Page 69 of One Last Chance

I stopped short, my next question dying on my lips. I’d heard an echo of my own voice from her end. I was on speaker phone, which meant one or both—probably both—of her parents were listening in. They probably scripted the whole thing, too. Knowing that I was about to walk into a trap, I licked my dry lips.

“I’m okay,” she said in a tone that didn’t reassure me at all. “Will you come over and join us for dinner?”

“What time?” I asked.

“Seven.”

“I’ll be there.”

“Okay. Goodbye.” She hung up before I could say anything else. Not that there was anything I would have said. Not with them listening in on the phone call. When I swallowed, my throat was dry, feeling like it was covered in ash.

I put the phone down and sat there for a good ten minutes before prying myself away from the desk and walking back toward my room.

Seven. Sunset, or thereabouts. I tried not to think too hard about the implications of going out to a dark acre of nothingness at that time of day, but couldn’t quite shake the feeling that I was a damn fool for agreeing to go.

“What was that all about?” Leroy asked suspiciously. “Daisy? Which Daisy? You selling to that dead kid’s sister?”

“I’m not selling shit, Leroy. Go to bed.”

“Is that all you ever got to say to me?”

I shook my head and walked away from him, then turned back around.

“Hey, Leroy—if you were going to have dinner with your girl’s parents and you knew that her dad wanted to kill you, what shoes would you wear?”

Leroy grinned. “Runnin’ shoes,” he said, quick as a whip.

I nodded and jogged back upstairs. Running shoes would have to do.

I showed up to Daisy’s house right on time, knocking on the door at a minute to seven. Daisy’s dad answered. He was sober and had showered in recent memory, which I would have taken as a compliment if it weren’t for the dangerous look in his eyes.

“Kash, come in. Good to see you. Been a long time,” he said, sticking out his hand for me to shake.

“Yes it has,” I said, matching his congenial tone. I placed my palm in his and gave his hand a firm shake. “Dinner smells good.”

“It’ll do,” he said dismissively. “Ya know, Sandy’s no great cook, but at least it ain’t prison food, right?” He slapped me on the back with a derisive guffaw and that dryness in my throat returned. Except this time, it was coated with annoyance and anger as opposed to confusion and fear.

I met Daisy’s mom’s eyes, expecting her to look embarrassed, but she didn’t. She looked terrified which cemented my idea that me being here was not a good thing. Not in the very least bit. Maybe I should have ran then. And maybe, sitting in this house with the parents of the boy I was thought to have murdered shouldn’t have been the time to be asking myself ‘what would Hunter do’, but it’s exactly what I did. As for the answer, I’m pretty sure Hunter would have wanted me to sit tight, to make sure Daisy was okay and stayed okay. So, even though I had my running shoes on, I didn’t hightail it out of there.

“Good to see you, Mrs.—”

“Oh, call me Sandy,” she interrupted sharply. “I haven’t been Mrs. anything to you since you were in middle school. It’s good to see you, Kash.” There was a desperation in her tone and a warning in her skittish gaze. All the words were right, but nothing else about her demeanor or her tone was.

Daisy hung back by the kitchen door, her hands clasped tightly together. She wouldn’t look at me at all.

“Daisy? Daisy come say hi to your boyfriend! He’s not here to make love to me, you know.” David chuckled warmly and winked at me. Okay, so he was an ass to his wife, but I still didn’t see why both of them were so concerned. As far as I could tell, he was okay with me dating Daisy. Well, not fully okay with it. I wasn’t stupid enough to miss the undertone in his voice. Somewhere deep down, though, it felt like maybe he was just a little pissed off that he hadn’t found out sooner. It made me wonder about the circumstances under which he discovered Daisy and my relationship. For some reason, I found it hard to believe that Daisy’s mom ratted her out. Lexxi was another option. Of course, she wouldn’t have gone right up to him and said it, but…she was a talker. And if the gossip mills started turning and one of his drinking buddies found out, I could definitely understand where the embarrassment and the upset would come from. No one likes being blindsided and that’s exactly what he would have been.

Daisy walked over stiffly, cautiously, like she was afraid I was going to attack her or something. I tried for an encouraging smile, but it didn’t matter whether or not I managed it. She still wouldn’t look at me.

“Hello, Kash,” she said, sticking her hand out. “Good to see you.”

My jaw dropped. A handshake, okay. I shook her hand for maybe a quarter of a second before she snapped it back to her side. The same girl who had just jumped in front of a tweaked-out dealer to save my ass three hours ago was now pretending like she didn’t even know me.

I snuck a sideways look at David to see if he grew horns and claws when I wasn’t looking or something, but he still remained as non-threatening as always.

“Come on and sit down, I’m pretty sure dinner’s ready. That is if Sandy didn’t burn it again, right Sandy?” He slapped his wife’s ass affectionately and laughed. She winced, then forced a smile followed by a light, humorless laugh.

“It’s ready,” she said quietly.

---