Page 101 of The Sun
The next day,I woke to Judah calling from the living room, “Sheriff Lower’s in our yard.”
I shook Sunny. She rolled onto her side, halfway swatting a dismissive hand through the air.
“Sunny. Babe?” I tickled her neck. “Your dad’s here.”
Her eyes popped open, and she sat straight up. “Shit.”
She grabbed her clothes from the floor and slipped them on before storming out of my room and down the hall. “Tell him to go away.”
“I’m not telling the Sheriff to go away. He’ll take me to jail,” Judah said.
“He will not.”
Groaning, I pulled on some jeans and made my way into the living room where Sunny and Judah stood arguing.
There was a loud knock followed by. “I need my daughter.”
I pulled open the door to Mr. Lower, arms crossed and cheeks red. His gaze went straight over my shoulder, most likely landing on Sunny, and his eyes narrowed to slits. “All right. You had your fun. Now come on.” He motioned her with his finger.
“I’m not leaving.”
His jaw ticced. “You’re only seventeen, Sunny, which means you’re a minor. I didn’t give consent for you to leave. If I wanted, I could take you in.”
“But you can’t arrest me.” There was a pause where tension crackled through the air like a lightning storm. “If I come home, will you let me see him?”
“No.” One, stern, powerful word.
“Then I’m staying.”
Mr. Lower ran his tongue over his bottom lip, then his gaze shifted to me. “You think this is good for her?”
“She doesn’t want to go home.”
“And I don’t want her here.”
“You could just let her see me,” I said.
“I’m not letting my daughter date a drug dealer.”
“I’m not a dealer.” My blood pressure elevated like a slow rising tide.
“Sunny.” He frowned. “Let’s go.”
From the corner of my eye, I caught her walking toward my room. The door slammed, and Judah mumbled “damn.”
I tapped my hand on the doorframe a few times.
Mr. Lowers expression went from hard to soft. “What have you done to my little girl?”
“Loved her. That’s all.”
Shaking his head, he let out a disbelieving laugh.
I stared at him, wondering why he disliked me so much, questioning how he couldn’t see that he was the one causing harm to Sunny—not me. Had he just given me a chance, there would have been no sneaking around, no reason to make her feel the need to run away.
“Mr. Lower, with all due respect, sir, have you thought about whatyou’redoing to her? Trying to make her chose between the two of us? ’Cause that’s not really fair to her.”
Mr. Lower looked dumbfounded and as bad as I felt for him, I didn’t want to deal with this mess any longer. “Mr. Lower, since you don’t have a warrant, I’m closing the door. Sir.” And I did, latching the top lock before I turned around.
