Page 45 of The Confidant
Hunter must have seen the same thing because before I could say anything, he was standing up and offering his seat to the woman.
And even though it looked like she was trying to refuse him at first, the relief on her face told me she was grateful for his kindness.
Hunter helped her to the seat, and when the train started moving again, he grabbed the handrail a few feet away to steady himself.
And even though he was wearing a baseball cap with his letterman jacket over his white hoodie, he might as well have been wearing shining armor right then.
* * *
Hunterand I made eye contact and faces at each other the rest of the ride. When it was time to get off at our stop, I took a chance and looped my arm through his just because I wanted to be close to him.
I never did things like this at school because I was always worried someone would report us to my dad. But since this was New York City—one of the easiest places in the world to blend in—I left my usual reservations behind and just let myself do what I actually wanted for a change.
When Hunter covered my hand with his and looked down at me with a quiet smile on his face, it felt better than Christmas morning.
If felt like the good parts of spring break all over again.
Hunter walked me to my dad’s house. After planning to meet him outside the church gates at six—we didn’t want to risk getting caught together—I spent the afternoon playing board games with my dad and Megan.
My dad and Megan were both in their sixties—my mom had been much younger than my dad when they’d gotten married. So he and my stepmom lived life at a slower pace than the rest of the world—yet another reason why things hadn’t worked out between him and my modern-thinking mom.
“I heard from Xander a couple of days ago,” Dad said after moving his game piece—the shoe—around the board and dropping it on Boardwalk. “He told me you two had a good time at that school dance of yours.”
“He did?” I asked, trying to keep my face neutral as I picked up the dice.
My dad didn’t know about my plans with Hunter tonight, so if I didn’t want to tip him off to anything, I needed to be careful with my reactions.
“Did you have a good time with him?” Dad asked, his brown eyes seeming to be searching my face for clues across the table from me.
“It was fine,” I said with a non-committal shrug. I knew my dad probably wanted me to say that the date had been fantastic since he was the one who had arranged it.
But I was still living on a high from walking arm and arm with Hunter this morning and had felt nothing like that from a whole night of dancing with his billionaire intern, so my dad was just going to have to be fine with disappointment.
I picked up my game piece—the thimble—and counted seven spots on the Monopoly board to land on Pennsylvania Avenue.
“That will be fifty-six dollars,” Megan said after checking the amount of rent I owed for landing on her property.
I pulled the blue and white bills out of my cash stash to pay her, and after organizing the money in her own stockpile, she took her turn.
As Megan made her way around the board, my dad cleared his throat and said, “Well, I hope you will take the time to get to know the lad better. He comes from a really good family and has a really good head on his shoulders.”
“Sure,” I said, even though I didn’t really have plans to continue getting to know Xander.
He went to Yale; I was leaning toward Columbia. It wasn’t likely that we’d have a reason to spend much time together in the near future.
Dad took his turn. After seeming to think for a moment, he said, “I should probably tell you that I’ve invited Xander to Sunday dinner tomorrow.”
“What?” I looked up from the board.
Dad nodded. “He’s in town for the weekend, just like you, and I thought it would be a good chance for you to continue the friendship you’ve started.”
“Why?” I asked. Why was it so important to my dad that I get to know Xander better?
Dad got the stern and serious look in his eyes that he sometimes got. In a low voice, he said, “Because it’s time you started spending more time with people on the right path, Scarlett.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked.
Dad sighed. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with the non-members at that school of yours, and while I have always supported you being a good example to those without the gospel, there does come a time when you need to surround yourself with other like-minded people.”
