Page 58 of Cold As Ice

“You’re starting to sound desperate.”

Something flashed in his eyes, but it was gone in an instant. “Fine. You win. I’ll watch you go in.”

“You don’t need to do that,” I sighed.

“Good night, Madison.”

“Night, Austin.”

I lingered for a second, wondering whether I was making a giant mistake. But then I remembered the little girl waiting at home for me and walked away from him.

Austin watched me the entire way to my door.

* * *

“How was she?” I asked the second I entered my apartment.

It wasn’t much. A modest sized two-bedroom with an open plan living area and kitchen and a small communal yard at the back where Imogen could play. I was saving everything I could for a down payment on a house, but it was going to be years before I had enough.

“An angel, of course.” Mom already had her jacket on.

I didn’t take it personally. She wasn’t one to sit around and make small talk. But still, I found myself saying, “You don’t have to leave straight away. We could have—”

“It’s late, and we have Pilates first thing.”

“Before we go though, sweetheart, we wanted to run something by you.” Dad looked at Mom, and she nodded.

“What’s wrong?” Dread snaked through me at the strange, silent conversation they seemed to be having.

“The Creedys invited us on vacation with them. A cruise around the Caribbean. All expenses paid.”

“Wow, that’s kind of them.”

“It’s Derek’s fiftieth birthday. They want to celebrate big.”

“Well, you should totally go. I’m sure Jer can help me out with Immy. And I can ask Jacqui and Ken. If you let me know the dates, I can figure something out.”

It wasn’t ideal, but they deserved a vacation. They gave up a lot to help me with Imogen. If it came down to it, I’d ask for some leave days.

“Well, that’s the thing, sweetheart. We leave next week.”

Next week?

Crap, that didn’t give me long to make any arrangements.

“Oh, I see. Well, it should be okay. It’s only a couple of—”

“Three and a half weeks,” Mom said.

“What?”

“The cruise. It’s for three and half weeks.”

She might as well have told me it was for six months.

Two weeks, I could maybe get all my shifts covered. But three and a half weeks? That was going to be virtually impossible.

“We know it’s short notice,” Dad started, but I cut him off.

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