“She” was probably me. And I was most definitely not okay.
I grabbed a pillow off the bed. “Will you two please excuse me?” I squeaked.
Without waiting for an answer, I hauled ass out the door into the hot Virginia sunshine. Birds were chirping. Two motorcycles drove by, their engines a deafening roar. Across the street, an older couple climbed out of a pickup truck and headed into the diner for breakfast.
How could things have the audacity to look so normal when my entire life had just imploded?
I held the pillow to my face and let loose the scream that had been building.
Thoughts flew through my brain like a turbo-charged spin cycle. Warner was right. People didn’t change. My sister was still a terrible human being, and I was still naïve enough to fall for her lies. My car was gone along with my purse and my laptop. Not to mention the money I’d brought for Tina. As of last night, I had no job. I wasn’t on my way to Paris, which had been the plan a mere twenty-four hours ago. My family and friends thought I’d lost my damn mind. My favorite lipstick had been ruined on a bathroom mirror. And I had a niece whose entire childhood I’d missed out on.
I sucked in another breath and let out one final scream for good measure before lowering the pillow.
“Okay. You can figure this out. You can fix this.”
“About done with your pep talk?”
I whirled around and found Knox leaning against the door frame, tattooed arms crossed over his broad chest.
“Yep,” I said, squaring my shoulders. “How old is she?”
“Eleven.”
Nodding, I shoved the pillow at him and marched back into the room.
“So, Waylay,” I began.
There was a family resemblance in the upturned nose, the dimple in the chin. She had the same colt-like legs her mother and I had at that age.
“So, Aunt Naomi.”
“Did your mom say when she’d be back?”
“Nope.”
“Where do you and your mom live, honey?” I asked.
Maybe Tina was there now, going through her haul, figuring out what was worth keeping and what she wanted to ruin just for the fun of it.
“Over in Hillside Acres,” she answered, looking around me to get a better view of the tornado tossing up cows on the screen.
“Need a minute,” Knox announced and nodded toward the door.
I had all the damn time in the world apparently. All the time and not a single clue what to do. No next step. No to-do list quantifying and organizing my world into nice, neat line items. Just a crisis on top of a hot mess on top of a dumpster fire.
“Sure,” I said, sounding only mildly hysterical.
He waited until I passed him before stepping out after me. When I stopped, he kept walking toward the faded soda machine outside the front office.
“You seriously want me to buy you a soda right now?” I asked, flummoxed.
“No. I’m trying to get out of earshot of the kid who doesn’t realize she’s been abandoned,” he snapped.
I followed him. “Maybe Tina’s coming back,” I said.
He stopped and turned to face me. “Way says Tina didn’t tell her anything. Just that she had something to take care of and she’d be gone a long time.”
A long time? What the hell was a long time in Tina time? A weekend? A week? A month?