“Victoria,” I say, putting the phone back on speaker. I do it out of habit so Margie can take notes.
“Celeste,” she says, her voice formal, “I’m calling because I thought you should know your mother has lost her job.” My heart plummets into my stomach. Even though I pay all of my mom’s bills, she continues to work at the diner for one reason…
“The diner closed,” she adds. “She’s been sitting outside of it every day…” She doesn’t need to finish her sentence for me to know why—in case Snake shows up.
I let out a long sigh, unsure of how to handle this situation.
“Celeste.” When Victoria says my name, I remember we’re still on the phone.
“Thank you for calling. I’ll figure something out.” We hang up, and that’s when I notice Adam has joined us in the office.
“Your mom needs help,” he says, stating the obvious.
“She doesn’t want help,” I counter. “She wants a man, who, if I wasn’t alive as proof, wouldn’t even believe exists.”
“When’s the last time you searched for him?” Margie asks. She, too, is aware of my mother’s entire situation.
“I haven’t.”
“What do you mean, you haven’t?” Adam gives me a shocked look. “You have more than enough money to hire a private investigator.” When I don’t say anything, he searches my face for several seconds before he adds, “You’re afraid.”
I drop my eyes to the floor, not wanting to be further analyzed. “I’m not afraid…” But even to my own ears, I can hear the lack of conviction.
“Yes, you are,” he argues. “You’re afraid of what you might find. That maybe he’s not really your dad, or he’s dead. He might be some asshole who isn’t everything your mom has made him out to be.” I flinch at his words, but he doesn’t stop there. “Or worse, you’re afraid that you’ll find him alive and that would mean he left because he didn’t want your mom…or you.” I don’t bother to argue. He’s hit the nail on the head.
“Celeste,” Adam says, putting his hands on my shoulders. “You need to find out what happened to him. Your mom needs closure, and so do you.” He raises a brow. “Are you seriously going to let her die never knowing what happened because you have daddy issues?”
“You’re right,” I admit, my voice choked up from the guilt I’m now feeling. It was easy to pretend the situation doesn’t exist when my mom lives over five hundred miles away and doesn’t bring it up during the rare times we speak. But now that Adam has opened the closet, spilling out all of the skeletons, I can’t just stick them back inside and pretend they don’t exist. “I’ll look into finding a PI.”
“Felix’s best friend from college is one. I’ll give him a call.”
“Thank you.” I give Adam a hug. I don’t have a lot of friends, but the few I do have are nothing short of amazing.
“So what time is career day?” he asks, and I groan. Margie, of course, laughs. When I don’t answer right away, Adam gives me a look of disappointment. “You’re not going to let that girl down, are you?”
“You don’t understand…”
“That you’re in love with her father?” he cuts in.
“No!” What is up with him calling me out on all my shit today?
“Yes!” Adam argues.
“What?” Margie squeals in shock.
“Oh, yes, girl.” Adam pulls Margie onto the couch. “She totally banged him in the women’s bathroom at the wedding reception.” Margie giggles. Damn traitor. You can’t even pay for loyalty anymore.
When she spots me glaring, she stops abruptly. “You’re going, right?”
“Yes, of course.” I pull up the single text message Jase sent me late last night. It’s the address to Skyla’s school, along with the time I need to arrive. He might’ve waited until the last minute to let me know the details of the event, but luckily, I didn’t wait to get things ready. Skyla only mentioned me having to speak, but I wanted to do something extra to make it memorable for her, so when I returned to my office the next day, I got to work putting together a surprise I think she’s going to love.
Every day, I’ve checked my phone, waiting to get the details from Jase, and day after day, when nothing came in, I started to wonder if maybe Skyla changed her mind about the invitation, and it pissed me off that Jase couldn’t even take a second to let me know. Yesterday I considered calling Nick to get Jase’s number to ask him, or looking up his address so I could at least mail the surprise to Skyla, so she could give them to her classmates if she wanted to. Then, last night, as I was deciding what to do, Jase’s text finally came through. Annoyed that he waited until the last possible second, I didn’t even bother to respond. It was immature, but on the other hand, so was him waiting that long. I just hope Skyla doesn’t think my lack of response means I’m not coming. Surely, if Jase thought that, he would’ve texted again to ask. Right?