A California Christmas (Silver Springs #7) - Brenda Novak Page 0,70
my schooling, my hard work that’s carried us the past thirty-one years. She should be grateful for what I’m offering her. Instead she’s being greedy.”
Was this really her father talking? Or the woman he was with? No doubt Deseret was demanding he hang on to as much of his money as possible so that she could spend it.
There were so many arguments Emery could launch. But she had a feeling Connie had already tried them all. So she simply said, “When you refuse to help her, I have to step in, and I’m in no position to be sending money to her and Grandma right now.”
“Then don’t. I just told you, she has other options.”
“She can’t sign that deal, Dad. It’s not fair.”
“How do you know? What’s not fair is having her involve you and complain about me. It’s not fair that she’s turned you against me.”
“Dad, please,” Emery said. “I can’t take this right now. I’m not in a good situation myself.”
“You should never have gotten involved with Ethan Grimes. You signed that agreement, knew you weren’t supposed to.”
“So that makes everything that’s happened my fault?” she cried. “Are you really saying that? You’re living with your medical assistant, for crying out loud. Obviously, you’ve had an in-office romance, too. Only what you did was much worse. At least neither Ethan nor I was married!”
“How dare you!” He was yelling now, too. “Who do you think you are?”
“I used to be your daughter.”
“Don’t start with that. I don’t have to put up with your judgments!”
“My judgments? You’re the one looking for any excuse not to do the right thing.”
“I have other people in my life right now. I can’t think only of you and your mother. It’s time you both took a little more responsibility for your own lives.”
Those words hit her like a punch to the gut. Was he really that desperate to please the young woman he’d taken up with? “Forget it. Mom and I will get by without you,” she snapped, and hung up.
She was breathing hard as she checked the time. Sure enough, their conversation hadn’t lasted long. It hadn’t gone well, either.
She started the car. She needed to get out of there. She didn’t feel like going out with someone she hadn’t seen in years, didn’t have the fortitude to explain why she was in town—if Cain didn’t already know—working for minimum wage at a cookie store. What she wanted was to see Dallas, to feel his hands on her body, and what had just happened made her crave that contact even more than she had before.
What was he doing tonight? Should she text him? See where he was?
No. It doesn’t matter. The way things were going, it would be far too easy to wind up hurt all over again.
Determined to stay the course, she texted her mother that her father wasn’t going to soften, that she’d done all she could where he was concerned and they’d talk about it in the morning. Then she turned off her car and got out.
She’d wait in the restaurant. Maybe if she was inside, and she’d already checked in with the hostess, she’d be more likely not to cancel dinner with Cain and go find Dallas.
* * *
Aiyana had no idea what to expect. She’d never met Robert Ogilvie. He’d been in prison for eight years before Dallas ever came to New Horizons. She’d seen pictures of him, of course, when she researched his crime in order to gain some perspective on Dallas, who’d been her student before he became her son. But Robert hadn’t even been forty years old in the articles about the shooting where she’d seen his mug shot and another picture of him being led out of the courthouse when he was on trial.
What did he look like after almost a quarter of a century behind bars? From all reports, he’d been handsome and congenial in the beginning—not someone anyone would believe to be dangerous. She’d read that the neighbors had been shocked when they learned what he’d done. But the number of years it’d been since then, and being locked away for so long, had probably taken a toll.
Would she be able to recognize him?
Although it started to drizzle while she waited, she was sheltered by the pavilion. She pulled her coat closed for warmth and shifted nervously, keeping an eye out for movement. He didn’t have a vehicle, so it wasn’t as if headlights would announce his arrival. He’d said he’d