Damaged: A Violated Trust (Secrets) by Melody Carlson

feel rather pleased with how well I’m handling this, very grown-up, I think.
    Dad goes into the living room and I introduce them, and to my relief Harris steps right in, telling Dad about the movie we saw tonight and how we took a swim afterward, going into detail of how he beat me in our swim race. “Although Haley is really fast for a girl.”
    “She used to be on swim team.” Dad hangs up his jacket. Then I ask Dad about Monterey and he briefly describes their day.
    “Sounds like a good time.” Harris is standing now. “Speaking of time, I should get going. I have an eleven o’clock curfew.”
    I walk him outside, where we exchange one last good-night kiss. “That ended too soon,” he says wistfully.
    “I know,” I whisper back.
    He smiles. “Until next time.”
    I watch as he goes down the stairs, almost feeling that my heart is going with him. I stand there for a few minutes, trying to take this all in. Talk about a whirlwind romance; that is exactly what this feels like. I love him, love him, love him — and I really don’t want to lose him. Still, as I go back inside, I feel nervous about how quickly things are moving. I know I’m in way over my head right now, but I’m just hoping I can figure it all out as I go along.

...[CHAPTER 9].................
     
    O n Sunday morning, Dad insists that he and I do something together. Somehow he’s gotten the idea that I’m put out with him for spending the whole day with Estelle yesterday. He couldn’t be more wrong. Still, I try to play along as we eat our cold cereal.
    “So what do you want to do?” he asks for about the thirteenth time.
    “Like I said, I don’t really know. What do you usually do on Sundays?”
    “I usually do something with Estelle.”
    “Then maybe you should —”
    “We’ve already been through that. I told Estelle that today was for you.”
    “Was she mad?”
    He shrugs, then refills his coffee mug.
    “She wasn’t happy, was she?”
    “Estelle likes to have fun on the weekends. She works hard all week and figures the weekend should make up for it.”
    “Can’t blame her for that.”
    “But back to us and today.” Dad sets his mug firmly on the countertop. “Tell me what you’d like to do.”
    If I told Dad what I really wanted to do, he’d be hurt. What I really want to do is spend the day with Harris.
    “You seemed to enjoy shopping last weekend. I suppose we could do something like that again.”
    I frown. “You really think your credit card can afford it?”
    He laughs. “I think so.”
    I consider this. If we go shopping, we’ll still be within cell phone range, whereas if we go out into the “wilderness” to hike and take photos like he suggested earlier, we might not be. Also it would take longer to get there and back. And I’m really hoping Harris wants to do something before the day is over.
    “Sure,” I tell Dad. “Shopping is fine. But maybe we should invite Estelle to come along.”
    Dad looks surprised. “Really? You want her to come?”
    “Why not? She’s a fantastic shopper and she’s fun.” Okay, that might be overstating it, but it’s for Dad.
    He looks like I just handed him a thousand dollar bill. “So you like her then?”
    “Yeah, I like her. What did you think?” Okay, here I go lying again. I do not particularly like Estelle. In fact, I sort of dislike her a lot. But I do like that she occupies Dad and that frees me up a lot. I’ve decided that Estelle is a very handy woman to have around. Although I feel like a real hypocrite for thinking that.
    “I just didn’t get the impression you were that fond of her.” Dad reaches for the phone. “I’m actually really relieved to hear this, Haley.”
    I make what feels like a phony smile. “Tell her hey for me. I’ll go get ready.”
    Back in my room I stare at myself in the mirror. Who am I? Who am I becoming? But then I think of Harris and decide I don’t really care. What matters most is keeping him. I want to keep him