Page 84 of Pipe Dreams
She opened her mouth as if to say something, but then changed her mind. She cocked her head, studying him.
“What?”
Lauren shook her head. “Call me when you can.”
“I will, honey. Of course.”
She stood on tiptoe and pecked him on the cheekbone. Then he had to let her disappear into the station alone.
Five minutes later he walked into his house to find Hans on the sofa, and clean shirts in their dry cleaner’s plastic hanging from the stairway bannister.
“Hey—thanks for this.” He pointed at the hangers. “I couldn’t remember if I asked you to grab them.”
“You did not, but I just guessed you had to pack tonight so I stopped in and asked them if they had anything for you.”
“You’re the best.” Mike stopped to listen to the violin music rolling down the staircase. It was some fast-paced tune he couldn’t identify. And it soundedangry. “Uh, is that an original composition?”
“Ja,” Hans said. “She’s been playing it for a while.”
“What’s her damage? Math homework?”
Hans nodded. “Math. And also something about you and dinner.”
Crap. “Did she eat dinner?”
“Ja. Some.”
“I’ll go say hello.” He climbed the stairs, and the music got louder and louder. He waited in her doorway while Elsa built the tune to a frenzy and then finished it with one loud, lingering bellow across her D string. “Hi,” he said when the last reverberations died away.
She didn’t reply. She just wiped rosin off her instrument with a cloth, then loosened the pin in her bow.
“What’s shakin’?” he tried.
“Nowyou want to hang out?” She slammed the case shut.
“Something wrong with now?”
Elsa looked up, her face red. “You’ll be with Lauren in Detroit, right? But tonight was your only night to be with me.”
Oh boy. “You know what? I was home for hours today. You were on your phone for a lot of it.” But,fuck. The day’s itinerary wasn’t the point. “You have friends. I’m not allowed?”
“Friends,” she spat, her eyes flashing. “Mom’s been in the ground a whole year now. Guess it’s time for you to go running back to your slutty girlfriend.”
“Elsa!” he barked, his blood pressure skyrocketing.
“What?” she snapped, the challenge on her face clear.
“I can’t believe... No—I’mashamedto hear you talk like that,” he roared. “And what’s more? If your mother heard you say that, she’d be ashamed, too!”
Later he’d wonder why he had to go and do that. But at the mention of her mother, Elsa’s bravado crumbled. She turned her face away as if she’d been slapped. Then her eyes welled up. “Get OUT of my room!” she screamed.
Now there was a great idea.
He turned and bounded down the stairs to the living room. Before he got there, her bedroom door slammed with such force that he heard one of her pictures fall off the wall, too. And when his feet brought him into the living room again, poor Hans was still sitting there, looking uncomfortable.
He’d lost his cool and actuallyshamedhis daughter. And in front of an audience. “Shit.”
Beacon took a deep breath. Instead of bolting upstairs to his own room to regroup, he threw himself down on the other end of the couch from Hans, putting his feet on the coffee table. Then he tipped his head back and sighed.
