nestling up against her as she wraps her arm around me and hugs me close. “I did. It was beyond perfect…and the price was more than reasonable. I probably won’t even need you guys to help out,” I tell them excitedly.
“Oh?” Mom inquires.
“Yeah, it’s only five hundred a month. For a house . It even has a pool…and my room has a balcony that looks out toward the desert. It’s stunning.”
Dad’s inner-cop suddenly shows. “Sounds a little too good to be true, don’t you think?”
What I think is he just likes having his baby girl home again. “That’s what I thought, but that’s what the guy said he wanted,” I tell him, shrugging slightly.
Mom squeezes me supportively. “Well, that’s great, sweethear—”
“Wait a minute,” Dad interrupts, his voice low and interrogating. “ He? ”
Shit.
Mom must not have caught it until he repeated my slip-up. Slowly, she loosens her grip and sits up. “You told me this person was a woman,” she says, her eyebrows rising. The look in her eyes is the same one I had seen when I was sixteen and lied about sleeping over at Katie’s house so I could go to a party.
“ Technically ,” I say, going back to our conversation earlier in the day, “you assumed the landlord was a female, I just failed to correct you.”
Before she can say anything else, my father launches himself out of his La-Z-Boy and booms, “Absolutely not! It’s out of the question!”
“Dad, he’s a really great g—”
“I don’t care if he’s the King of England; you’re not moving in with some guy you found through a classified ad,” he orders. “I raised you better than that, Juliette.”
I hate when he talks to me like this. There used to be a time when I’d roll over and just submit to whatever he demanded because I knew he loved me and was just looking out for me. But now? Well, I know he still loves me, and that’s where his little outburst is coming from, but I like to think that he’s raised me to be a pretty good judge of character.
“You’re right,” I tell him, forcing him to stop pacing the floor in front of the flat screen and look at me. I stand up so I don’t feel about three inches tall while I try to tell him how I feel. “You raised me to know better than to just move in with a stranger. But, isn’t that essentially what one does in college when they get a new dorm mate? I didn’t know Delilah from Eve, and she wasn’t cra—” I stop myself mid-sentence when my father crosses his arms and raises his eyebrows in challenge. “Okay,” I continue, “bad example.
“My point is, I asked this guy all sorts of probing questions. I think I know more about him than I even knew about Ben, for crying out loud.” My dad still doesn’t look convinced, so I cross over to him and look up into his stern brown eyes. “Daddy,” I say softly, and I can see his resolve beginning to break. “I’m twenty now. A grown up. I need to do this. I don’t know how everything will turn out, but isn’t that kind of the point of life? We wouldn’t learn anything if we knew what was going to happen next.”
“I just… Juliette, if anything ever happened to you because I failed to protect you…” The poor guy looks absolutely terrified. Will he stay up nights worrying that my new living situation is dangerous? I don’t want that, and I start to wonder if my moving in with Greyston is something he can even handle.
“Cam,” Mom says, interrupting my thoughts before I start to seriously consider calling Greyston and telling him I can’t move in with him. “Maybe we should trust that she knows what she’s doing. You did educate her on everything she needs to know to keep herself safe.”
She does it. She breaks his resolve.
With a sigh, he flops back down into his chair, propping his arms on his knees as he looks up at me. “I’m going to want to meet him. If I am going to be able to trust that he’s providing a safe place for you to live, I’m
“Oh?” Mom inquires.
“Yeah, it’s only five hundred a month. For a house . It even has a pool…and my room has a balcony that looks out toward the desert. It’s stunning.”
Dad’s inner-cop suddenly shows. “Sounds a little too good to be true, don’t you think?”
What I think is he just likes having his baby girl home again. “That’s what I thought, but that’s what the guy said he wanted,” I tell him, shrugging slightly.
Mom squeezes me supportively. “Well, that’s great, sweethear—”
“Wait a minute,” Dad interrupts, his voice low and interrogating. “ He? ”
Shit.
Mom must not have caught it until he repeated my slip-up. Slowly, she loosens her grip and sits up. “You told me this person was a woman,” she says, her eyebrows rising. The look in her eyes is the same one I had seen when I was sixteen and lied about sleeping over at Katie’s house so I could go to a party.
“ Technically ,” I say, going back to our conversation earlier in the day, “you assumed the landlord was a female, I just failed to correct you.”
Before she can say anything else, my father launches himself out of his La-Z-Boy and booms, “Absolutely not! It’s out of the question!”
“Dad, he’s a really great g—”
“I don’t care if he’s the King of England; you’re not moving in with some guy you found through a classified ad,” he orders. “I raised you better than that, Juliette.”
I hate when he talks to me like this. There used to be a time when I’d roll over and just submit to whatever he demanded because I knew he loved me and was just looking out for me. But now? Well, I know he still loves me, and that’s where his little outburst is coming from, but I like to think that he’s raised me to be a pretty good judge of character.
“You’re right,” I tell him, forcing him to stop pacing the floor in front of the flat screen and look at me. I stand up so I don’t feel about three inches tall while I try to tell him how I feel. “You raised me to know better than to just move in with a stranger. But, isn’t that essentially what one does in college when they get a new dorm mate? I didn’t know Delilah from Eve, and she wasn’t cra—” I stop myself mid-sentence when my father crosses his arms and raises his eyebrows in challenge. “Okay,” I continue, “bad example.
“My point is, I asked this guy all sorts of probing questions. I think I know more about him than I even knew about Ben, for crying out loud.” My dad still doesn’t look convinced, so I cross over to him and look up into his stern brown eyes. “Daddy,” I say softly, and I can see his resolve beginning to break. “I’m twenty now. A grown up. I need to do this. I don’t know how everything will turn out, but isn’t that kind of the point of life? We wouldn’t learn anything if we knew what was going to happen next.”
“I just… Juliette, if anything ever happened to you because I failed to protect you…” The poor guy looks absolutely terrified. Will he stay up nights worrying that my new living situation is dangerous? I don’t want that, and I start to wonder if my moving in with Greyston is something he can even handle.
“Cam,” Mom says, interrupting my thoughts before I start to seriously consider calling Greyston and telling him I can’t move in with him. “Maybe we should trust that she knows what she’s doing. You did educate her on everything she needs to know to keep herself safe.”
She does it. She breaks his resolve.
With a sigh, he flops back down into his chair, propping his arms on his knees as he looks up at me. “I’m going to want to meet him. If I am going to be able to trust that he’s providing a safe place for you to live, I’m
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