The Almost Truth (22 page)

“What do we do now?” I whispered.

“I guess I need to turn myself in,” Dad said. “If the McKennas recognized, you it’s just a matter of time till the police come around asking questions. They might not think there’s anything to the story, but they’ll check it out.”

My mind was racing. “They’ll send you back to prison. You won’t get out.”

“You need to be the one to turn me in,” Dad said. He held up a hand to cut me off before I could argue the point with him.
“Now that it’s out, I can’t ask you to keep that quiet. I never should have let this happen, but I sure can’t ask you to hide my secret. I don’t want there to be any chance that people see you as messed up in this or that you knew anything. You’ve been poking around the McKennas. If you don’t come forward now, the cops are going to wonder what you knew and when. It’s not worth the risk; they’re going to get me anyway, and I want to keep you out of it.”

“He’s right,” Brendan said.

Dad clapped Brendan on the back. “He’s looking out for you. I like that.” He glanced down at his watch. “You’ll have to do it soon. My reputation is going to draw their attention pretty quick, especially if the McKennas are raising a fuss. By noon tomorrow at the latest they’ll be here knocking on the door.”

“I can take her to the police department now,” Brendan offered. “It’s late, but they’re still working.”

“I’m sure of it, but I need some time.” Dad looked around the trailer. “I need to talk to your mom. There’s no excuse, but I owe her an explanation.”

“I’ll stay and be here too,” I said.

“No. I need to do this myself. You stay with Brendan tonight and go to the police in the morning. Tell them you weren’t sure and were up all night going over the options and that you felt you had to talk to them. You don’t know for sure, but you suspect I might have done something. They’ll run some tests on you if I’m right. DNA usually takes a while, but the McKennas
have the cash and influence to fast-track all of that. They’ll wait to question me until they’re sure about you. That’ll give me the time I need. I want to have a beer, take a walk. Maybe I’ll get your mom to make me some of her peanut butter cookies before they show up. I can’t get enough of those.”

“Okay.” I sniffed. There were so many things he’d be giving up.

“Go grab yourself something to wear. You don’t want to meet the McKennas tomorrow looking all wrinkled and in yesterday’s clothes. You gotta keep up appearances now.” He shoved me toward my room.

I clicked on my light and looked around. It felt like it belonged to someone else. It seemed impossibly small. I didn’t know how I had ever managed to fit my life inside the space. I grabbed up my backpack and shoved a few things in along with some makeup. I turned to leave and then remembered. I opened the closet and pulled the stuffed bunny out. It was time for Bun Bun to go home too. I placed him carefully on top of the pile and zipped it up. Brendan and Dad stepped apart when I came back into the room. I’d interrupted whatever they’d been saying.

“Come here and give me a big hug,” my dad said.

I squeezed him tight. “I’ll come visit, I promise.” I’d always tried to get out of visitor days in the past, but suddenly I realized I wanted to know him. Now that I’d discovered that he wasn’t my real dad, he felt more like my dad than any other time in my
life. No matter who I’d been when I was born, this was a part of who I was now.

“Tomorrow morning you’ll become Ava again, but you’ll always be my girl.” My dad held my chin in his hand so I couldn’t break his gaze. “I love you. Your mom loves you. Don’t forget us.”

“I’m not going to forget you. You guys will still be in my life. No one can keep me from staying in touch with you.”

There was the crunch of gravel outside, and the three of us all turned toward the window. My mom was home.

Dad swallowed. “All right. You get out of here and let me talk to your mom.” He turned to Brendan. “I’m trusting you. You take care of her.”

Brendan stood up straight, as if he were in the military. “Yes, sir. I will.” He took my hand and led me toward the door.

Mom dashed in shaking the rain off her jacket. “Oh, it’s nasty out there.” She smiled at the three of us. “What are you all doing standing around?”

Brendan stepped forward. “Sadie and I are just headed out.”

“You sure you don’t want to stay for a bit?” She dropped her purse on the chair and started bustling about. “It’s getting late.”

“You think those kids want to hang out with us?” My dad squeezed my hand before letting go. “You guys have fun.”

