Unpredictable

Chapter 20: Not Knowing

Dylan's POV

I frowned. Why had she just said she loved me and then hung up like that? I glanced back at Aurora, who was sitting in the backseat. "Girls are confusing," I told my daughter. "Please don't ever grow up to be that confusing, okay?"

I swear Aurora rolled her eyes at me. Could babies roll their eyes, at nine months old? I wasn't sure. Deciding to ask Edward when I got home, since he'd had three kids, I realized I'd forgotten the sugar Doug had asked me to get.

Apparently, one of his coworkers was retiring, and since Doug is like, the best baker ever, he'd asked Doug to make him a cake. And Doug was out of sugar, and since I was going grocery shopping anyway, he'd asked me to get him some.

"Fuck," I swore. I could almost hear Sophie's voice saying "Language," and I turned back around to Aurora at the next stoplight. "All right, now remember - we don't tell Sophie that Daddy talks like that, okay?"

At this rate, I was pretty sure Sophie knew herself how I talked when she wasn't around, so I wasn't sure why exactly I was making small talk with my daughter. But Edward had waved it off when I'd asked him if I was going crazy, saying he'd used to make small talk with his kids all the time.

I noticed Ethan's car wasn't in the driveway, and frowned. That was weird, but I supposed Ethan had just skipped school again. He'd been hanging at my house, parking around the block, since during school hours Tanya would call him pathetic for believing she actually liked him, Ricky would send glares his way, as would I, and Evie would scream at him if he ever came within speaking distance of her.

It had gotten so bad that the teachers had had to move them apart in every single class they had together.

I was mad at Ethan, too, but if he was going to get drunk and/or high, I'd rather he stayed at my place, rather than whoever he was getting the drugs and alcohol from. I didn't trust them. He said it wasn't Tanya, but then who was it?

Ethan wouldn't tell me.

He didn't answer when I called, but that was normal too. He'd probably just passed out on my couch, so I brandished the Febreze. I hated having the smell of alcohol, for multiple reasons - it made me want to drink, and after the Sprinkler Incident, I didn't ever want to go near alcohol again, and two, I didn't want Aurora smelling it. The evaluation had really brought me back to reality, and I wanted to be better for my daughter.

But there was only the day-old stench of alcohol that had come from Ethan staying at my place yesterday.

And he'd gone home, or so I'd assumed.

I frowned and put Aurora in her crib, for her afternoon nap. Then I turned on the news, and saw a horrendous car accident. Yeesh. Glad I put Aurora in her crib before turning the news on.

"This accident happened because of a young man who, because he is a minor, remains unnamed," the newscaster was saying. I was scrutinizing the poor, mangled car. "The young man in question was, for whatever reason, intoxicated and high at the time of the accident, and while the car is his, he was not driving it. This is the part that we at Miami News find strange."

"Who was driving it, then, Todd?" inquired a red-haired brunette, while I started to realize that the car looked a lot like Ethan's car.

"Interesting you should ask that, Marge. A young woman whose name we also cannot disclose was driving the car at the time of the accident, and it appears as though she shoved this young man to the side of the car where he would be less injured, while leaving herself open to severe injury," reported Todd.

"I love you, Dylan," Sophie said, her voice sounding somewhat unshaken.

"I love you too, Sophie," I said, relieved. "Can you come over?"