Page 29 of Your Every Wish
“Let’s go eat.” I give her an encouraging pat. “We’ll figure out what do about the detective over a nice meal.”
She starts the car again and noses out onto the highway in the direction of town. “Seriously, why are you doing this for me?”
It only takes me three seconds to summon the answer. “Willy would’ve wanted us to take care of each other.”
She slants me a sideways glance. “Willy? Willy didn’t give a shit about me. And from everything you’ve said about him, you neither.”
“I think he changed when he got cancer. I think he looked back on his life and realized the mistakes he’d made. That’s why he left us Cedar Pines Estates, to bring us together.”
“I think you have a rich imagination,” she says and slants me another glance, this one longer than the last. “Willy died as worthlessly as he lived. Even so, I’m grateful.” That last part she says in a whisper.
I get the sense that she’s not often grateful because she doesn’t have a whole lot to be grateful about.
* * *
That night, I hole up in my bedroom and call Dex. He’s in a good mood—today’s trading must’ve gone well—which I see as a good sign. I start out with small talk, telling him about my day, the gorgeous hotel where Kennedy and I ate lunch, how the town’s decked out for Halloween, and about the next-door neighbor who fixed our window.
“Watch out,” he says. “The guy probably wants to get with you or your stepsister.”
“She’s my half sister. And can’t someone just be a good person?”
“You really do live in the clouds, Emma.”
There’s no sense arguing with him. We’re polar opposites when it comes to our philosophical views on humankind. He believes everything is transactional and I believe there are still people left on this earth who actually care about each other. Hence, the reason I’m dreading the rest of this conversation.
“I have to ask you something, Dex. And I want you to hear me out before you make a decision.”
“We’ve been over our living situation a million times, Emma. The answer is still no.”
“It’s not about me moving in with you. I’m fine here in Ghost. In fact, I quite like it. This is something else. I need to borrow some money. It’s for Kennedy . . . she’s in trouble.” I explain the entire story to him, how her mother stole money from Kennedy’s client and how she’s on the hook for it. I tell him that a police detective in Las Vegas is searching for her and that if she doesn’t make good on the money, she’ll likely go to jail.
He waits until I get to the end of the story without interrupting even once.
“So she told you this, huh? And you’re buying it?”
“Of course. Why would she make it up, Dex?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because she actually stole the money. Or she wants to buy drugs, or because she’s a professional con artist. What do you actually know about this woman, Emma? Not a damn thing. And here she gives you some bullshit story about her mother and you’re ready to give her thirty thousand bucks. What’s wrong with this picture?”
When he says it like that it does make me wonder a little bit. Or at least I can see why he would be suspicious. Yet, in my heart of hearts I know she’s telling the truth. Don’t ask me why, but I know.
“Dex, she wouldn’t lie to me. We own property together.”
“What does one thing have to do with the other? And the only reason you own property together is because your father, the man who spent the last five years of his life in federal prison for insider trading, left it to you and her. Sometimes, Emma, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
“I told you about my father in confidence, Dex.” Not to throw it in my face.
“And I haven’t told a goddamn soul. I’m just trying to paint you a picture here. The man was a crook. What makes you think his daughter isn’t one too?”
“Because I am also his daughter and I’m not a crook. What do you think, it’s contagious, it’s passed down through DNA?”
“No. What I think is that you’ve known this Kennedy for only a couple of weeks and already you want to give her thirty thousand dollars. Thirty thousand you don’t have. Use your brain because I know you have one, even if you show really poor judgment most of the time. This doesn’t smell right. ”
“I’m asking you, Dex, as a favor to me, to lend me the money. It’ll be to me, not Kennedy. You have my word that I’ll pay you back. If it will make you feel better, I’ll even sign over part of my share of Cedar Pines Estates to you as collateral.”
“I don’t want a trailer park, Emma. And as much as I trust you, I can’t let you do this. I won’t let you do this. For Christ’s sake, you can barely make ends meet. I’m not going to leave you on the hook for thirty thousand.”
For a second, I think he’s going to give me the money. Just give it to me. Without a commitment to pay it back, without a promissory note, without collateral. I would never accept it that way, of course. But it’s what I would do for him if he or one of his siblings were desperate for money and I had it.