Brendan nudged me toward the screen door. I took a step and then stopped and hugged my mom. “I love you,” I said.

My mom started, surprised at my declaration. “I love you too, pumpkin.” My dad put his arm around her.

Brendan and I walked out. I turned around and looked back at the two of them framed in the door.

“What was that all about?” I heard my mom say to my dad.

I followed Brendan out to the truck before I could hear his answer.

B
rendan drove us back toward town.

“Are we going to your place?” I asked.

“Nope.”

“You thinking we’re going to sleep in your truck? I know you love it, but I have to tell you it’s lacking in the comfort department.” I chucked a take-out wrapper that was on the seat behind me. I looked out the window. As we drove past other houses, I peered into the lit windows. You never know what is going on in other people’s lives, but it seemed to me that no one’s could be quite as messed up as mine. “The rain’s stopped, but it’s still going to be too wet to camp.”

Brendan pulled back into the Keppler’s parking lot. “Wait here,” he said.

I put my feet up on the dashboard. It seemed like I should
plan out what I would say in the morning, but no matter how many ways I tried to approach the situation, my brain came up blank. I rested my head on my knees and might have even fallen asleep for a second when the screech of the driver’s side door startled me.

Brendan held out a room key. “You planning on sleeping here? I’m thinking a hot shower and food is a better plan.”

I folded myself out of the truck. “You’re a genius. How did you score a key? You distract the desk clerk or nab one off the maid’s cart?”

“I paid for it,” Brendan said. He laughed at my expression. “It’s a strange day. If you can be an heiress, I can go straight for once.”

The beep of the automatic lock clicked the room door open. Brendan flicked on the lights and then crossed to pull the curtains shut. He opened the closet and tossed me one of the complimentary terry cloth robes. “You can take a shower first and I’ll order up some food.”

I stood under the shower and used almost all of the rosemary mint body wash until I started to feel human again. When I came out, Brendan was sitting on the bed. He motioned to the tray that room service must have delivered.

“I ordered the turkey club you like,” he said.

I didn’t think I was hungry, but as soon as I smelled the bacon on the sandwich, my stomach roared to life. “You got
cheesecake, too,” I mumbled around my mouthful of food. I sat down cross-legged at the end of the bed and inhaled the sandwich.

“This is the kind of situation where it seemed I shouldn’t hold back on the dessert.”

“You want half?” I asked him, pointing to the dessert.

“Nope. It’s all yours.”

I waved a forkful of cheesecake in his direction. “It has strawberries. . . .” He shook his head no. His face was serious. “You okay?” I asked, putting the dish down and pulling myself up so I was sitting next to him.

“Me? I’m worried about you.”

I paused to think about it. “I don’t know what I feel. It seems like everything I knew is upside down and inside out. It feels like we’re in this holding pattern, like we put life on pause. Everything will come down to what life was like before and what it will be like after tomorrow.”

Brendan’s hand picked at the duvet. “You think you’ll move to Seattle with the McKennas?”

I leaned back against the headboard. “I don’t know. I can’t imagine it, but I guess I won’t stay here, either.”

“They’ll have the money to send you to Berkeley; I guess that’s the silver lining.” Brendan laughed. “Heck, they could probably afford to send you to college in France if you wanted.”

“I think the fact that I don’t speak French might be a problem.”

“Nah. They’ll hire a translator, some guy named Pierre or
something, to follow you around.” Brendan started talking in an over-the-top French accent. “Oooh, mademoiselle, allow
moi
to feed
vous
croissants while we cruise slowly down the Seine River.”

I smacked him with a pillow. “You sound like Pepe Le Pew. I’m not going to France.”

“Things will be different though. You’re going to travel all those places you wanted to go. Start hanging out at polo matches and carrying a purse made out of rare yak hide.”

I looked at him. “Do you really see me as the type to go to polo matches?”

“But you won’t be Sadie; you’ll be Ava.”

“It’ll be me.” I took his hand. “I’m not changing.”

“You might want to. Why would you want anything to do with this place when you could move on?”

