Page 117 of A Home for Harmony

“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” Trinda said. “You can see her at all times.”

“And I don’t track her unless I have to,” he said. Like now. That was probably why his daughter didn’t have a problem with it. He wasn’t as intrusive as Trinda. “I see where she is. I don’tknow this address though.” He knew most of his daughter’s friends and where they lived. He put the address into his laptop. “The last name is Trainer.”

“I’m going to strangle her,” Trinda said. “That is Eli. He’s a year older than her and she’s been talking about him lately.”

“She’s at a boy’s house?” he asked. “She skipped school and is there alone?”

“What do you want from me?” Trinda shouted. “You’re the one dating a twenty-year-old.”

He’d been waiting for this comment.

“She’s not twenty, Trinda. Give me a break. I know you know how old she is.”

“That’s right,” Trinda said. “She’s twenty-seven and it’s all Scarlet talks about. She all but idolizes this woman and now she thinks she can skip school and be with a boy. God only knows what they are doing.”

“I’ll take care of it.” Because he didn’t want to know what the hell his daughter might be doing.

He knew what he was at that age when he was alone with a girl.

He’d like to think his daughter was smarter than that. She wasn’t allowed to date without his knowledge. They agreed she could when she was seventeen. A few more months.

“You’ll let me know what is going on?” Trinda asked. “Then we’ll decide how long she’s grounded for together. I say at least a month.”

“We’ll talk about it,” he said.

“You’re always the hard one,” Trinda said. “Don’t tell me you’re going to let her get away with this.”

“I said we’ll talk about it once I know what is going on,” he said. “I don’t jump the gun like you always do.”

He was going to text Scarlet but drove to the house first. He’d text her from outside and she’d know it.

Micah grabbed his keys and left, drove the twenty minutes to the house, and noticed five cars on the road in front of it. He recognized two of the cars as Scarlet’s friends. At least she wasn’t alone with a boy.

His phone was out and he was texting his daughter, asking why she wasn’t in school.

It wasn’t even a minute later before the front door opened and she came out alone, her head down, and walked over to him.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Get in and talk to me. I want to know what you’re doing and why you aren’t at school, who is in that house with you. Everything.”

His daughter looked embarrassed. “Monica and Amber wanted to skip school today. Colby said we could hang out here at her house.”

“Who’s Colby?” he asked. “I’m supposed to meet all your friends. Those are the rules.”

His daughter’s lips twisted with the urge to yell, but she suppressed it. He was positive she’d be arguing with her mother over this.

“She’s new,” Scarlet said. “She moved in with her stepmother and father.”

“Your mother called me because the school called her. Did you think we wouldn’t know you skipped school?”

“I thought maybe she’d think I was home sick and you’d know.”

“Scarlet, you know your mother and I communicate those things. She said you’ve been talking to a boy named Eli.”

Scarlet crossed her arms in front of her. “I don’t know why she had to tell you that.”

“I don’t know why you felt you couldn’t,” he said. “You just said a girl named Colby lives here, but I know this is Eli Trainer’s house.”