Jessica’s [POV]
It’s late afternoon by the time we enter the house, and a familiar smell invades my nostrils.
“Coq au vin, that’s a surprise,” I say more to myself because Parker is busy unloading the backpack and there’s no one else in the foyer.
We find Helen and Tara in the kitchen, both bent over a thick cookbook.
“You took forever,” Helen comments when she notices us, throwing me a furtive glance and smiling.
“Jess is not exactly sporty, so we had to take it slower.”
“Thanks for ratting me out,” I say, playfully pinching his shoulder.
“Where’s Dani?” Parker asks Helen.
“Left for London about two hours ago,” she answers.
I chuckle. So she decided to sneak out instead of coming up with an excuse for Parker. Sounds like something I would have done in my heyday. Not sure if it’s good or bad in her case, though. Seeing Parker frown, I can sympathize with her decision to not tell him.
“What do you mean she took off?” he growls. “How? Why?”
“Ah, I think she said she was invited to a party-”
“But how could she leave?” Parker runs a hand through his hair. “I drove her here.”
Helen folds her arms over her chest, glaring at him. “Trains were invented a while ago, you know?”
Parker swears loudly and Tara jumps, looking at him. Helen merely shakes her head and beckons Tara to leave the kitchen with her, muttering, “The coq au vin will take a while before it’s ready.”
Parker already has his smartphone attached to his ear.
“She doesn’t answer, damn it,” Parker says after a minute or so. “Why did she have to take off like that?”
“Relax, Parker. She probably prefers to have fun with friends in some club in London to being here. She didn’t seem too keen on coming,” I say.
“Look, I am in charge of her. She can’t just-”
“In charge? Parker, she’s eighteen.”
“I don’t care how old she is. You are never too old to mess things up.” He straightens up, hesitating for a full minute. “She was involved with a weird guy back in California.”
“Oh,” I say. “I didn’t know that.”
“James and I are afraid she might do the same here.”
“I don’t think you have anything to worry about, Parker. Honestly. I saw her friends a few times. They seem to be decent people.”
“Dani used to be a really sweet, laid-back girl. A nerd. But about six months ago, she decided to, I quote, “reinvent herself.” I thought it was funny in the beginning, but …”
I tap my fingers on the table nervously. Though Dani hasn’t done anything dangerous since we moved in together, I can tell she’s trying very hard to be something she isn’t. But then again, my yardstick for dangerous things isn’t exactly reliable.
“Why the decision to change?” I ask.
“No one knows what has gotten into her. James tries to talk to her, but even he can’t get anything out of her, which is bad because she used to tell him everything. But her decision came about the same time she got involved with that guy, so I’m sure it’s related to him. We’re going back to London this instant.”
“No, Parker. Cornering her isn’t the solution. You’ll only alienate her.”
“I don’t want to risk-”
“How would you have felt if someone tried to keep you on a leash when you were her age?”
Parker lets out a bark of humorless laughter that sends chills down my spine. “I would have liked to see anyone try. But no one cared enough to try.” He takes a sharp breath, straightening his shoulders as he strolls away to the window with his back turned to me.
Warmth fills me at his words, and I’d like nothing more than to hug him tightly, but somehow I get the feeling he doesn’t want that right now, even though he might need it. Opening a door to the past is an act of strength. Admitting the need for affection takes a different kind of strength altogether.
I feel a rush of affection for his concern for Dani.
“Just because you let her make her own mistakes doesn’t mean you don’t care about her,” I say softly.
“I don’t want her to do something she won’t be able to fix later on,” he growls.
“Have a little faith, will you? Besides, Dani is a good kid. She’s doing summer courses, for God’s sake. They’re optional. College starts in the fall, and instead of partying the summer away, she’s enrolled in classes. She’s still a nerd at heart, and so are the other kids she’s befriended. They’re all taking the same courses.”
He turns to me, and to my relief, the corner of his lips lifts upward to form a smile. “Fine, Jessica. We’ll do it your way.” Striding right toward me, he curls an arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him. “But you’d better take my mind off the whole thing.” I shudder slightly as he tugs at the hem of my shirt, his fingers touching my skin. “Let’s go upstairs,” he whispers.
“Just let me check on the coq au vin first,” I say, unable to help myself. Parker lets me go, chuckling.
“Are you serious?”
“It’s so easy to get it wrong,” I say defensively.
“There’s nothing worse for you than a botched meal, is there?”
“Well there are worse things, but this is right up there with a broken nail or shoe heel,” I joke. “Or sex without an orgasm.”
“You can scratch that last one off your list,” Parker says, his voice dropping an octave. “I assure you it won’t happen while you’re mine.”
“Checking that we won’t starve for dinner?” Helen asks, entering the kitchen. “That’s probably a good thing. Tara’s cooking is a trial and error process that results in errors most of the time.” After a pause, she adds, “Don’t tell her I said that.”
“Well, I’ll let the two of you save the day,” Parker says with a smile.
Helen lets out a deep breath after he leaves the kitchen. “Thank God you managed to calm him down. I was fully expecting Parker to drag all of us back to London.”
“He wasn’t far from it,” I say as I open the oven to inspect the chicken.
Helen shakes her head. “Things are either black or white for him. No gray areas. Either he doesn’t give a damn about people, or is fiercely overprotective about those few he does care about.”
“Well, I think we can work with that.”