Together

53. Storytelling

The air is warm, my heart is cold
And I'll never know how it feels
The air is warm, my heart is cold
And I'll never know how it feels
To have a heart of gold
-Jacob Banks

Despite JJ being caught in Kiara's room, Mike hadn't reacted the way that she was expecting. Even after JJ left, hat in hand, her dad didn't explode or get angry. She could tell he definitely wasn't thrilled about it, but he didn't blow his top as was his right in the situation.

He looked at her sternly, warning her that her room was a "boy free zone" and that if it happened again JJ wouldn't be allowed in the house at all. Kiara quickly indicated her understanding and hoped that to be the end of the conversation.

However, Mike had a reason for entering her room in the first place and he hadn't forgotten it. He began to talk about a camping trip that he and her mom were planning the following weekend on the mainland. Kiara pulled a confused face. Camping? Why?

Not that she didn't enjoy time outside. She'd camped with the Pogues on many occasions on some sand bar in the middle of the marsh, cooking over a fire and sleeping under the stars. She loved it. She had no idea her parents did though.

Mike talked about wanting to take her to an old camping spot he had when he was growing up. He'd always wanted to take her to it, but things with the Wreck never seemed to die down and soon the years were slipping by faster than he'd anticipated. He wanted to share the experience with his only child like he'd always wanted, before it was too late.

"Think of it as forced family fun," he chuckled. He sat on her bed with her as she huffed a laugh in response.

"You can bring JJ, if you like," he offered.

Kiara thought she heard him wrong. Did her dad just catch her boyfriend in her room and then not ten minutes later invite him on a family camping trip?

"Why?" she asks, somewhat dumbfounded.

"I wanna fix things with us, Kie," he said, with a loving hand on her knee. "I'm not trying to push the kid away, but I would like to get to know him better if he's someone you are serious about."

She nodded her head, not being able to deny they were serious. They were going to college together, though those details were not shared with Mike at the moment, they still remained true.

Kiara raised a skeptical brow, eyeing her dad suspiciously.

"You're not planning to kill him and burry his body in the woods, are you?"

Mike actually laughed out loud at that. "Not if he stays out of your room," he throws back. Kie rolls her eyes, repeating that she knows the rules and gets them, though having no intention of following them.

After a few moments of thinking over her dad's invitation she asks, "You'd seriously let him come?"

----------------------------------------------

Mike was serious, actually. And now JJ and Kie sat side by side in the back seat of her parents truck as they drove through the mainland and to the old camping spot that Mike had grown up with.

JJ had no idea why Mike invited him along, especially after catching him in his daughters bedroom. He didn't really believing the whole "get to know you" bit he peddled to Kie. Wasn't that supposed to be what happened at that dinner? Look how that turned out.

Still, Shoupe was in the back of his head telling him to show Mike and Anna that he was a good kid. That he didn't have to be who they thought he was.

He could admit that some progress had been made when he showed Mike the Jeep. Felt good to prove Mike wrong and show that he wasn't a total fuck up and that Kie did mean a lot to him. Mike was even able to admit as much, even if he followed it up with offering to pay for the vehicle.