Unapologetically, Juliet

Chapter Twenty-Two

KING and I stayed at the cabin for the entire Thanksgiving weekend.

It snowed twice, and we ran out of food and chopped wood by the last day, but we'd had a great time. We went hiking and we sat on the porch bird watching and we generally just hung out together. A few times, King went off hunting by himself, but he never strayed too far, while I read one of the Melvin Rosewood books that I'd stuffed into my backpack before I left.

When I got home late Sunday night, I was surprised to see my dad passed out on the couch. Even while he slept, he looked exhausted. I waited to wake him up until after I'd unpacked and showered, settling back into my apartment. Looking through my cupboards, I found that my entire kitchen had been restocked while I was gone.

"Daddy?" I touched him gently, and his eyes fluttered open. When they focused on me, he sat up quickly.

"Juliet!" He wrapped his strong arms around me and held me so tight I had trouble breathing. "Where have you been? We looked everywhere." If they'd managed to get in touch with any of the Burke siblings, they would've known in heartbeat where I'd run off to. But that didn't surprise me even a little.

"King and I spent the weekend in a cabin," I answered truthfully, too tired to lie.

"You scared me. I thought something terrible happened to you." I instantly felt bad for causing the worry lines on his face.

I sat down on the sofa beside him and pulled my knees to my chest. "I just needed to clear my head."

Dad's eyes narrowed and he took my face in his hands gently. "Mom asked Chance and Maya to tell you that you were off the hook for cooking. Maya's mom insisted on making everything herself. I'm so sorry you didn't get told."

"She did it on purpose."

"I know." For whatever reason, I expected Dad to side with her like Mom did, but he didn't and that surprised me. "Everyone knows. She told Chance she took care of telling you."

"I don't know why he would've believed her in the first place," I grumbled. I didn't want to hold onto the anger, but it started in the pit of my stomach every time I thought about what had happened.

Dad shook his head. "I don't know either. Honey... I told everyone about you taking cooking classes. I didn't mean to, it just slipped out." He'd sounded so guilty when he confessed, the only thing I could do was giggle.

"That's okay, Dad. It's not a big deal anymore."

"What did you do with all the food you made?" He looked around like I might've brought it all back with me and lined it up on the counters.

I grinned over at my dad. "I ate it." We both laughed until tears streamed out of our eyes and my stomach started to ache.

"How was it?" he finally asked when he could breathe again.

"Fucking delicious." We started laughing all over, and it took another five or so minutes before we calmed down enough to have a real conversation.

"Have you told your friend thank you, yet? Rosalie had a great time." I glanced over at my father, completely confused about what he was saying.

"What are you talking about? My friends are all out of town." It was basically true.

"Saber. He sent that Ariel woman out to take Rosalie up in her helicopter on Thanksgiving. She was really nice about it too." I was actually shocked to hear his name mentioned at all, let alone that he'd actually followed through on his promise to my little sister.

"Did Rosalie have a good time?" I tried to play it off like I knew the whole time, but I probably hesitated for a second too long.

"He didn't tell you about it?" A frown etched itself into my dad's face. "I thought for sure you were out with him and you just didn't want to tell me."