“Your face is a mess! My God, Mom!”
She must’ve heard me walk in because she swings around, aiming her mace at my face.
“Whoa. Easy.”
“Paige, put that thing down and let me—”
“What is going on?” The girl’s eyes dart from me to her mother, and I use that moment of distraction to close the distance and grab the canister from her hand.
“If you’d give your mother half a second to explain, you’d know,” I grumble.
Robin jumps right in.
“Gray didn’t do this, baby. There was a little incident at the diner yesterday.”
Understatement of the year, but I’m not going to correct her when she’s trying to calm her clearly upset daughter down.
“What incident?”
Robin pulls the younger woman down on the couch, their heads close together.
“Why don’t I put on another pot?” I mutter at no one in particular, since the two of them are too engrossed in each other to pay me any attention.
It’s just noon and already I’ve had more social interaction than I’m accustomed to or even comfortable with. Instead of escaping out the back door—or ‘running away’ as Robin likes to refer to it—I busy myself making coffee.
I’m at the sink, looking out the window, when I feel a tugging on my jeans. I drop my gaze to Zeus, sitting by my feet, his big eyes blinking up at me.
“What do you want?” I ask the little terror.
He complains urgently in response.
“Demanding little thing, aren’t you?”
Meowww.
“You have a cat?” I hear Paige exclaim inside when I open the cupboard for the cat food. “Oh my God, she’s so cute.”
“It’s a he.”
Robin’s daughter looks up from where she’s crouched on the ground, plying Zeus with attention the cat seems to lap up. Then she scoops up the cat and straightens, holding out her free hand.
“Sorry about earlier,” she mumbles when I shake it.
“No worries. Name’s Gray.”
“Paige. So Mom says you rescued her when that old piece of shit car of hers broke down?”
She tilts her head to the side and the move reminds me of her mother. In fact, now that I’m looking at her a little closer, the family resemblance is quite obvious.
“Technically we first met in New York at the 9/11 Memorial,” I correct her.
I watch her eyes grow big before she swings her head around. Robin is walking in from the living room, a concerned look on her face as she bulges her eyes at me.
I’m not sure what, but I’m positive I did something wrong. The air in here has just gone electric in a significant way I don’t quite understand.
Robin is blushing, looking guilty, and her daughter is staring daggers at her mom.
“Mom? When were you at the 9/11 Memorial?”
Robin
Well, fuck.
I guess there was always a chance she’d catch on at some point. Especially now she’s an adult. For years, I was able to get away with my annual trip around the beginning of September by telling her I was meeting up with my old sorority sisters.
It had been an excuse both Paige and my parents accepted easily. My parents thought it was a nice distraction for me around the anniversary of Rick’s death, assuming any 9/11 memorials would be too painful for me. I never bothered to disavow them of that notion. Over the years it had become an easy tradition for everyone to get used to.
Paige had been the first to suggest we see the Tribute in Light when she first went to school in New Jersey. I would still go during the day, supposedly to meet up with friends, and would return with Paige at night.
As far as Paige is concerned, her father was one of many to die an unfortunate death when she was only five. She holds no real memories of him—thank God for that—and I wasn’t about to refresh her limited recollection.
I remember clearly how he held a gun to her head the last time I tried to leave with her, stating how he’d kill us both. I’d believed him. How could I not? He’d never hit me but I was painfully familiar with that gun. He knew all too well I would sacrifice everything for my child.
I remember how terrified Paige had been, her eyes big and not understanding what was happening. I remember trying to smile at her reassuringly, all the while screaming inside. After he saw his message had the desired result, he left me to lie down with Paige. I coaxed her back to sleep and stayed with her the night. The next morning I explained to her she’d had a bad nightmare.
When Rick died so unexpectedly, I felt safe for the first time in years. Free. I never saw the point of burdening Paige with the truth about her father, or my parents with knowledge they could do nothing about. That’s why I moved back to Michigan the first opportunity I had.
Looking into my daughter’s face, I realize she’s become too savvy for me to try and lie my way out of this one, but before I have a chance to respond, Gray speaks up.
“I should probably check in at the shop,” he announces, his gaze sliding from Paige—who is still glaring—to me. “And maybe leave you two to talk. I’ll check in with you in a bit.”
Despite my daughter’s sharp attention, he closes in on me, brushes his lips against mine, and heads for the door.
I’m not sure whether to be upset or relieved he’s leaving.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Robin
“So when? When you were staying with me?”
I reluctantly look at my angry daughter as the door closes behind Gray.
“Yes,” I admit.
Moved to find out she’d caught a flight home so I wouldn’t be alone for New Year’s as well, I hate ruining her sweet gesture.
“I don’t understand,” she says agitated. “For years you told me you would never set foot in Manhattan. That being there would be too overwhelming. Why?”
I don’t immediately answer, wondering how much or how little I should tell her. Is it time for the truth? A truth I
