Daisy goes in for a hug. I turn my face in time to avoid the hairspray assault. “It was nice of you to stop by, Miller. I hope we get to see you real soon.” She pats my cheek and sighs.
Robbie stays behind while I throw my bag in the back of the SUV. I shake his hand, wanting to get the hell out of here. I need to call Randy and check flight times, and I need to call Violet. I’m not feeling too good about how things ended here. I also want to text Sunny, and I need to use the voice-to-text function so it doesn’t take a year.
“Thanks for the hospitality, Robbie. I’m sure I’ll see you before the season starts.”
“You take care of yourself, Miller.”
He stands by my door as I turn on the engine. As I’m about to pull out of the driveway, he knocks on my window. I roll it down. My palms are clammy, and I have the lip sweats. “’Sup?”
He inhales and releases the breath slowly. “I know Sunny lied to us.” Leaning on the edge of the window he makes a clicking sound with his tongue. “The neighbors said this vehicle has been here since late Friday night.”
“I didn’t want to get her into trouble—”
He holds up a hand. “Sunny’s a big girl, but she’s still my little girl, so I’m going to ask you to be careful with her. I like you, Miller. I think you’re a nice kid, and I know the media skews things, but I’d hate for my baby to get hurt by someone who’s stringing her along.”
“It’s not like that. I really like Sunny.”
“Then I suggest you step up your game.” He taps the hood of the car as he strolls up the driveway, Andy following.
His parting words don’t make me feel better at all.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE KICKER OF PANTS
I drive around the corner and park the car. I don’t have to be at the airport for another seven hours. I have an entire day to kill, and all I can think about is how this weekend went from awesome to total shit. All because of Kale. Well, all because of me and the bunnies and the stupid pictures I can’t control posted all over Instagram and Tumblr and wherever the fuck else. And Kale.
I pull my phone out of my back pocket. I have messages from Sunny:
I wish weed had alone time b4 I left.
Thx 4 cuming 2 visit me.
I had fun. <3
I send her one back, along with the selfie, using voice-to-text so I don’t mess it up:
Me too. I can't wait to see you again. Message me when you get to camp if you have reception.
When I’m done I set the picture as my wallpaper, and then I post it to every social media platform I have access to, and tag her. I add the caption “Spending time with my favorite Canadian girl.” It’s not as in-your-face as I’d like to be, but I think it gets the point across. If any pictures are going up of me with bunnies, I’ll combat them with nice ones of me and Sunny.
I check my emails while I wait for a reply. Randy’s sent two. I use text-to-speech to listen to those. Apparently his flight times have changed, and he’ll be in a few hours earlier. He says he’s cool to wait at the airport in the bar however long he has to. Since Sunny’s already gone, he won’t have to. I shoot him a quick message instead of an email so he gets it right away. Sunny still hasn’t responded, so I call Vi. She picks up on the third ring.
“Buck.” She says my name like a swear word. I don’t even get a chance to say hi before she fires off threats. “Care to explain the hat trick message you left for me yesterday before I beam myself to Canada and beat your ass with a nine iron?”
I forgot about that message. Since I know I’m not in real trouble, I decide to be a jerk, hoping it’ll make me feel better post Kale-introduction. “You don’t golf.”
“I might start. It seems like it might be fun if I’m aiming for your balls. It’d be challenging though, since they’re the size of peas.”