The Man Who Has No Heart - Victoria Quinn Page 0,38
would have to go home and pack, which would slow us down, but that was okay. Losing one hour wouldn’t make a difference.
I’m sorry, Deacon. I have to work today. I also have to attend a dinner for one of my clients.
Sometimes I forgot I wasn’t her only client. She made me feel like I was the only one. Could you drive up in the morning?
There were no dots, like she was just staring at her screen.
I continued to look at my phone, waiting for something to happen.
Then the dots appeared, along with her answer. Sure.
I released the breath I was holding, like any answer other than yes would kill me. I’ll have my driver bring you so you can drive back with us on Sunday.
Alright. I’ll see you tomorrow.
Derek and I sat in the back seat of the SUV, leaving the cityscape and hitting the countryside. The second we left the tunnel, it didn’t feel like New York anymore. The more miles we covered, the cleaner the air became, the fewer cars appeared on the road.
Derek looked out the window. “Cleo isn’t coming?”
I turned to him. “Tomorrow.”
Excitement replaced his dismay. “Does she know how to fish?”
“I don’t know.”
“I can teach her. Does she know how to read the stars?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll teach her that too.” He looked back out the window.
I didn’t invite Tucker or my mother because they could be suffocating at times. While I loved them, I wasn’t completely comfortable with them, not the way I was with Cleo. She was the only person I could be around and truly be myself. Derek used to be the only one, but now I had someone else.
Derek turned back to me. “I wouldn’t mind if Cleo was my stepmom.”
My gaze was out the window, and it took me a few seconds to understand what he’d said, to turn my head back to him, my eyes narrowed. “What did you just say?”
“What?” he asked innocently. “I know you and Mom aren’t going to get back together…not that I want you to anyway.”
I thought that was every child’s dream, to see his parents back together. “You don’t?”
He shook his head. “You weren’t happy with Mom, not the way you are with Cleo.”
I continued to stare at my son, like a deer caught in the headlights.
“I know you love her, Dad.”
“Derek.” Now he was taking it too far.
“What?”
“Don’t say that—especially not in front of her.”
“Why?” he asked blankly. “I thought love was the best thing in the world. Why be embarrassed about it?”
“I’m not embarrassed about it—”
“I love Cleo.”
“And I’m glad that you do. But you can’t say that stuff around people.”
He stared at me for a long time, my own visage mirrored back at me. “I think that’s your problem, Dad. Because you’re supposed to say that stuff.”
After we unpacked our bags, we spent the afternoon on the lake, staying underneath the tarp I’d rigged over the boat so we wouldn’t be sitting in the direct sun for hours.
“Why do I have to sit here if I have sunscreen on?” Derek asked as he held his fishing pole.
“Because sunscreen isn’t enough.”
“But the sun is pretty.”
“Yes, but it’s fire. You wouldn’t stand too close to fire, right?”
He looked up, seeing the circle of light slightly through the tarp. “But it’s so far away.”
“Light can travel endlessly. It’s traveling millions of miles and hitting your skin directly. They’re called rays, and they mess up the DNA in your skin, decompose the strands, and that causes your skin to deteriorate, looked leathery and aged.”
When Derek didn’t talk, that was when he was really listening.
“It causes skin cancer.”
“That’s what killed Grandpa?”
“Cancer, yes. Different kind.”
He looked across the lake, his mind thinking.
“That’s why you need to wear sunscreen and stay out of the sun as much as you can—especially when I’m not around to encourage you.”
“Mom never has me put on sunscreen…”
I knew she loved our son, but she was a shitty parent. “Don’t rely on her to do it for you. Take care of yourself, Derek.”
He nodded and reeled in his line a little bit. “There’s no fish today.”
“Might be too hot. Could be at the bottom of the lake.”
“That could be hundreds of feet deep…”
“Yeah.”
When the sun started to hide behind the trees, we headed back to the house, showered, and then had dinner. We sat on the back patio with the fire burning, and Derek put a few marshmallows on his sticks so he could roast them over the fire.