what’s lurking in those woods.”
I stood up and snagged my books and the quilt from the grass, tucking them under my arms, cell phone in hand.
“Let me help you,” Dad offered when I got to the deck, reaching for the blanket.
“Thanks.”
“I forgot that you were getting out early this year. I wanted to be here when you got home.”
“It’s okay,” I said. He rested his hand on my shoulder and kissed my forehead.
“I just had to run to the grocery real quick.”
I nodded. “What’s for dinner?”
“I’m making vegetable lasagna.”
“Cool. Do you need help bringing in the groceries?” I asked and dropped my books on the kitchen table.
“I got them all,” he said. “Thanks though.”
“When’s Mom going to be home?”
He opened the fridge and finished putting away the groceries. “She’s going to have a late night tonight. Probably won’t be home until after eight, big case she’s working on. The trial is coming up in a few months. I don’t know the details, but from the sounds of it, she’s prosecuting a man for horrendous things. . .child abuse, battery, murder, you name it.” He shook his head and sighed.
Our family defied all family stereotypes. My mom was a lawyer and my dad stayed home. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to and my mom wanted to work. He didn’t go to college. She did. She was in law school when they met.
The lines were still blurry on how they met exactly. My parents met in some park in North Carolina where my mom often studied during law school. They noticed each other and clicked. Something like that.
I didn’t know much about my dad’s past. All I knew was that he was an orphan. His parents abandoned him at birth. I guess it was something he didn’t like talking about and I didn’t pry. My dad did a few odd jobs on the side to keep himself occupied. He designed landscapes in his free time. He loved the outdoors, like father like daughter.
“She’ll be pretty stressed out until then, huh?”
He nodded. “She’s really committed to this case and getting this guy locked up. But, it just means more time for us.” He smiled to try and lighten the mood.
Yay
. Not that I didn’t love spending time with my dad, but a girl just needed her mom sometimes. Moms got things in a different way than dads. And it had been too long since I’d actually spent any bonding time with her. I really missed her.
• • •
Cam slid into the front seat of my little white Cabriolet. I had the top down to feel the warmth of the sun. She’d definitely seen her fair share of use over the years, but she had been good to me. Maybe a little beat up, but she was mine.
Cameron and I had taken turns driving on road trips over the years—half in his old Jeep, half in my Cabriolet. Not cross-country overnight trips, but daytrips to Charlotte, Myrtle Beach and Charleston. We’d had lots of good memories in this car together.
“Thanks, Cal,” he said. “I know you didn’t want to come back.”
“Don’t sweat it.”
Cameron threw his backpack in the backseat and combed his hand through his dirty blonde strands. “Are you as swamped as I am? I feel like I’m drowning in homework. This was supposed to be the easy year. The fun year.”
I chuckled humorlessly. “And yet, I get out two periods early and I have twice as much to do as I did with all seven periods.”
“It’s a joke.”
“Yeah, on us.”
He slapped my knee coolly and kept his hand there. “We haven’t really talked in a while. What’s new?”
At that moment I really wished I had something to rub in his face, but I had nothing. We’d spent the first half of the summer together, but he’d spent the second half with Isla.
For whatever reason we’d gone to school with her since kindergarten and never had he ever noticed her. Then at one
random
summer party they caught one another’s eyes and everything fell into place. As if they were just at the right place at the right time. She