of the head.
As much as I would have liked this conversation to end as simply as, you’re off the hook kid, I knew there was more to it.
“Where’s the but?” I asked.
Dad didn’t hesitate. “Instead of punishing you, I am going to give you an opportunity.”
“Oh, an opportunity!” I cried. “That’s going to be so different than a punishment.”
Dad smirked. “I am going to give you the opportunity to spend the rest of the summer observing the station. Maybe if you see what the real bad guys look like, you won’t be so keen on becoming one of them.”
I felt my jaw tighten. “And your new intern. Will he be observing the station as well?”
“I trust him,” said Dad. And the words carved the existing hole in my heart, a few centimeters wider.
Landon
When I climbed out of my car the next morning, my back cracking like a bag of popcorn from sleeping in the most uncomfortable position possible, Drake was gone. He wasn’t in my tent and his hammock wasn’t tied to the tree anymore. He also made off with the last energy drink in my cooler, but that wasn’t exactly surprising.
Harper was gone too, which also wasn’t surprising. I knew as soon as Hunt woke up to my text about spotting Harper traipsing around at midnight with a boy, he’d be here and she’d be loaded up in his truck like there was a hot sale on delinquent daughters.
When I walked past the Girl Scouts camp, I noticed her absence and the overall doom and gloom on Reagan’s face. I should have felt victorious. This was exactly what I wanted. Harper was out of Drake’s reach, probably grounded for life, and not likely to fall victim to his evil plans.
So, why did I feel like a pile of hot garbage?
It took me about an eighth of the time packing up my camp as it did setting it up, and even though I only spent a couple nights here, I felt like I might actually miss that crappy tent and uncomfortable sleeping bag on the paper thin air mattress. It was so quiet out here, it made me actually believe that fresh air and nature could clear the mind, so I decided to go on a solo hike before I headed home. It wasn’t like I had a ton to head home to. Besides wi-fi, of course.
Honestly, I was hoping the quiet nature walk would help me make sense of what happened last night...that kiss. Harper was not the kind of girl I kissed.
I had a few theories as to why I did what I did. For starters, I’d been going through a bit of a...dry spell. I broke up with my last girlfriend in October, and with the exception of a couple trips through the rebound roster, I’d been a good boy for months. So maybe it wasn’t my brain I was thinking with.
The other thought floating around in my head was that Harper and I disliked each other so much the wires were getting crossed, and it was starting to feel like something else entirely. It was a fine line between love and hate and all.
As I reached the top of the climb, and I started to feel a thin sheen of sweat across my back, I realized how badly I needed a shower and how good it would feel when I got home. But another thought ambushed my quiet calm enjoyment of the morning air. And it was the last, most ridiculous possibility for why I would have kissed her when she was so clearly off limits. It was the same reason I couldn
't walk off the guilt I was feeling. And why I almost wished I wasn’t walking alone.
Maybe Harper wasn’t so bad after all.
Maybe I was so hung up on being a jerk to her that I didn’t realize that she wasn’t a wicked man-hating troll.
The trail came to the peak, Grover’s highest point, and I stopped, looking out over the town. I wondered where she was and how much she hated me.
“Suck it up, Landon,” I whispered to myself. She was supposed to hate me. That’s how it had always been so if she hated me even more, I was doing her a favor.
When I got back to the house, I beelined for the shower and stood under the hot stream until it turned cold. Then I stayed in a few extra minutes because a cold shower couldn’t hurt either.
I almost texted her. I didn’t have her number, but I bet I could get it from Gabe. Just to tease her a little about her new inmate status. Ask her if she ever got to kiss her unconscious boyfriend goodbye before her dad showed up at camp. Ask her if my kiss ruined her for all other kisses forever.
But I didn’t. I left my phone untouched in my backpack when Gabe came home with his redhead on his arm looking like a deer in headlights when they noticed me sitting on the couch. They didn’t look too thrilled about me coming home early. Guess they were enjoying the empty house while I was gone.
The old Landon would have given him never ending crap about it. I would have made inappropriate jokes, made Sloane uncomfortable, and implied way more than either of them would have liked, but that was the old Landon.
This new version just tossed them the remote, sulked off to the bedroom, and turned up the music loud enough that it was clear I wouldn’t bother them and nothing would bother me.
Harper
I had been at the station for ten minutes and already I could feel little parts of my rebel soul floating off into the abyss. If you think loitering at a police station is fun or exciting, you’ve seen too many body cam videos on YouTube. Mostly people file paperwork. Mostly criminals are actually just people with mental health issues or nowhere else to go.
I recognized a few of the regulars. The same guys getting trespassed for loitering at Walmart when I was kid, were here now, same story, different year.
Much to my displeasure I had been given the desk directly across from Landon. We typed away on our laptops, both doing our best to look busy and not at one another. I hadn’t heard a single word from him since the kiss, and I got the feeling this was par for the course for him. I’d seen enough mascara running in the Grover High School girls bathroom to know that this guy didn’t call you in the morning. What annoyed me wasn’t that he didn’t call or text. What annoyed me was I hadn’t even agreed to go out with him. How come he got to treat me like a conquest when I’d done the rejecting?
I felt him glance up at me over the screen of his computer, but I didn’t return the look.
“How goes the paperwork?” asked dad. He’d crept up on me from his office and was now standing over my shoulder with a cherry Pop-Tart in one hand. I wondered if Landon was remembering his cookie intervention on taco night with as much joy as I was. If I had known he was going to rat me out at camp I would have done a lot worse than that. I could have told him dad’s favorite band was Wham and he would love it if Landon brought it on a ride along, or maybe just implied that he loved to hear stories about breaking up with unworthy girls. That would have turned dad into a stick of dynamite in no time.
