Mending Fences (18 page)

“Despite what this behavior suggests, basically Dani’s a responsible young woman. I’m sure she’s fine, wherever she is.” When Emily was about to object, he held up his hand. “I am not excusing what she’s done. It’s inexcusable. But I don’t think you need to worry about her. She’ll be back here soon and then you can deal with the consequences for her actions.”

“You’re really not the least bit upset about this, are you?” she asked incredulously.

“Of course, I’m upset that she lied and broke the rules, but I’m not worried.” He frowned slightly when he glanced at the clock. “Not yet, anyway. It’s still early.”

Oddly, sharing her own concern with Derek had calmed her, as well. She’d forgotten what it was like to share her emotions and fears with another adult, especially with a man who had as great a stake in the situation as she had. For all of his lack of involvement in their upbringing, Derek loved their children as much as she did.

Pushing aside the immediate situation, she said, “Maybe we should get back to your reaction when I mentioned that Dani was supposed to be over at Caitlyn’s. Why were you so surprised?”

“Come on, Em, you know the answer to that. She hasn’t wanted to be anywhere near Evan since this whole mess started. We both know why, too. Or at least we have our suspicions. Have you let the detective talk to her yet?”

Emily shook her head. “I keep hoping she’ll open up to me. I’ve given her every opportunity, but if she has anything to say, she’s not saying it to me.”

“Then let Rodriguez or that partner of his speak to her. They know how to handle things like this. I’m sure they’ll be sensitive.”

She wasn’t sure whether she was surprised or dismayed by his reaction. Maybe both. “You’re honestly willing to let the police question Dani?”

“I’m not happy about it, but I think we have to. We need to know if anything happened to her. Sticking our heads in the sand won’t change the truth.”

His attitude surprised her. For one thing he was calmer than he had been when he’d first thought something might have happened between Evan and Dani. There had to be a reason for that and she had a funny feeling she knew what it was. “Has Grady talked to you about all this?”

He nodded. “He didn’t tell you he’d come by my office?”

She shook her head, wondering what else the detective had kept from her. He’d gone off to see Josh without mentioning that till after the fact, and now Derek. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Obviously he had an investigation to handle, but this was her family. If they were getting closer, shouldn’t she be kept in the loop? Still, that was a worry for another day. Her relationship, if she even had one, had to be the very last thing on her mind right now.

Just as she was about to ask Derek why he was suddenly so unnaturally calm about everything, she heard the front door ease open. Derek obviously heard it at the same time, because he was on his feet even faster than she was. Since Josh tended to bang doors and announce his presence with some shouted greeting, this had to be Dani.

“Danielle Dobbs, get in here right this second!” he commanded.

To Emily’s surprise, Dani appeared in the doorway, her expression wary.

“Dad, what are you doing here? Mom didn’t call you, did she?”

“She should have, but no. I arrived to pick up your brother, only to find out you’d gone AWOL.” His expression stern, he demanded, “What’s that about, young lady? You certainly know better.”

Dani avoided Emily, but she dared a look at her father.

“I had something really important to do,” she told him, her expression pleading with him to understand.

“So important that it outweighed the fact that you’re grounded, that you were bound to worry your mother and that you had to lie to get out of the house?”

Emily stared at her ex-husband in astonishment. When had he learned how to be a real parent, one who took the kids to task when they needed it? He’d always left that to her. Dani looked equally taken aback.

“But, Dad, I swear it was really important, or I wouldn’t have done it. Honest.”

“Honesty doesn’t seem to be a concept you grasp. Try telling both of us what was so important and we’ll see if we agree with you.”

Dani’s expression faltered. “I…I don’t want to talk about it,” she said.

Derek turned to Emily. “You need to set the ground rules here. I’m not sensing a lot of remorse.”

“But, Mom, I
am
sorry I worried you,” Dani insisted, finally addressing Emily.

“That doesn’t sound like a very complete apology to me,” Derek said, his tone unyielding. “Emily?”

Emily thought she saw real fear in her daughter’s eyes. She didn’t think it had anything to do with whatever punishment she might be facing, either. It had to do with this mysterious mission she’d gone on.

“Sweetie, can’t you tell us the truth, please? If wherever you went was so important, we should know about it. You can tell us anything.”

Dani shook her head stubbornly. “No. Just ground me or whatever you’re going to do and I’ll go to my room.”

“Dani,” Emily pleaded.

“I don’t want to talk about this,” Dani repeated.

Emily sighed. “Okay, then. Obviously grounding wasn’t sending a strong enough message, so we’ll try another approach. The computer and the phone are coming out of your room, as are your CD player and the TV.”

Dani stared at her in shock. “But what’ll I do in there? You’re turning it into a prison.”

