Page 34 of More, Daddy

Suede0989

You there?

Dots appear and disappear. Then–

DaddysGirl

I’m really tired.

It was good talking to you tonight, Suede.

Goodnight.

DaddysGirl has gone offline.

Wait—what?

Did I upset her?

As quickly as I can, before chat disappears, I read and reread our conversation, unable to understand what made her want to log off suddenly. And the worst part is, I have no way to contact her to see what’s wrong, if she’s okay, what I did. No way at all.

Because I don’t know her name. I don’t know who she is.

I realize right then and there, with a half-drunk beer in my hand and a baseball game playing silently on my flatscreen, that I’m done going slow.

I need to know who she is.

CHAPTER

EIGHT

“So you’re a poser?”Jake says, hip popped as he glares at me through the sunlight.

“No,” I scowl, shaking my head. “I just don’t want to do that right now.” I dig my phone out of my pocket and check my email one more time. No emails fromVeiledtelling me that messages are waiting fromDaddysGirl. A dull ache rolls through my bones at the uncomfortable discovery. All day I’ve been checking my phone, hoping for a message. Even though now that I know she’s a teacher, and may not necessarily have the opportunity to use her computer during the day, still, I check. I check and hope. And today, atfive in the evening at Jake’s house, I check and get disappointed for the twentieth time.

He takes a step closer, dipping into the shade that covers me from the porch eave. “Then ride with me.”

I tip my head to the side and let an exhausted sigh fill the space between us. “You missed the high school memo on peer pressure.”

He adjusts the large cowboy hat on his head, tipping it back until his sweaty forehead is exposed. “You’re wearin’ boots and a hat. Take a ride with me or I’m gonna assume you’re a poser,” he prods, a little smirk twitching at the corner of his lips. He wants to take a ride on his property, on his and Jo Jo’s horses, and Riley isn’t home. Jo Jo is his daughter, she graduated Bluebell High recently. Her mother died in an accident when she was young, and he raised her alone. Riley joined their family a few years back, and her and Jo Jo have been close since.

Jake’s way of getting what he wants is accusing me of being a “fake cowboy” and a “poser,” banking on me doing what he wants just to prove he isn’t right.

He’d be right.

“Ten minutes. That’s all I’m giving you,” I tell him, pushing off the side of the porch to follow him down the steps, toward the tree where the horses are tied off. They used to ride together at someone else’s farm, but now that Jo Jo is getting older, he brought their horses to his house, to make riding with her as easy as possible.

Basically, he’s a kid with a new toy. A cowboy with new horses.

After mounting Jo Jo’s horse, I find the reins and adjust my hat. Jake, on his horse, does the same, then casts me a sidelong glare from his position a few feet away.

“You’re getting what you want. I’m riding with you. So why are you glaring?” I’m tired and impatient.

“What’s so interesting on that phone of yours?” he says, nodding toward my pocket where my phone is stored.

I scratch at my hairline, then roll the discomfort of the day out of my neck with a pop and a click. “Nothing.”

“Liar.” He spits into the dirt, and strokes his fingers through the horse’s mane. “Tell me.”