thinking about how impossibly warm it was, and now it feels so cold I need my winter coat. But the resentment and homesickness that usually licks at my memories don’t hit. I watch my breath stretch into tiny clouds and breathe in the scent of the wet cement and fresh rain and find comfort.
“How can I help? What can I do?” Rose asks as we drive to my dad’s.
I shake my head. “I have no idea how this is going to go.”
Rose reaches across the space, grabbing my hand.
We pull up at my Dad’s, the outline of his house stamped against the darkening sky. Rose doesn’t ask if I want her to come with me, she just joins me, and I’m grateful because I don’t know I would have been able to ask her to.
Normally, I knock when I come over, never having felt comfortable using my key once I moved out, but I don’t have the patience to wait. I unlock the door, and it slams against the doorstop, making the small entryway table full of trinkets and the mirror above it rattle violently.
Dad appears from his office, reading glasses in hand as he looks to see the commotion. He steps forward, confusion marring his brow. “Olivia. What are you doing home? You’re supposed to be in Texas.”
“Why did you cut Arlo’s scholarship?”
His jaw grows slack as understanding dawns on him, and then he closes his mouth and shakes his head. “I can’t talk to you about that. You know these conversations are off-limits.”
“Just like it was off-limits to tell me about Ellen? Uncomfortable conversations need to be had, otherwise, we’re never going to have any kind of relationship because I can’t trust you. Arlo’s my friend—one of my best friends, and he’s a damn good football player, and he protected those girls. Do you even understand what could have happened if he hadn’t intervened? No one else was going to do anything—no one, but Arlo did, and you canceled his scholarship and got him kicked out of school.”
“Did he tell you about his past?”
“Yes.”
Dad looks taken aback by this.
“Not everyone lies and hides the truth because they know it will only backfire and be far worse if they do.”
“We can only have one conversation at a time. Do you want to talk about Ellen or Arlo?”
“Arlo. I’m done talking about Ellen.”
Something flashes in his eyes, but then he shakes his head, and it’s gone. “He had no business doing what he did.”
“Helping people?”
“He should have called the cops,” Dad argues.
“What would you have done? If you saw those guys pawing at those girls, would you have just walked away?”
Dad shakes his head, annoyance cinching his brow. “He knew not to do it. He knew the risks.”
“And he still chose to help. Why won’t you do the same?”
He slaps the wall beside him. “You could have been hurt.”
I shake my head. “I wasn’t, though.”
“But you could have been,” he explodes. “All your life, I’ve been trying to protect you, and he put you in the direct line of danger.”
“What if it was me? What if I had been one of those girls, and whoever was there didn’t say or do anything?”
His jaw grows tight.
“I don’t know if you’re using this as an excuse to get rid of him because of his injury or you’re trying to penalize him because of me, but either way, you’re wrong, Dad. You’re so far out of line.”
“It’s already done. The rules were on my side.”
“The rules are wrong, and you know it. You had the opportunity to put him on the right side of things, and you owe it to him to fix it.”
“Why are you getting involved in this?”
“Because I care about him.”
Dad shakes his head. “You can’t…” he grips his head with both hands, looking exhausted and angry. “Guys like him, they have a buffet of women and opportunities. After everything you’ve been through, you can’t fall for a guy like him. He’s just going to hurt you even more.”
“You can’t make these decisions because of me, and you can’t cut him to punish him or prevent me from liking him. He risked his future playing his hardest for you. Fixing this is this is the least you can do for him.”
“Every player risks injury. He got hurt playing his hardest in hopes of being drafted—that has nothing to do with me.”
“It’s shocking how fast you wash your hands from a dirty situation. Fix this, or we’re done.”