Page 103

When I explained my situation to her, she happily made a full day of meals for me so I could take them back to my dorm and keep them in my fridge to heat up when I was ready. Unfortunately, I could hear entire families on either side of me laughing and carrying on. A baby cried for nearly an hour, and I basically lost my shit.
If my room couldn’t be a sanctuary, I figured going out would help, but that turned out to be a terrible idea, too.
When I left my apartment, I was surrounded by more families. Walking the grounds, I saw some of the girls whispering to their parents and pointing in my direction. Great. The parents looked me up and down like I was trashbefore, but once their bratty assholes told them some random and assumedly incorrect thing about me, I was scum.
Whatever.
I didn’t give two shits. The likelihood of me ever speaking to those people were slim anyway, so it didn’t matter.
My phone buzzed in the back pocket of my holey, dark wash skinny jeans. It was from Rick, letting me know he was pulling up the drive. I didn’t know why he thought to tell me that since we couldn’t be seen together, anyway. We didn’t look exactly alike, but it was enough that people might notice.
“Aw,poorTempe,” Harper smarted off behind me. I rolled my eyes as I listened to her loud ass footsteps clomping up behind me. “It’s parents’ weekend, and you’re fresh out. What a shame. This must be terribly difficult for you.”
“Ouch. You made my feel bad hurt,” I said sarcastically, turning to show her the bored look on my face.
“You’re really weird, you know that?”
“And you’re really basic, you know that?”
She started to say something I assumed would have been desperate, but Rick called out and interrupted her.
“Harper!”
“Daddy!” she called out, giving me a triumphant, exaggerated smile before skipping off to Rick.
“How are things?” he asked as his arms wrapped around her in one of his superdad hugs. I couldn’t believe it, but jealousy seared through me. He was my fucking dad, too, even if Twatty McBitchface didn’t want to admit it. “Are you enjoying your year so far, sweetheart?”
I started to walk away, but he called out to me.
“Temperance! Just a sec. I wanted to speak with you a moment.”
The tone in his voice was both authoritative and distant. Most people who worked in the service industry had a customer service voice. It was usually higher pitched and meant to ease the person they spoke to. For a politician, I imagined they used a voice just like the one he used. One meant to establish dominance while still charming people.
I turned and walked over, keeping a bubble between us that was respectable for non-family members. It wasn’t difficult seeing as I was still coming to grips with the wholefamilyaspect when it came to Rick. Still, I really liked him, and I could certainly use one of his awesome hugs. He gave the best dad hugs.
“Hello, Temperance,” he said, keeping his formal tone. “How has your time at Crestview been?”
While I looked into his eyes, my focus was elsewhere. I took in the world around us, searching the area for anyone watching us while trying not to look guilty. Speaking to him at all made me nervous, but I didn’t want to be rude.
“It’s… going,” I responded, my eyes briefly flashing over to Harper.
“It’s good to see you again,” he said. Though he used the same tone, I heard a subtle change in it. It was warmer, and I caught the change in his expression. He’d missed me.
Adopted or not, how Harper grew up with him and wound up as shitty as she was baffled me. He may have been a politician—and honestly, I didn’t even know what his views were—but on a personal level, he seemed awesome. Too awesome to have raised a brat like harpy… I mean,Harper.
I smiled genuinely. “It’s good to see you, too.” I paused, thinking of anything else I could say in public around all those nosy assholes, but I came up empty. Truth was, for someone who was just supposed to be a neighbor, there wasn’t much I could talk about. Instead, I offered my hand, and he accepted it. “I hope you guys have fun today.” My voice hitched at the same time tears stung the back of my eyes.
Well, that’s certainly unexpected.
I kept the handshake brief, hoping he understood the significance of it, hoping he understood it was the only hug I could give him. When his brows furrowed a bit in what appeared to be sadness, I think he got it.
“Would you like to join us today?” he asked.
“Daddy, no,” Harper said with an overly bubbly voice. She stepped forward and wrapped herself around his arm, looking up at him briefly before turning to me with ice in her expression. “Temperance has other things she’d much rather do. Don’t you,Tempe?”
The tears I’d barely restrained began to fill my eyes, almost immediately spilling a single drop down each cheek with her cold indifference to me. I cleared my throat and looked down, using it as an excuse to wipe my face.
Rick’s nostrils flared as his eyes momentarily narrowed at Harper, but he recovered quickly. I knew just how much he loved Harper. She was his pride and joy, but he saw us as equals, and he didn’t like when Harper was cruel to me.