“An apt analogy,” Emily said. “Derek, would you help her move those things into the closet in my room? Lock it, while you’re up there.”

“You’re kidding me,” Dani said, obviously stunned. “You’re going to lock them away?”

“It’s apparent you can’t be trusted to follow the rules,” she said. “I have no choice.”

“That is so lame!” Dani said, whirling around and running from the room.

Emily exchanged a look with her ex-husband. “I feel awful about doing that when she’s obviously really upset about something.”

“And we both know what that something is, don’t we?” he said grimly. “I’ll go move those things. Who knows, maybe she’ll open up to me.”

“She’s certainly not going to speak to me anytime soon,” Emily responded. She gave him a plaintive look. “When did I turn into the bad guy?”

“Unfortunately, you’ve always had that job,” he said, looking wearier than she’d ever seen him. “I was never much help with the discipline around here. I regret that now, more than you’ll ever know. I missed out on so much, Em. And I left far too much of the burden on you. I’m sorry.”

She saw the genuine remorse in his eyes. Obviously there was more than enough regret to go around. Maybe if she’d insisted on his participation years ago, their marriage wouldn’t have gotten so far off track and something could have been salvaged from the wreck. Instead, she’d simply given up.

“I know,” she conceded softly. “Go, talk to your
daughter. If you can get through to her now, it will more than make up for anything that’s happened in the past.”

Sadly, though, she’d seen that closed-down look in Dani’s eyes before. She didn’t hold out much hope that Derek would learn one single thing that their daughter wasn’t absolutely ready to reveal.

And if he didn’t, what on earth were they supposed to do next?

“Derek?”

He turned at the sound of her voice.

“What are we going to do if she won’t open up to one of us?”

“We’ll let Detective Rodriguez or his partner take a stab at it,” he said.

“I trust Grady—Detective Rodriguez—but I hate the idea of our little girl being questioned by the police,” she said. “I really do.”

“I know, but I hate the idea of Evan getting away with hurting her a whole lot more.”

The thought was enough to steel her resolve. The time had come for answers, no doubt about it. An image of nine-year-old Evan grinning up at her with a crooked smile made it almost impossible for her to envision him as the kind of young man capable of hurting her daughter, but if he had…God help him. God help all of them.

D
ani dreaded going to school every day, but she was starting to hate being shut up in her room even more. She had nothing but time to think about running into Evan and the confrontation they’d had. When she’d first felt his hand on her arm, she’d been so scared she’d almost passed out. Somehow, though, she’d found the strength to stand up to him.

It had made her feel better for a little while, but on the bus ride home, she’d started shaking and hadn’t been able to stop. When she’d seen her dad’s car in the driveway, she’d been relieved. She’d been so sure he would be on her side, but he’d backed up her mom. They’d sounded more like a team than they had in years. If the circumstances had been different, she would have been glad about that.

Sighing, she started on her reading assignment for English. It was another of those boring classics that made her mom go all poetic and crazy. The only reason Dani even bothered to read them, instead of sticking with the Cliffs Notes or online summaries that other kids used, was because she knew her mom would be totally embarrassed if her own daughter sucked at the subject she taught.

A tap on the door dragged her out of the story. “What?” she asked, a cranky tone covering the relief she felt at being interrupted.

“You have a call from Caitlyn,” her mother told her. “You can take it downstairs.”

“How come?”

“Because she’s going through a very hard time and you’re the one being punished, not her. Try showing her a little support, instead of using her.”

“I never used her,” Dani protested, then winced at her mother’s skeptical look. “Okay, I said I was going to her house, but I never asked her to lie for me or anything.”

“Fair enough,” her mom said. “You have five minutes.”

Dani ran down the stairs, then heard her mother’s footsteps following her. She turned on her. “You’re going to listen to my call?”

“Are you actually surprised by that?”

“You’re really mean, you know that?”

“Just doing my job, kiddo.”

“You mean prison guard?”

“No, being a responsible parent. Anytime you want to change things, all you have to do is talk to me. In the meantime, you’re wasting your few precious phone minutes.”

“You’ve already started counting?”

“Yep.”

Dani would have flounced right past her and gone back upstairs, but—what was it her mom used to say?—that would be cutting off her nose to spite her face. She ran into the kitchen and grabbed the phone.

“Hey, Caitlyn. How are you?”

“Better than you, I guess,” Caitlyn responded sympathetically. “You’re in big trouble, huh?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Where’d you go? Or can’t you talk right now?”

“You got it.”

“I figured,” Caitlyn said. “Your mom sounded really mad when she called mine yesterday to say you’d finally shown up at home. We were out looking for you.”

Dani felt awful. “I didn’t know she’d dragged you into it,” she said, shooting a glare in her mother’s direction.

“She was worried, that’s all. She thought you were with me and then my mom went over there and let it slip that you’d never shown up. Can you blame her for being upset?”