“It’s not about this place. It’s about the people in it. It’s about you. You can’t get rid of me that easy.” I sighed and let myself think about the possibilities. It felt like standing on the roof of a giant high-rise and leaning over the railing to look down. I tried to find something to hold on to. “I might go to school. Berkeley wasn’t just about getting away. I really wanted to go. College is a good plan. . . .” My voice trailed off.

“Are you asking me what I think?”

I shrugged.

“You’ve talked about wanting to go to school forever, and Berkeley’s rated pretty high.”

“I didn’t know you were checking out the college rankings,” I said.

“I know all kinds of things. There are buildings waiting to be designed after all, and I’m pretty sure that isn’t the kind of thing you should wing.”

I looked over to see if he was joking, but he wasn’t. “You were right. If I design them, someone will have to build them. You know, California isn’t that far away.”

“There is no place you could go that would be too far away. Heck, I’d follow you around France if I had to.”

“Well, and with that great French accent you’ve got, you would fit right in. Near as I can tell, you’ve practically got the language mastered.” I smiled. “You’re stuck with me.” I leaned over and kissed him. “That’s an order.”

“Wow, your dad said you were pushy as a toddler, and you’re still pushy,” Brendan joked.

I whacked him. “I’m not pushy. Besides, even if I am, you have to take the good with the bad. You have to take the whole package.”

Brendan leaned over and kissed me deeply. “You’ve got a deal.” His hand ran down my side, and I felt my skin shiver as if each inch of me wanted to reach up to be closer to his touch.

I pressed my hand against the muscles of his chest. I could feel the steady thump of his heart. Brendan wove his hands in my hair and kissed me softly down the arch of my neck. My pulse picked up speed to match his. I pulled him closer to me, liking
the feeling of his weight on me. Our kisses picked up urgency, as if we were running out of time. Our bodies knew everything would be different in the morning and didn’t want to waste a second.

Brendan pulled back, his face flushed. “I didn’t mean to pressure you.” He swallowed. “I got a room with two beds.”

“Do you want me to get in the other bed?” I asked.

“That’s not a fair question,” he said. His eyes were locked on to mine. “I’m trying to be a gentleman.”

I reached over and clicked off the lamp. There was still enough light to make out his face. “I fell in love with you, so there’s no point in you changing to be a gentleman now.” I stood up and slipped my robe off, letting it fall to the floor.

Brendan let out a soft moan and pulled me back down into bed.

I
flipped the visor down in Brendan’s truck and stared at my expression in the tiny mirror. I’d spent more time on how I looked this morning than I had when it had been time to take my senior pictures. I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. I hadn’t been able to eat the breakfast Brendan had ordered. It felt like anything I put in my stomach would bounce right back out. I pressed my lips together. I couldn’t decide if I was wearing too much makeup or too little. I’d washed my face and redone it four times this morning.

“You look great,” Brendan said. He kissed me on the neck and leaned over to look into the reflection with me. “You ready?” His hand rested on the door handle, and my heart sped up.

“Wait!” I cried out, grabbing his arm. My heart was beating
fast enough it could fly right out of my chest. I didn’t want to get out of the truck. I wanted to stay inside forever.

“It’ll be okay. You just take this one step at a time.”

“Everything changes from this point forward.” My throat tightened. “I feel like I’ve never been so alone in my whole life.”

Brendan took my hand. “Not everything is changing. I’m not changing.”

We sat in the truck, not saying anything. I let myself breathe in his calm until I felt that I had myself under control.

“Let’s do this,” I said. I stared through the windshield at the police department. There were a few people bustling in and out of the building, but overall it seemed quiet. I wondered how long it would take for the news to spread. I wondered if they would drag my dad in handcuffs in front of a bank of TV cameras in time for the evening news.

“Hang on a minute,” Brendan said. “I have to talk to you about something.” He chewed on the corner of his lip, which made me want to do the same. “I’ve been thinking about your dad.”

“What about him?”

“I think there’s a reason he wanted us to wait until morning to come here.”

“He needed to talk to my mom,” I reminded him. “I also think he wanted a night with her, a bit more time where he was free. He isn’t going to get out of jail this time.”

“I don’t think he’s planning to go to jail.”