Country Mile

STRAIGHTEN YOUR CROWN, QUEEN

Adam stood in the doorway of Genna's room and silently surveyed her space.

"Now's your chance to come clean, so is there anything you wanna confess before I start?" he asked.

Genna bit her lip and contemplated her odds. Feeling confident that he wouldn't find her hidden pack of cigarettes, she shook her head no.

"Genevieve," Adam gave her a doubtful look. "You sure?"

"Yes, sir."

"Alright," he shook his head knowing she was hiding something. "You remember what I told you?"

"Mhm," she hummed while twisting her fingers together.

"Tell me so I know we're on the same page."

"If you find anything that I shouldn't have, you're gonna murder me."

Adam chuckled and shook his head again. "No, I ain't gonna murder you. But I will give you a good ol' fashion spankin'. Once if I find somethin', and again every night—"

"For the rest of my life, I know," Genna sighed dramatically.

"For a week," Adam corrected. "I really don't want that to happen. Do you?"

"No, Dad, I don't." Genna said while scuffing her shoe on floor.

Her big doe eyes looking up at him made his chest ache. He had a feeling bedtime for the following week was going to be rough. Even though those eyes looked so innocent, he could plainly see she was hiding something.

Shaking his head for the hundredth time that day, Adam pulled out Genna's vanity chair and moved it to the middle of her room. "You sit here while I look around," he ordered.

"Kay," Genna mumbled and plopped down on the seat with a soft huff.

Her eyes watched him almost as carefully as he watched her. Everywhere he moved, his eyes monitored her reaction. He knew eventually he'd be able to pin point her hiding spot; he bided his time for the moment she would tense or look away in guilt and therefore unknowingly tell him he was close.

He meandered around just looking at first. Running his hand along her dresser, he saw no emotion from her. He kept walking the circumference of her room and went to her closet. He opened it and looked around, moving boxes and clothes, still periodically glancing at her, yet she still sat unbothered. He then moved on to her nightstand and her bed. He opened the drawer, then lifted her mattress to check beneath it. Nothing. He made his way to her vanity and she still showed no sign of uneasiness.

Adam stood, scratching the back of his head while pondering where she could have hid something. The image of her cool exterior remained so he assumed it meant there was nothing there. He took a few steps toward her and she tensed.

He quirked an eyebrow at her. A thought came to him but it seemed pretty far fetched. Then again, this was Genna he was dealing with, so there was really no such thing as 'far fetched'.

"Stand up for me, please."

Genna's eyes widened. "Wh-why?"

"Please, just stand."

"But you told me to sit while y—"

"And now, I'm tellin' you to stand," he reiterated.

Slowly getting to her feet, Genna's heart beat a mile a minute. She stepped aside and Adam picked up the chair, and while looking at her, ran his hand beneath the bottom of it.

Their eyes remained locked on one another for an intense moment, until he slowly put the chair back down.

"Alright," he said blowing out a breath. He took another look around the room. "I s'pose you were tellin' the truth about not havin' things you shouldn't."