Page 72 of Claimed By my Father's Enemies
I pull it out and see Carter's name and something in my chest drops and tightens at the same time. Two days of nothing and now his name on my screen in the middle of a garden in the late afternoon. I don't know if I’m ready for what this phone call may bring.
I take a breath. I answer.
"Hello?"
"Sienna."
The way he says my name is not what I was braced for. There is tenderness there. I feel it travel through my body.
Silence. A beat past what a work call allows.
I fill it. "Is this about the site? Everything is on schedule. I was going to send you an update—"
"No."
One word. Pause.
"Next Friday is the Vanta anniversary. There's going to be a party." A breath. "I wanted to know if you'd come with me."
Another pause.
"As my date."
I pull the phone from my ear.
I look at the garden in the afternoon light. I do three small jumps on the spot, fast and silent, phone pressed to my sternum.
"Hello? Sienna?"
I bring the phone back. Clear my throat. "I would like that." My voice is steady. I'm quietly proud of that. "I would really like that."
"Good." A beat. "I'll text you the details."
"Okay," I manage.
Then, quieter: "Sienna?"
"Yes?"
"Can't wait."
The line goes dead.
I stand there with the phone in my hand. The light is the same. The garden is the same. Emilio is still trimming.
I pull the gloves back on, drop back down beside the tree root, and set the saw against the split point.
I'm still smiling at the dirt when I make the first cut.
26
SIENNA
Emma is standing in my doorway with her arms crossed, running her eyes down my open closet the way I run my eyes down a dying garden.
"All black?"
"It's the theme. Noir Night. Everybody needs to be all in black." Carter texted me the party details, like he said. He also texted that unfortunately he would not be able to pick me up, but he was sending a car to pick me up at seven. And I’m already running late.
