Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 114284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
“No wonder!” she laughed. “He was not that hot when I dated him.”
When she did fucking what?
I stared, almost unseeingly, out the window, as those words went on repeat in my brain. She’d dated him? Lane had dated my daughter?
“Don’t get me wrong, he was hot back then too, but he’s lost the baby face,” Marina went on. “He’s all cut now. I bet he’s popular with the guys. God—I remember how butthurt I was when he broke up with me. Then I found out he was gay, and I was all, oh my God, did he discover he’s into guys because of me? But Corey swore that wasn’t it, so… Aww, now I miss Corey. I’m gonna shoot him a message when I get home.”
I swallowed against the sudden dryness in my throat. A rushing sound invaded my ears, and it took all my focus not to drive off the fucking road.
I had to say something. If I could just push back the nausea.
Jesus.
My stomach twisted.
“I don’t remember y’all dated.” Even to my own ears, my voice sounded dull and full of gravel. “I thought he was a buddy from school.”
“Well, it didn’t last very long,” she replied. “Maybe a couple weeks.” Then she gigglesnorted. “In retrospect, maybe I should’ve suspected something. He was the first boyfriend who took zero initiative to anythin’ physical outside hand-holding and kissin’.”
I cringed and felt a whole shudder of disgust run through me, and that was just the topic combined with the involvement of Lane. A guy I had slept with. Otherwise, I’d fucking nailed the birds-and-bees talk back in the day. Not that it’d mattered much, given the current state of her womb, but I hadn’t fumbled or been one of those awkward dads.
Regardless, I forced myself to listen to the actual words, because…well, I had this giant wound in my body now, and if she could at least indicate they hadn’t had sex, it would place a pink princess Band-Aid atop the wound. Better than nothing, in other words. I was grasping for anything.
“If you’re tellin’ me your quest to become a mama too young didn’t start at sixteen, no one’s happier than me,” I said. Smooth, eh?
“No, I was nineteen, Dad—and you met David,” she responded frankly. “The only high-school slut here is you.”
I coughed and gripped the wheel a little tighter. “Don’t you dare slut-shame me, Marina. My bein’ a careless punk with one girl put you on this earth. How about some gratitude?”
“You bein’ a careless punk with one girl is why you’re gonna be a pop-pop soon.” She mocked me.
“You can be so mean sometimes,” I said. “And I haven’t signed off on Pop-Pop. I want somethin’ cooler.”
She laughed again. “God—I love you so much, Daddy. No one makes me laugh like you do.”
Right in the fucking heart. Jesus, here we go. My vision blurred—and I blamed it on tonight. All of it. I was overwhelmed. This was too much.
I swallowed hard and tried to unclench. “I love you too, baby.”
Lane and Marina, then. They’d been together. For a couple weeks, they’d swapped saliva and whatnot.
“Was, uh…” I hated asking, but I couldn’t let this go. “Was Lane a good boyfriend?”
“Eh.”
I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean, eh?”
She sighed. “I don’t know what to say. It was so long ago. It was high school. He was hot and loved succulents—”
“Is that some weird high-school code for somethin’ dirty?” I asked irritably.
I couldn’t help it. I was all over the place with this information.
Great. I’d made Marina laugh again. Or guffaw like a damn lunatic.
“Oh my God,” she wheezed out. “They’re plants, Dad! Plants that tend to retain a lot of water? It’s just a hobby I’ve had for the past fifteen years…? Does that ring a bell?”
“Oh.” Well, fucking excuse me if I didn’t think collecting plants was a high-school boy’s most typical hobby.
“We had that in common,” she reminded me, down to chuckles. “But at the risk of rufflin’ your delicate feathers, I was sort of crushing on my teacher who didn’t know I existed, and Lane… Ugh, I know this makes me sound so dumb, especially since I’m the biggest nerd myself, but back then, I thought he was too obsessed with biology stuff. Plants, geography, animals—hell. Did you know he once spent hours talking about atmospheric rivers? It took me a whole day to realize they’re not actual rivers, just…freakin’ winds. Winds that carry humidity. And wasn’t that just ironic—when a couple years later and I’m in college, and I take a class where they’re discussing atmospheric rivers.”
I gave a street sign a fleeting glance before I drove under it. I was officially in Arlington, and now…now my daughter was talking about the Lane I remembered from mere days ago. The passions he loved to talk about. Or think out loud about.