Chapter 15

15

As we came out of the Gap, Angie stopped, maneuvered herself between the bags I had in both hands, and hugged me. “We should do that more often,” she said, giving me a quick peck on the cheek. I let the bags slip from my hands and hugged her back.

“Thanks for letting me do that for you.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I hope I didn’t take up too much of your time.”

Angie glanced at her watch. “Well, I do have to get going now, but I’m not going to be late or anything.”

“Where you off to?” I asked.

“Just doing some research for an essay I’ve got to do. I’m getting together with a friend.”

“Same friend you got together with earlier?” I asked.

“Nope, different,” she said, giving me another quick peck on the cheek. “Gotta go, Daddy.”

I felt my throat thicken. I could not remember her calling me that in years, not since she was little. It was as though, with one word, she had emerged from a period when it was not cool to show that you loved your dad.

As we walked out of the mall together, I kept scanning, looking for Trevor. My guess was he’d packed it in. We came out into the night air. “Where you parked?” Angie asked. I pointed in the general direction, but said I would walk her to her car before going to mine.

“How is it so far?” Angie asked, referring to our new wheels.

“Pretty good, although I might get it checked out. It wouldn’t start for me right away when I left the house. Had to try it three times before it would turn over.”

“Lemon city,” Angie said.

“I’m sure it was just a one-time thing.”

“Hey,” Angie said, looking puzzled, “you left the house long before I did. What did you do before you went to the mall?” Her question made sense, given that when she did find me at the Midtown Center, I had yet to do any shopping.

“Hobby shop,” I said. I was losing track of the number of times I’d lied to my own children this evening. “There was a new version of the Enterprise ship, from the Star Trek movies, the early ones, with the original crew?”

Angie sighed. “You’re such a dork. At least you won’t be quite as nerdy in your new clothes.”

I was about to laugh when I spotted a black Chevy, lights on, engine presumably running, parked alongside the sidewalk that went around the mall’s perimeter. I could see one head silhouetted behind the wheel. It was hard to tell whether it was Trevor, because he appeared to be holding something in front of his face. Binoculars, maybe, or a camera.

“What is it?” Angie asked. “You see something?”

“No, nothing.”