Chapter Twenty
West
“I could,” Nina said. “But then I might trip over my own feet walking up the driveway, bump into your driver’s-side mirror, and knock it off. Accidentally, of course.”
“Not funny,” I said. Even though it was a little funny. “I guess I can give you a ride home.”
“Thank you.”
Once everyone had his or her ride situation taken care of, Nina followed me out to my car.
She examined the repaired passenger door mirror. “Good as new.”
“Let’s keep it that way.” I climbed into the car and hit the automatic unlock so she could get in.
“Your cousins seem nice,” she said.
Was she trying to make conversation, or was she saying she was interested in them? Charlie appeared to be off the market, but Matt was still single. The idea of Nina with either of them made the chili cheese fries I’d eaten shift around in my gut. “Yeah. They’re good guys.”
“Maybe Lisa and Matt will hit it off,” she said.
“Doubtful. Matt isn’t really interested in dating one girl.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“I don’t know. He seems to date around.”
Nina’s phone buzzed with a text. She sucked in a breath like she was excited about something. Had some guy texted her?
“I don’t suppose I could talk you into swinging by the bookstore?” she said with a hopeful look on her face. “A book I ordered came in.”
She was that excited about a book? That was nerdily cute, and it’s not like I had anything better to do. “Sure. What’s the book?”
“It’s the third book in a dystopian romance, and I’ve been waiting on it for a year.”
“A romance?”
“Oh, please. All books have romance in them. You can’t tell me you weren’t waiting for Ron to kiss Hermione.”
“Nope. I wasn’t.”
“Sure you weren’t. I think guys and book snobs are afraid to admit romance is part of every book and everyone’s life. Too bad it works out so much better in books than in real marriages.”
She sounded more cynical about the whole romance thing than most females I knew. “I thought all girls believed in love and happily ever after.”
“I used to believe in that, and then I found out my dad had another wife and family.”
Well, hell. What did I say to that? We’d reached the bookstore, so I pulled in and parked. “Your dad had another family?”
She nodded. “Yep. A wife and two kids while he was still married to my mom.”
“Okay. You can be as cynical as you want.”
“The real kicker is the other kids were so much younger than us. Like we weren’t the family he wanted, so he decided to start over.”
“Did the second family know about you and your mom?” I asked.
“No. He’d lied to her, too, though she stayed with him for a while and tried to make it work. After she kicked him out, he called my mom to complain.”
“That’s ballsy,” I said. “Or really stupid.”
She nodded. “My mom never told me, but I think he asked if he could come back.”
“But your mom was too smart for that.”
“Thank goodness. I don’t know how she could trust him or how any of us could after he’d lied…literally, for years.”
“Which is why you insist on always telling the truth.” It all made sense now.
“Yes.” She glanced over at me. “Lisa is the only other person who knows about this, so I’d appreciate it if you kept it to yourself.”
“I can do that.”
The fierce expression Nina normally wore was gone. She looked sort of sad and deflated.
“The reason your dad started another family is not because there was anything wrong with any of you. It’s because there was something wrong with him.”
“I wish I could believe that,” she said.
I couldn’t believe I was about to say this, but it felt like the right thing to do. “You need a hug, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
I unbuckled my seat belt and moved toward her. She met me halfway. Putting my arms around her and pulling her close felt natural. We fit together easily. The apple-mint scent of her hair invaded my senses, reminding me of the last time we’d been this close in a parking lot, where I’d planned on kissing her until that car honked and messed things up.
Right now, I wanted to comfort her, but there was more to it than that. I wanted to touch her. Sitting at Bixby’s with my arm around her shoulders had felt right. And now, I wanted to kiss her. Before I could put my plan into motion, Nina released me.
“Thanks, I needed that.” She turned and opened the car door, so I followed her across the parking lot, trying to think of something to say that might make her feel better about her family. In a weird way, her confession made me feel better about my own situation. My mom might be mental, but my dad had stayed by her side. He could have left her, could have left me to deal with the craziness by myself while he found someone else to marry. I’d never thought of it like that before. My respect for him went up a few notches.
We entered the store, which smelled like coffee and cookies. It had been forever since I’d been in a real bookstore. There were rows upon rows of books and a large clearance section. Surprisingly, there was a line at the front desk.
“I think they’re texting everyone to come pick up their books. You can look around while I wait in line.”
I didn’t need any books. I could buy anything I wanted on my Kindle. But I was here, so I might as well look. “I’ll check out the clearance section.” There were several aisles of discounted books. Some new and some used. A science fiction book I’d been meaning to read caught my eye. Nina’s comment about losing all digital content if there was an EMP blast came to mind. Maybe having a few paperbacks on hand wasn’t a terrible idea.
Then again, bringing anything into my house was a bad idea. I regularly had nightmares where my house sank into the ground from all the excess weight of my mother’s hoard. I put the book back and headed toward the checkout line to join Nina.
“You didn’t find anything?” She seemed surprised. “How is that possible?”
“I found a few things but nothing I couldn’t live without,” I said.
She shook her head. “You either have way too much will power, or you’re a tiny bit crazy.”
“Probably both,” I said.
“Normal is overrated.” She grinned at me and then moved forward to the next open cashier.