“I guess not. Are you really doing okay?”

Caitlyn heaved a sigh. “It’s still really bad at school. The stuff they say about Evan, well, it really stinks. The guys are as bad as the girls.”

“Tell me about it. Whatever they’re saying around you, I promise you it’s worse at my school. The guys even joke like he’s some kind of hero or something, because
poor
Evan is in trouble because of all these false accusations. If it wouldn’t get me into even more trouble, I swear I’d deck one of them.”

Caitlyn giggled. “Now that’s something I’d like to see.”

“You don’t think I can?”

“I
know
you can. Josh taught us both the same self-defense moves, remember?”

Dani wished she’d had sense enough to use a few of them against Evan, but at first she’d been so caught up in the moment that it hadn’t occurred to her. By the time she’d wanted to stop him, he’d completely overpowered her. She still shuddered at the memory of how helpless she’d felt.

She sighed. “I remember,” she told Caitlyn.

“I wish you could come over,” Caitlyn said, her tone wistful. “There’s nobody I can talk to the way you and I used to talk.”

“I know what you mean.”

Caitlyn said something, her voice muffled as if her hand was over the phone.

“Cat, you still there?”

“I’m here,” she said, then fell silent, the way she usually did when she was trying to think about how to bring up something touchy. “Dani?”

“Yeah.”

She cleared her throat nervously. “Evan said he saw you near campus yesterday when you went missing.”

Dani froze. She could feel her mom watching her and knew she was listening to every word, every little nuance in her voice.

“That’s true,” she said, hoping her tone gave away nothing of the turmoil she was feeling.

“Why were you there?”

“I really couldn’t say,” she said carefully.

“Because of your mom,” Caitlyn guessed, then sighed. “You weren’t hoping to see that girl, were you?”

Dani had the strangest feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had the sense that Caitlyn hadn’t dreamed up these questions all on her own. That this was what that muffled exchange had been about. Evan had put her up to making this call.

“Cat, is Evan there now?” she asked.

Her friend’s silence was answer enough.

“If your brother has something he wants to ask me or say to me, he should be man enough to do it himself, but of course we both know he won’t,” she said heatedly, no
longer caring what her mom heard. “Don’t call me again. As far as I’m concerned we’re not friends anymore.”

Hurt by Caitlyn’s betrayal, she slammed the portable phone back into its base.

“What was that about?” her mother asked, her expression dismayed. “I’ve never heard you speak to Caitlyn like that before. And what did you mean about Evan?”

“He talked her into calling because he wanted to know some stuff. I can’t believe Caitlin let Evan use her to do his dirty work,” she said. “I can’t believe he’d stoop that low or that she’d let him.”

“What was Evan trying to find out?”

As upset as she was, she knew better than to tell her mother exactly what had happened. “Nothing,” Dani said, trying to shrug it off. “It doesn’t matter. That’s not even the point.”

“If you’re this upset, apparently it is the point,” her mom contradicted.

Dani decided to put her on the defensive to stop the nagging. “You heard every word I said. Did you hear any devious plans being hatched? That’s all you really care about, isn’t it?”

“Dani, you know that is not the only thing I care about,” her mother protested.

“I don’t believe you. And just so you know, we could have been talking in code to throw you off.”

Her mother gave her a wry look. “Do you think I’d put that past you?”

Even though she was the one who’d brought up the possibility, it had been in jest. She hadn’t expected her mom to take her so seriously. It hurt that she had. “You used to trust me.”

“You used to deserve it.”

“Mom…” Her voice trailed off.

“What?”

Dani blinked back unexpected tears. “I’m really sorry that things are such a mess.”

“So am I,” her mother replied. “You can change it anytime.”

That was the thing, though, Dani thought as she left the room. She couldn’t change what had happened. Not in a million years. So what was the point of talking about it?

Emily sighed heavily as Dani walked out of the kitchen, regretting that once again their conversation had deteriorated into a battle of wills. When the phone rang, she was grateful for the interruption.

“Emily, it’s Grady.”

Her mood brightened perceptibly. “I hope you’re having a better day than I am,” she said.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“Mostly mother-daughter angst,” she said ruefully. “Be grateful you don’t have to deal with anything remotely like that.”

Her comment was met with silence. “Grady?”

“Sorry. I was distracted for a minute,” he said.

As far as she knew it was the first lie he’d ever told her. She knew it the instant he’d uttered the unconvincing words. “Grady, did I say something wrong?”

“Of course not,” he said a little too cheerfully.

Emily was so tired of people not being candid lately that she was tempted to press him on it, but then shrugged it off. What difference did it make really? It wasn’t as if they had a relationship that she needed to be fighting to preserve.

“Did you call for any particular reason?” she asked in a tone of false cheer meant to match his.

