The Bad Daughter(22)

“Do you have any idea when you’ll be home?”

“Probably not for a few days at least. The sheriff wants us to go through my father’s new house with him tomorrow, see if we can figure out what’s missing.” Why? Are you concerned about being caught off guard? Is someone there with you?

“How do you feel about that?”

Robin chuckled. “That’s supposed to be my question. I’m the therapist, remember?”

Not a very good one.

“It won’t be easy,” Blake said.

“True. But when has anything about my family ever been easy?”

“Do you want me to come up there?” he asked.

Please say no, Robin heard him add silently.

“Not necessary,” she obliged him by saying. “You’re busy.”

“I can manage a few days off.”

“I’m fine. Really.”

“You do sound pretty good.”

“Do I?” I guess we hear what we want to hear.

“Yeah. Tired, but okay.”

“I am tired.”

“Guess I should let you go and get some sleep.”

“Yeah. Probably a good idea.” Although a better idea would be for you to drop everything and get your ass up here. An even better idea would be for you to stop asking what I want and figure out what I need.

“Okay,” he said.

“Okay.”

“You’ll call me as soon as you know anything?”

“I’ll call you.”

“I love you,” he said, so softly that Robin wasn’t sure he’d said anything at all. Another case of hearing what we want to hear?

“Love you, too,” she whispered. She tossed the phone back to the bed and deposited the two pills she was holding on the tip of her tongue, then swallowed both at once. One of them stuck in her throat, and she tried clearing it, but that seemed only to make things worse. She opened her door and stepped into the hall, crossing to the washroom and leaning over the sink to drink the cold water directly from the tap. It dribbled down her chin and neck and disappeared inside the front of her nightgown.

She washed her face and brushed her teeth, then spent a few minutes pulling on her hair before recognizing it as a lost cause and leaving the bathroom. She could hear the TV on in Melanie’s bedroom at the end of the hall. Her sister hadn’t wasted any time in taking over the master bedroom, with its convenient en suite bathroom, after their father and Tara had moved out. Robin wasn’t sure exactly when that had been, and she hadn’t thought to ask, but Sheriff Prescott had mentioned something about a recent house-warming party and that workers were still going in and out of the house on a regular basis. So, probably sometime in the last month, Robin surmised, returning to her room.

He was standing beside her bed, his back to her. He was tall and barefooted, with impressive biceps straining against the sleeves of his checkered shirt, which hung loosely over a pair of baggy blue jeans. Thick brown hair fell toward his slumped shoulders, and his body rocked back and forth as if he were praying.

“Landon?”

The boy spun around, dark eyes darting from Robin’s face to her breasts.

Robin raised her hand to her chest, aware that her nipples were clearly visible beneath the thin white cotton of her nightgown. “It’s so nice to finally see you,” she said, wondering what he was doing in her room. “We missed you at dinner.”

Landon said nothing, his gaze shifting to the floor.

“Did you eat anything? There’s lots left, if you haven’t. It’s really good. Your mother makes excellent chili.”

Again, no response.

“She said it’s one of your favorites. Although she told me you don’t like salads. I don’t like broccoli.” Really? Since when didn’t she like broccoli? Why had she said that? “I can’t believe how tall you are. The last time I saw you, you were still a little kid. Well, you weren’t even a teenager. And now look at you. You’re a man.” A great big silent man with bulging muscles who was in my room doing God only knows what. “Did you come to say hello?”

Landon shifted his weight from one foot to the other, refusing to make eye contact.

“Would you like to sit down?” She inched forward. “We could talk, get reacquainted.”

He took a step back, stopping only when his leg came in contact with the bed.

Robin heard footsteps behind her.

“What’s going on here?” Melanie said. “Landon, what are you doing in Robin’s room?”

Landon shot past both Robin and his mother with neither a word nor a glance in their direction.

“It’s all right,” Robin called after him. “You can stay.”

Seconds later, his bedroom door slammed shut.

“He wasn’t doing any…”

“Can you please refrain from entertaining my teenage son in your nightgown?” Melanie interrupted. “You can see right through that thing, you know.”

“I wasn’t entertain— I went to the bathroom. He was here when I came back.”

“Whatever. I’d just like you to be a little more discreet instead of parading around the halls half-naked.”

“I’m hardly half-naked.”

“I can see your pubes,” came Melanie’s stinging retort.