I turned to face him. “That’s my father’s car.”
Something shifted behind his eyes. “Your dad had a car like that? Did he—”
I stepped closer, staring him right in the eyes. “That’s my father’s car. Not one like it. It’shiscar. Mind telling me what it’s doing here?”
Gideon swallowed hard but didn’t say anything. At least he was no longer denying what I knew to be true. I stared at him, trying to make sense of something that seemed impossible.
I looked deep into his eyes as if trying to see through to the back of his head, and then suddenly I knew.
Taking a step back, I suddenly felt faint. “It was you.”
He said nothing.
“That’s why you looked familiar. And why you were in that dream. You’re that kid who was always out in our garage helping him. The kid who followed him around like a puppy. It was you.”
Still, he said nothing, but I didn’t need him to. My heart raced, but my mind was steady. It was him. I hadn’t recognized him because he’d changed so much. That teen was scrawny and skinny. He’d had an underfed look to him, and he slouched around, as if trying to go unnoticed. Except with my dad. When he was bent over the engine of the Torino, working side by side with my dad, that was the only time I’d seen him smile.
“But your name wasn’t Gidon back then, was it?”
For the first time, faint surprise flitted across his face. “No.” He cleared his throat. “Gideon was my father’s name, too, and since he’d abandoned me, I went by my middle name, John, for years.”
Obviously, he’d reclaimed his name at some point.
But none of this answered any of my real questions. I picked one at random. “How’d you get the car? We had to sell it after he died.” Times had been tough, and my mom’s salary hadn’t gone far. Nor had the meager life insurance policy my dad had had.
“I was thinking about him a couple of years ago and I decided to track down his car. It took a while, but I found it in the end.”
“But why?” I felt faint, and I wanted to lean against the car, but years of conditioning made that impossible. My dad had always taught me to protect the finish on the car at all costs.
“It’s a good car,” Gideon said.
“Not that. Why didn’t you tell me who you were? Do Brady and Cole know?”
“No.”
I took a step back. “You three planned that whole massage mate deception for weeks, if not months, and you never told them that you knew me? That’s messed up.”
“Look, I—”
“You lied to them and to me. And you continued to do so. Why?”
“You were the one who came after us first. If you hadn’t, you would’ve never been on my radar.”
I barely heard him. “Why did you do this?”
“Lila, if you’ll just—”
“Why?” I repeated. “The way you touched me, and never admitted we used to know each other as kids.”
“No, we didn’t.” His voice was quiet.
“What?”
“We didn’t know each other. Not well. The only thing we had in common was that we both lov—admired your dad.”
“So that’s how you repay someone you admire? Someone who helped you? By tricking his daughter?”
“That’s not what I—”