My Best Friend's Dad - Flora Ferrari

Chapter One

Sadie

“You don’t have to keep saying sorry,” I say, holding the phone to my ear as my eyes move over the snowy Maine landscape, diamond-like snowflakes dancing in the air. “Fiona said she’s happy to have me. I mean, she’s lying, but …”

“Shut it,” Fiona giggles beside me, shooting me a playful look. “We’re more than happy.”

“I know, sis,” Aaron sighs.

In the background, I can hear people speaking Vietnamese. I’ve dealt with our parents’ deaths by throwing myself full-force into my zoology studies. Aaron’s dealt with it by taking his photography work overseas, living an adventurer’s lifestyle, avoiding the truth of it as hard as he can.

We’re both guilty of that.

“That doesn’t mean I can’t feel guilty, though, does it?” he goes on. “But as long as you’re not going to be sitting alone on Christmas day.”

“Nope,” I assure him. “I will be playing the perfect tag along.”

“Alright,” he says. “Well, I love you, okay?”

“I love you, bro.”

“Bye.”

“Bye bye.”

I hang up, feeling Fiona’s eyes burning into me. I turn to find my best friend smiling ironically, with that just-Fiona twist to her lips. She’s a tall woman, thin and model-like in her build. Her hair jet black and her eyes a piercing brown, almost black themselves.

We couldn’t be more different.

“How many times do I have to tell you that you’re not imposing at all?” she says, as the taxi glides through the glittering Maine afternoon. “It’s not like Dad and me have this huge freaking ceremony planned that you’re going to be interrupting. Don’t get me wrong. Dad’s amazing, really. He raised me after Mom ran out and … Well, there’s no need to go into that. What I’m saying, Sadie, is that I’m glad you agreed to come. You’re doing me a favor.”

I smile, willing her words to hearten me. But there’s still that niggling notion at the edge of my consciousness, a gnawing that tells me I should be with Mom and Dad and Aaron, and suddenly that hateful feeling floods into me.

It’s been two years since they died in a car crash, their wheels sliding on an icy country road—a tree, and then …

And then nothing.

And then the end.

The pain is still so fresh and I feel tears gathering in my eyes, trying to intrude. I cough back a sob and paw at my face, unwilling to make this winter break about me, unwilling to throw myself into my grief.

“Come on, hon,” Fiona says, leaning across and wrapping her arm around me. “Soon we’ll be roasting marshmallows and curling up with our Kindles.”

I snort. “Yeah, as if we both haven’t got a heap of work to do over the winter break.”

“Hey,” she laughs, giving me a playful pout. “What did I say about bringing college with you, hmm? I’m determined to spend this break ignoring sentence structure and syntax and diction and all those other horrible terms that stop me from having a good time.”

“Oh, shut up,” I say, laughing along with her. “You love English lit. Do you know how I know, Fi? Because you never stop talking about it.”

She gives me a shove and soon we’re both laughing like loons. It feels so good to glide down the road, my chest lightning despite the grief trying to tug me back down to cold reality.

“I can’t wait for you to meet Jasper,” she says, moving back to her side of the car. “He’s going to love you.”

“You’re more excited for me to meet your dog than your dad,” I grin.

“Well, duh,” she says. “One is a cuddly Great Dane cross with Dalmatian, which if you think about it is the coolest breed ever invented. The other is … Dad.”

“I thought you said he’s a great—”

I cut myself off, turning back to the window, biting my lip.

The last thing I want to do when being invited to stay for several weeks is pry into their familial relationship. But I can’t help but think it since the only thing I really know about Saul Sykes is that he raised Fiona alone – and did an amazing job – and that he’s a retired Formula One driver. Now he runs a driving academy.

“He’s an amazing dad,” Fiona says, reading into the silence. “It’s not that. It’s just that he can be a little… I don’t know. Grumpy, maybe. He’s an amazing person, but he doesn’t exactly have what you’d call people skills.”

“Well, I’ll try my best not to piss him off.”

“Oh, it’s not like that,” she hurries to say.