“Actually I was hoping that you and Dani would come by my house for dinner this evening. My mom made a huge pot of picadillo and dropped it off, along with some black beans and rice. I thought after dinner Dani could take a look at my yard, make some recommendations.”

“She would love that,” Emily said.

“And you?”

She hesitated, then admitted, “I’d love it, too, but Dani’s restricted to home and school right now. She took off yesterday, after lying to get out of the house. When she finally turned up, she wouldn’t tell me or her father where she’d gone. Since she was already grounded and I’d only given her permission to visit Caitlyn, well, you can imagine how much hot water she was in when she got home.”

“I see.”

“I’m sorry. Maybe we can do it another time.”

“Or I could bring the food over there tonight,” he suggested. “I’ll take a few pictures of the yard and bring them along, too.”

“Is this all about getting a landscape design?”

“Not entirely,” he conceded. “I enjoy spending time with you.”

“And?”

“And I’m still hoping Dani will start to trust me enough to tell me what happened between her and Carter. The more time she and I spend together, the sooner that might happen.”

Since Emily wasn’t getting anywhere with Dani on her own, she and Derek had agreed that the time was rapidly approaching when they would have to turn to
Grady for assistance. She might as well help him lay the groundwork for that day.

“What time could you be here?” she asked him.

“How about six-thirty?”

“I’ll see you then. We can also chat about how many times you’ve gone behind my back to talk to members of my family,” she said sweetly. “Fair warning, just so you know that the interrogations around here won’t be entirely one-sided.”

He laughed. “I’ll brace myself.”

“You should,” she warned. “After the way today has gone, I’m ready to go a few rounds with a worthy adversary.”

“I promise you one thing,” he said, “I won’t stonewall you the way your daughter has.”

“Well, that will certainly be an improvement. See you soon.”

After she’d hung up, she spotted Dani standing in the doorway.

“Who was that?”

“Detective Rodriguez.”

“He’s coming over?”

She nodded.

“Are you going out with him?”

“Actually he wants to see you,” Emily said, watching closely to gauge Dani’s reaction. Sure enough, alarm flared in her eyes.

“Why?”

Emily debated using the fear she saw in Dani’s eyes as leverage, but couldn’t bring herself to do it. “He’s bringing pictures of his yard. He thought it would help you to start getting some ideas for the landscaping.”

Dani’s relief was unmistakable. “That is so cool. I’m
surprised you agreed to that, since it means I’ll get to do something I really like doing.”

“This was a compromise,” Emily admitted. “He wanted us to come to his house for dinner, so you could take a look around in person, but I explained you’re confined to the premises.”

“You told him I’m grounded?” she asked. “How could you? That is so embarrassing.”

“I had to tell him why we couldn’t go to his house,” she said.

“No, you just wanted him to know that I did something wrong,” she accused.

“Why on earth would I want to do that?”

“Just to humiliate me.”

Emily sighed. “Sweetie, it is not my life’s work to embarrass you. Of course, if you’re too humiliated to face him or to take on this job, after all, I can explain to Grady.”

“No! I want to do it.”

“Then go upstairs and wash up. After that, you can help me set the table.”

“What are we having for dinner? Maybe you ought to call Marcie. She could probably send something over.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Emily said. “Actually, Grady’s bringing dinner. It’s Cuban food his mom made.”

“Awesome,” Dani said. “I’ll bet his mom is a great cook.”

“And you would know that how?”

“He wouldn’t bring us a meal she’d fixed if her food sucked, would he?” she asked reasonably. “He’s trying to impress you.”

Emily smiled. “You probably have a point. Now
hurry. You don’t want him to think that between us we can’t even set a decent table, do you? That would really be humiliating.”

To her surprise, Dani ran back into the kitchen and hugged her. “Thanks for letting me do this job for Grady, even though you’re mad at me.”

“I’m not mad at you,” Emily corrected. “I’m worried about you.”

“You don’t need to be. I’m going to figure all of this out. And if I need your help, I’ll ask. I promise.”

It wasn’t much of a concession, but it was a start. Emily supposed it would have to do…for now.

Grady’s arrival just as they were pouring the iced tea seemed to improve Dani’s mood considerably. Emily watched as she eagerly drew him into the kitchen and took the various bowls he’d brought and set them on the counter.

“Mom, you can heat this up, right?” she said. “Then Grady can show me the pictures of his yard.” She looked up at him. “You did bring them?”

“In my pocket,” he said, giving Emily a wry look as he let himself be dragged over to the kitchen table.

“You can spread them out right here,” Dani told him. “I cleared a space. And I brought down some of my plant books, so I can show you what I think will work. I’m guessing you want it to be really low maintenance, right? You’re probably not home a lot. Do you have a sprinkler system?”