Everything Between Us by Mila Ferrera Read Free Book Online Page B

pictures to show me? You used to love doing that. You’d come running into my office to show me what you’d done. Usually it was a dinosaur baking a cake.”
    “What?” I laugh. “Really? I don’t remember that.”
    He nods and gulps his drink. “I’ve got a trunkful of dinosaur-baking-a-cake drawings. What are you drawing these days?”
    My cheeks heat up. I’ve been drawing nothing, but I’ve been telling my mom the lessons are going fine, because I don’t want her to think I’m doing anything to sabotage them. “Er … possums.”
    He pauses with his glass halfway to his mouth. “Say that again?”
    “Possums,” I say more firmly. “They’re just … really spunky little marsupials.”
    He glances into his cup, as if he’s wondering if the scotch is responsible for my crazy talk. And then I think he decides that it doesn’t matter. He polishes off the drink and says, “Well, that’s marvelous. Have you—” His head snaps up as my mother strides into the room and sets the platter of chicken and potatoes on the table. “This looks delicious.”
    My mother gives him a wan smile and sits down. We serve ourselves and eat in silence for a few minutes. If I wanted to cut through the tension, I’d need a sharper knife. Finally, my mom puts down her fork and turns to my dad. “You said you had something to tell us.”
    My dad gets up and pours himself another scotch, then turns to us. “I’m going to be in Germany for the next three months.”
    I look back and forth between my parents. “Are you, like, moving there or something?”
    He gives me a tight-lipped smile. “It’s a new contract, sweetheart. I need to be there to make sure the customers have exactly what they need from Bierens.”
    My mother snorts. “One customer in particular.”
    “Liza,” he snaps, then inclines his head toward me.
    Mom’s eyes go wide and who, me? again. She’s got that look down. “Is there something wrong, Lou?”
    Dad rolls his eyes. I don’t blame him. For that, at least. “I’m leaving tonight,” he says. “But you can call whenever you need.” He directs that last part to me. “If you decide you want to go back to school, you just ring me up and tell me to buy you a ticket. I’ll fly with you.”
    “Thanks, Dad, but at this point, it’s a little late.” My heart is pounding at the mere idea.
    “All the same. If you need me, you call.” He reaches forward and squeezes my shoulder. I can tell he’s trying, but that he has no idea what to do. I wonder if I’m driving him away, if what’s happened to me has made him desperate to escape, just like Taylor was desperate to escape. But I’ll never be able to ask him. I’m too afraid of the answer.
    My mother gets up quickly and picks up her plate. “I have a headache. I’m going to lie down,” she says. “Have a good trip.”
    Her plate clatters into the sink a second later, and then she’s gone. My dad finishes off his drink and looks down at me. “I’m sure you have plenty of friends to call, plenty of things to catch up on,” he says.
    I almost laugh. “Sure.” I get up and give him a hug, and he hands me several hundreds.
    “For pizza,” he says.
    “I appreciate it, Dad.” It’s the closest I’m going to get to I love you, Stell. He used to say it, but that was when I was much younger. “Safe travels.”
    I put my dish in the sink and start to head back to my room, but then I glance down the hall toward my mom’s suite, and I make a last minute course correction. She was obviously upset, obviously on the verge of hurling her wine glass at my dad’s head. She thinks he’s headed to Germany with a new girlfriend, and maybe she thinks it’s serious because he’s going to be gone for so long. Either way, I’m worried about her.
    I pad down the hallway and stop outside her closed door. Light filters out from underneath, so I know she hasn’t gone to bed. I’m about to knock when I hear her voice, muffled, but still