Twice Kissed - Lisa Jackson [65]
She froze. Just stared straight ahead at the taillights of the car in front of them. Well, no one had ever accused Frank Reilly of being subtle.
“So, Maggie, what do you have to say?”
“Nothing. There is no boy, Dad,” she lied, then decided it wasn’t really a fabrication. Not really. Thane wasn’t a boy. She ran her finger nervously along the window ledge.
“What about Mary Theresa?”
Her throat closed, and she had to force the words out as her father slowed for a red light. The car idled, and Maggie wished she could disappear. “I, uh, I don’t know. She was going with Brad a while ago.”
“Your mother said they broke up.”
Oh, great. For the first time in three years it seemed her mother had been paying attention. “I, I don’t know.” Her palms began to sweat and itch.
“She doesn’t talk to you?”
“Not all the time.” Maggie lifted a shoulder as if to deny the topic, but she knew her father wasn’t buying it.
“It’s the damnedest thing.” Disgusted, he slapped on the blinker and cruised through an intersection as the light turned amber.
“What?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. Just a feeling I’ve got. That little fiasco with the booze and the hot tub a few weeks back was just part of it; there’s something going on, I can feel it and”—he slid her a determined glance—“I want to know what it is.”
“There’s nothing, Dad.”
“Fine.” He pressed on the garage-door opener clipped to the Mercedes’ visor. “I guess I’ll just have to talk to Mitch. Maybe he’ll give me a straight answer.”
Maggie bit her tongue and slid into her shoes. She was out of the car before her father had set the emergency brake. Quickly she walked into the house. Through the kitchen and past the family room where her mother was seated, drink in hand and watching the Tonight Show. The host was interviewing some superthin model Maggie didn’t recognize.
”’Night, Mom,” she said.
“Good night, honey.” No slurred speech. “See ya in the morning.”
“Okay.” Before her father followed her inside, Maggie hightailed it to the bedroom, where she stripped off her apron and matching tie, tossing them both on her unmade bed. She didn’t want to deal with her parents and their suspicions or anything else. She was bone tired and was intent on taking a shower, throwing herself into bed, and falling immediately asleep.
She closed the door behind her, stacked the curled dollars and handful of change that constituted her tips for the evening on a corner of the bureau, and opened the door of the bathroom. Mary Theresa was waiting, sitting on the counter, her eyes wide and round, the smell of smoke hanging in the air.
“Did Dad talk to you?” she asked.
“Yeah.” Maggie unzipped her skirt. “Oh, yeah.” The black mini fell in a pool onto the tile floor.
“What’d you say?”
“Nothing.”
“Good.” Mary Theresa hopped off the counter and plowed the fingers of both hands through her hair. “This is such a mess. He suspects something is going on.”
“I know,” Maggie whispered, glancing at the door to her room. What if her father followed her? She turned on the spray of the shower, as much to mute their voices as let the water heat. She flipped on the radio that sat on the counter and turned up the volume. Over a DJ’s voice spouting a news update about an accident on the freeway, she said, “He’s going to talk to Mitch.”
“Oh, God.” Mary Theresa sat on the edge of the toilet and buried her face in her hands. “It looks so bad. Even though nothing happened between me and Mitch.”
“Don’t say anything.” Shedding bra and underpants, Maggie stepped into the shower, felt the needles of hot water against her skin, and closed her eyes. All her muscles seemed to melt as she lathered slowly. Mary Theresa hadn’t taken her advice and was babbling on, but Maggie couldn’t make out her words, didn’t care. She just wanted a few minutes of peace.
It wasn’t going to happen. Not tonight. The second she twisted off the spray, grabbed a towel, and stepped out of the tub/shower, Mary Theresa started in again. “You could tell Mom and Dad about Thane,” she suggested.
Maggie nearly fell through the floor. Her hair dripping,