see if I can get him there without him trying to tackle me.”
I shook my head. All five Baileys were such boys.
“Gram must have had her hands full with all of you. How did she survive your childhood?”
“That’s an excellent question,” he said around a mouthful of food. “I’m sure we didn’t make it easy on her.”
“Which one of you was the most difficult?”
His brow furrowed as he wiped his hands on a napkin and swallowed his bite. “I don’t know. Asher got in fights. Levi too sometimes. Logan was the class clown—got in trouble a lot for being disruptive. Evan would lose his temper and disappear in the woods.”
“What about you?”
He smiled again, his dimples puckering. “I’m surprised I didn’t give Gram a heart attack.”
“I can only imagine.” I paused to eat another bite of eggs. “I wasn’t doing anything bad at Luke’s yesterday.”
“Oh, I know. He knows it, too, even if he said something stupid and that’s why you’re here.”
“Kind of.”
Gavin put his fork down on his empty plate, his expression serious. “He loves you. You know that, right?”
I glanced down. “I hope so.”
“He does. Guarantee it. And you know what the good news is?”
“What?”
“You get to go home and have make-up sex.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
I laughed.
But he wasn’t wrong.
“Thanks, Gav.”
“Anytime.” He flagged down the waitress and paid for both our breakfasts. “Normally I’d take a selfie with you and text it to Evan, but even I know when to back off. But this was a great first date. I hope I get another one.”
Smiling, I shook my head. “Thanks for breakfast.”
“Sure. I gotta get to work. We’re just running some training exercises today, so I’ll be off in a few hours if you want to hang out. Maybe have date number two?”
“You can’t resist, can you?”
“Nope.”
“Bye, Gavin.”
He left and the waitress came back to refill my coffee. I stared into the dark liquid. I didn’t like fighting with Evan. It left me feeling like my insides were all twisted.
But the specter of my father loomed over me like the shadow of a storm cloud.
I hadn’t given Dad what he wanted—hadn’t gone home. And now the cops couldn’t find him, and he might be here in town.
What was he going to do?
I’d told Evan he wouldn’t hurt me, and I believed that. But would he hurt Evan? How far would he go to get to me?
Scattered memories flitted through my head. Dad with bruised knuckles. Bits of conversation I wasn’t supposed to hear. Angry threats. Fear simmering in my belly. I’d seen things as a child that I hadn’t understood.
As much as I hated admitting it, the truth was I didn’t know what he was capable of.
Maybe I did need to go to Iowa. Not to start over. That plan had gone out the window a long time ago. Mad as I was, I loved Evan Bailey. I was never going to leave him. But he’d be safer if I wasn’t here. That would give the cops time to find my dad. And I doubted my dad would suspect I’d gone to my mom’s. That was why I’d planned to go there in the first place. It was almost like hiding in plain sight.
I knew it wouldn’t end there. Someday, Dad could still hurt Evan to try to get to me. Maybe by then I could find a way to make peace with him.
In the meantime, I needed to get Evan out of harm’s way.
He wasn’t going to like it, but he had a car to finish. That Pontiac at that car show with the museum there to see it? It was going to change his life. He had to be there.
More things to explain that Evan wouldn’t want to hear.
It also meant I needed to suck it up and finally call my mom.
I went out to my car and brought up her number. My stomach fluttered with nerves. It had been a while since I’d talked to her. That last conversation had gone fine. Short—she was always busy—but there hadn’t been too much tension.
Here goes nothing. I hit send.
“Hello? Fiona?”
“Hi, Mom. Do you have a minute?”
“Um…” She hesitated. “Sure, I guess so.”
“If you’re busy—”
“It’s fine. What do you need?”
I took a deep breath. “I quit my job working for Dad.”
“That’s good.”
“Yeah, but you know how he is. He’s not making it easy.”
“Of course not. But Fiona, you know I don’t like talking about your father.”
“Right, sorry. It’s just that things are a little crazy out here.