Page 88 of Lilly

"It's just as bad there. My dad never leaves, or if he does, he doesn't tell me where he's going or when he'll be back so I never know if I'll have five minutes alone or five hours."

"Where do you think he goes?"

"Who knows? Obviously during the week he's at work but at night and on weekends, I really don't know."

"Rachel." I hear my dad's voice coming from the hall. "Rachel, are you in the bedroom?"

"Sit up," I tell Reed as I crawl over him and run over to the door to unlock it. I open it a crack and see my dad going in the master bedroom. A moment later he comes back out and notices me at my door. "Have you seen your mother?"

"Yeah, she's out back, weeding her flowers."

He stops at my door. "What are you doing?"

"Talking to Reed. He got here a couple minutes ago."

"Hey, Mr. Kensington." I feel Reed behind me and step back a little so I can open the door more.

"Hello, Reed." My dad eyes us both. "Why don't you two go sit by the pool? It's a nice day outside."

"We will," I say. "See you later, Dad."

His eyes go to Reed. "How is your father?"

"Good," Reed says, sounding nervous.

"Does he like his new job?"

"It's not really new anymore but yeah, I think he likes it."

"Lilly mentioned he's getting a new car. Does he have it yet?"

"No. He's not sure when he's getting it. It's on special order. Actually, he's getting the same one you have. Well, I don't know if it's exactly the same but it's a black Mercedes."

My dad doesn't respond.

"Do you like yours?" Reed asks, desperately trying to make conversation. When my dad gets quiet like this, it freaks Reed out. It kind of does the same thing to me. I'm never sure what he's thinking.

"It serves its purpose," my dad says.

Reed glances at me, like he wants me to say something and end this awkward conversation.

"Dad, Reed and I were going over our classes for fall so we'll talk to you later."

But my dad doesn't leave. "I need to speak with you privately for a moment," he says to me.

"Can we do it later?"

"No. This will just take a minute."

I fight an eye roll and follow him to his room. He shuts the door. "I don't want you telling him what I told you about his father."

"Then how am I supposed to explain the fact that you don't want me seeing him for the rest of the summer?"

"Tell him you're busy with your family. Tell him I've asked you to spend these last few weeks before school starts with us instead of him. If he's a respectable young man, he'll understand."

"He IS respectable, but why can't he just come here like he's doing now? We're not in danger when he's here at the house."

"I'm not getting into this now. I took you aside simply to tell you to keep what I said to you confidential. That includes information about our family and anything you've seen or heard over the years. Those are things Reed, and anyone else outside the family, should not know about."

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