A Case of Extreme Mistaken Identity - Victorine E. Lieske Page 0,25

to hear from. Maybe it was her father. He watched as she climbed back into the water. “He’s too busy to send you a text?”

“Allegedly.” She looked like she’d taken a bite of a sour apple and found a worm.

“Is he shooting a movie right now?”

“Yeah,” she said, her voice softer.

“I’m sure he has some crazy hours when he’s filming. You should give him some slack.”

Dani wiped at her face. Was she crying? He immediately felt awful for reprimanding her. He hopped off his chair and sat next to the tub, ignoring the fact that now he was sitting in a puddle of water and would have a wet seat when he stood up. “Hey, are you okay?” He placed a hand on her shoulder.

Dani nodded and turned from him. “I’m fine.”

She obviously wasn’t fine. He’d made her cry, and now he felt like scum. But he had no idea how to make it better. All he could think to do was pat her shoulder in a “there, there” motion, which felt super lame. “I’m sure he’ll text as soon as he can.”

She took in a large breath, then let it out slowly. “Yeah.”

He swallowed, trying to think of something else to talk about. Anything. He royally messed this conversation up and needed to abort, and fast. He took his hand back and pulled his legs to his chest. “So, if you were to go to college, what would you want to major in?”

It took a minute before she answered. “I’m not sure.”

“What kind of job do you think you’d like?”

Her shoulders slumped. “I don’t know.”

She didn’t know? He tried to understand that, but he couldn’t comprehend. He’d always wanted to play football for a living. It’d been his dream ever since he could remember. How did she not have a dream of some kind? “What kinds of things do you like to do?”

She shrugged, still not facing him. He let her think for a moment, but when she didn’t say anything, he thought maybe this wasn’t something she wanted to talk about right now. Or she could be upset with him. But before he could try another subject, she said, “I like helping people.”

He smiled. “That’s a start.”

“Not really. There’s no job like that.” Finally, she turned to look at him, and he could see her eyebrows knit together. “I’m really not very useful.”

It pained him to see her think of herself like that. How can she have such poor self-esteem? He never would have guessed that in a million years. She was the daughter of a major movie star. She was on the television all the time. He’d never seen her acting self-conscious. She always looked like she thought highly of herself. Too highly. The camera made her look stuck-up. He was quickly figuring out that the camera lies.

“Of course you are. And there are plenty of jobs where you can help people.”

She gave him a skeptical look. “Like what?”

“Depends on how you want to help people. Doctors help cure people. Dentists help fix people’s teeth.”

She wrinkled her nose, but before she could say anything, he jumped in. “That’s fine, if you don’t like those. There are plenty of others. Police officers help people. Or 911 dispatch.”

“I don’t think I could do any of those. I don’t like blood. Or hearing people in pain.”

“You could be a therapist, and talk through people’s problems with them. Help them through though things.”

He expected her to shake her head at that one as well, but she brightened. “I would like that.”

“There you go. You could go to school and become a therapist.”

Her frown came back. “Couldn’t I be a therapist without going to college?”

“I don’t think so. Why? Are you worried your father wouldn’t pay for it?”

“I’m sure he would.”

Austin wasn’t sure what the problem was. “Then you’d be fine.”

She stared at the water bubbling out of the jet near her. “I’m just not very smart. So, if I could learn to do a job that helps people without having to go to school, that would be best.”

What did she mean, she wasn’t smart? She was naive, but that was only because of her upbringing. She wasn’t stupid. He opened his mouth to argue, but her phone sounded and she scrambled out of the hot tub to get it.

“Daddy?” she said as she answered it.

He couldn’t hear the person on the other end of the phone, but he sincerely hoped it was her father. He waited to see if her expression