“It goes,” I replied.
Dad and I had a truce going. He wasn’t pressuring me to talk about who the boy from scout camp, was and in return I wasn’t being a toddler about being forced to spend my daytime hours preparing my proposal to Parks and Rec at the station.
“A little detail?”
I chewed on the inside corner of my cheek. “I’m almost finished explaining what the Gold Award is, and I think I have a pretty solid explanation for why a cohesive mural project on the riverwalk would benefit Grover.”
“That’s great,” said Dad. “Have you drafted a budget for supplies? Eric will want to know what it’s going to cost him outside of staff time.”
“Not exactly.”
“What’s the hold up?” asked Dad, brushing Pop-Tart crumbs off his uniform.
“I can’t really decide what I’m gonna need until I know what I’m going to paint.”
Dad knitted his eyebrows together, his face all pinched with concern. “That’s a tough one. You could do a history of Grover. Maybe paint the settlers, show the evolution of the town?”
I leaned over the desk and pretended to heave into the empty trash can beside me.
“Right,” laughed Dad. “I can see my suggestions are off base here. What do you think, Landon?”
Landon’s eyes popped up to dad with urgency. “Me?”
“You’re young and hip. What will people want to see down there?”
I snorted when Dad said hip, and he glared me into silence.
“I...I don’t know sir,” stammered Landon.
The corners of Dad’s face fell in disappointment, and I could actually see the first inkling of fear blossom in Landon’s mind as he realized Dad wasn’t impressed with his response. I would have felt bad for him—pretty much every time Alice sent her grades home from Yale I felt that same fear, but I had a hard time seeing past the blinding hot anger I felt toward him to access any empathy.
“I guess I think...”
“What?” I asked, putting him on the spot, purely to watch him bumble through it.
“It should be something that means something to you,” he answered, his eyes fixed squarely on mine. “A message you think Grover needs to hear.”
My jaw dropped. He did not just drop a super enlightened response, not when he had nothing thirty-seconds ago.
“I like it,” said Dad. “Think on that,” and then he leaned over and kissed me on the forehead while Landon sat smiling at me from across the desk. I wanted to tell him to wipe the grin off his face and get back to work, but he wasn’t smirking like usual. He was looking at me—fondly. And for the first time I got it. Even if he didn’t yet get it. He didn’t just want to have my babies. He wanted me, bad haircut, sharp mouth, too much eyeliner, the whole package.
We sat staring at each other, neither speaking. When I thought I couldn’t take it anymore the buzzer above the front door went off and Officer Nealson hauled in a familiar face.
“Andy!” I cried, globbing onto any excuse to leave my spot. Officer Nealson seated the old man beside his desk.
“Keep him company for a minute, will ya?”
I pulled up a chair and smiled. I’d known Andy since I was a brownie. He bought cookies from me when four bucks was all he had to his name. He was harmless.
“What ya in for?” I asked. Knowing full well what he was about to say.
“Sleeping.”
I nodded, “You know you’re supposed to do that at the shelter.”
Andy grinned a toothless grin. “And wake up to all my stuff gone missing? I’ll take my chances at the library.”
I nodded. It was sad, but true, sleeping at the shelter may have been air conditioned, but it came with a rather colorful clientele, and Andy was an easy victim, what with his hurt leg and slow gate.
“How long did they ban you?” I asked.
“30 days,” said Andy with a frown. “I got all the way to the fire this time missy. A few more chapters and I’ll know why you wear that Stay Gold necklace.”
I reached up to finger the smooth metal letters that hung just above the neckline of my tank top.
“Librarians,” I said with a groan.
“They love rules.”
“Worse than cops.” I laughed, just in time for Officer Nealson to return and take him to the back room.
Landon
Who was this bright-eyed blondie smiling ear-to-ear? She vaguely resembled a very mean girl I used to know. Harper sat in the seat by the door, her grin fading to something more sympathetic looking. Just then, she glanced up
at me, catching me staring and her scowl came back in a blink.
“There she is,” I mumbled.
Before she could get back to her seat at the desk, Hunt came out of his office.
“Harp, I just got off the phone with Eric. He’s gonna help you with the rest of your proposal, but you have to get over there now.”
“Can I take the truck?” she asked, raising her shoulders and giving her dad the cheesiest and fakest smile I’d ever seen. His eyebrows creased even deeper, leaving a permanent dent in the middle of his forehead.
Then, he looked at me.
“Landon, you drive her over.” He tossed the keys onto my desk, and I swear Harper’s shoulders would have melted to the floor if that was possible. She snatched up her laptop and stormed toward the door like a petulant toddler.
“Hang on there,” Hunt called as he brought out a Tupperware dish full of what looked like chili. “Take him some of your mom’s chili. She packed us a couple extras.” I took the dish and the keys and turned toward the exit. Harper was already in the parking lot waiting, leaving me standing there with a plastic container, a set of keys, and a very awkward car ride ahead of me.
“I guess she was in a hurry to get out of here,” he said, as he adjusted the weight of his belt. For a second, I could see the disappointment in his eyes. He looked even more tired than when I started this job, but this time I had a feeling it was because of his daughter and not the job. He was busy exhausting options to get his daughter to just be happy and normal while she couldn’t push him away fast enough.
One thing was for sure: I was never, ever having kids.
When I got out to the truck, Harper had her earbuds in and was actively avoiding my eye contact. It was almost laughable how obvious it was. Before we got on the road, I reached over and swiped the white pod from her ear. She scoffed and tried snatching it back before I shoved it in my pocket.
“It’s only a four minute drive to the parks office, so you’re going to at least half-listen to my apology.”
Dumping Dallas Winston Page 9
