“Oh my God. My parents.” This was going to devastate them. As if what I’d done yesterday wasn’t upsetting enough. I’d managed to assure them last night on a highway in Pennsylvania that I was fine and definitely not going through some kind of mid-life crisis. And I’d made them promise not to change their plans for me. They’d left for their three-week Mediterranean cruise this morning. The first big, international vacation they’d ever taken together.
I didn’t want my problems or Tina’s disaster ruining it.
“What do you intend to do with that kid in there?” Knox nodded toward the open door.
“What do you mean?”
“Naomi, when the cops find out Tina’s gone and left Waylay behind, it’s straight into foster care.”
I shook my head. “I’m her closest living relative who isn’t a criminal. I’m responsible for her.” Just like all of Tina’s other messes until we’d turned eighteen.
He gave me a long, hard look. “Just like that?”
“She’s family.” Besides. It wasn’t like I had a whole lot going on at the moment. I was basically adrift. For the first time in my entire life, I didn’t have a plan.
And that scared the crap out of me.
“Family,” he snorted as if my reasoning wasn’t sound.
“Listen. Thank you, Knox, for all of the shouting and the rides and the coffee. But as you can see, I’ve got a situation to handle. So it’s probably best for you to go on back to whatever cave you crawled out of this morning.”
“I’m not goin’ anywhere.”
We were back to glaring at each other, the silence charged. This time he broke first.
“Quit stallin’, Daisy. What are you gonna do?”
“Daisy?”
He reached up and plucked a flower petal out of my hair with two fingers.
I batted his hand away and took a step back so I could think. “Okay. First I need to…” Definitely not call my parents. And I didn’t really want to get the police involved—again—if I didn’t have to. What if Tina showed up in an hour? Maybe the first thing I needed to do was get more coffee.
“Call the damn cops and report the break-in and the child abandonment,” Knox said.
“She’s my sister. Besides, what if she shows up in an hour?”
“She stole your car and abandoned her kid. That doesn’t earn a fucking pass.”
The tattooed, grouchy bear of a man was right. I really didn’t like that about him.
“Argh! Fine. Okay. Let me think. Can I borrow your phone?”
He stood there staring at me, unmoving.
“For Pete’s sake. I’m not going to steal it. I just need to make a quick call.”
On a long-suffering sigh, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
“Thank you,” I said pointedly, then stomped back into my motel room. Waylay was still watching her movie, now with her hands stacked behind her head.
I dug through my suitcase to find a notebook and went back outside.
“You keep a notebook of phone numbers with you?”
Knox was peering over my shoulder.
I shushed him and dialed.