Project Renovatio (2 page)

Chapter Two

They decided to wait until the girls’ summer break to go to San Diego. Levin told their mother they’d planned a vacation, and she didn’t question it–Levin living on his own and supporting himself by the age of twenty probably told her he could handle his sisters and keep them safe.

That gave Rana three weeks to focus on school and the real reason she joined the debate team.

Jason Burke.

In the three months since debate started, she hadn’t mustered the guts to talk to him, though she had done more than her share of nonverbal flirting. She checked her teeth and hair in a window’s reflection before heading to the classroom.

She froze in the doorway. He sat in the second row, chatting with another guy and facing the door. He looked at her, and maybe he kept his eyes on her a little longer than he did yesterday. Her pulse quickened.

Someone shoved her from behind, and she continued into the room. She claimed the seat directly in front of Jason–better for him to stare at the back of her head than to let him see the stupid grin on her face. She regretted the decision immediately, though, because she couldn’t see if he had a stupid grin on his face from her position.

She felt silly for joining the debate team for a boy, especially one she intentionally blocked from her vision. With nothing to do while she waited for the teacher to arrive, she scribbled on her notebook cover. Sensing motion to her right, she looked up. Jason took the seat next to her.

“Hi. I prefer the front row, don’t you?” He smiled at her. Her eyes shifted between his freckled cheeks and spiky, reddish-brown hair.

“Um . . . sure.” Heat rushed to her face and she examined her notebook, as if that would keep him from noticing her pale cheeks turning the color of a maraschino cherry.

Sitting sideways in his seat, he placed one elbow on the chair and the other on the desk, clasping his hands in front of him. “So, I thought you had a really solid argument against the use of GMOs last week. Am I allowed to say that, since I argued the opposing side?”

She anxiously laughed. “Yeah. You were great, too.” Why did all her words sound dumb?

He looked towards her desk. “Anyway, I was wondering, since we only have a few more weeks of school and I’m running out of time to ask, if you want to get together for a movie or something.” His eyes made their way back to hers.

She sat with her mouth agape for a moment before shaking off the shock. “Yeah, that sounds great!”

“Good.” He exhaled, and his shoulders dropped. “I’m going to a bunch of graduation parties until the end of the year, but maybe after school’s out?”

“Um, okay. I’m going to San Diego with my brother and sister, but only for a week.”

“Oh, all right. Do you have your phone on you? I’ll give you my number.”

She nodded, retrieved her phone from her backpack, and added his number to her contact list as he recited it.

“Just give me a call when you get back, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks.” She gazed into his eyes.

She snapped out of her trance when the teacher entered the room and assigned positions for the next tournament, but she hardly heard what he said. She resisted the urge to glance at Jason’s number on her phone.

****

Levin took Maggie’s hand as they walked through the park. The sun lowering behind the Colorado Rockies gave everything around them a magical glow, including the red highlights in Maggie’s brown hair. He couldn’t take his gaze away from her.

Maggie grinned at him. “I’m glad it’s finally warm enough to walk around outside. This would have been a little cold on our first date.”

“Yeah, Valentine’s Day was a bit chilly. Although it would have given me an excuse to hold you right away.”

She laughed. “Are you ready for your trip?”

“I think so.” He looked towards the path and put his other hand in his pocket.

“Is something wrong?”

The anxiety he’d tried to ignore rushed to the front of his mind. He took a deep breath to push it back, but it became harder to suppress as the trip neared. “Do you remember I told you I never knew my biological father?”

She squinted. “Yeah, I remember.”

“My mom always told me and Rana that he died in a car accident when I was three. Mom was pregnant with Rana at the time. I don’t remember him at all. Anyway, I got a letter in the mail a few weeks ago. The guy who sent it said his dad might have a secret family, and we’re that family. That’s why we’re going to California.”

“Really?” She paused, as if deciding for herself what to do with the information. “Do you think it’s true?”

“I hope not. I don’t want to talk to my mom about it.” He kept her hand in his but stared at his feet and kicked the rocks on the path.

She pulled on his arm, stopping their forward motion, and faced him. “Why don’t you want to talk to her?”

He looked over her head towards a group playing Frisbee as he considered his answer.

“I’ve never . . . I don’t like confrontation. And asking why she lied to us our whole lives would require a pretty big confrontation. My family is happy. I’m close with my sisters. Our stepdad does his own thing. We’re . . . comfortable, I guess.”

She wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. “You got the letter a few weeks ago?”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about it then?”

He stroked her hair. “I wasn’t sure how you would react. Whenever things got serious with other girls, it ended. And this is way more serious than anything that happened with them.” He pulled back enough to gaze into her eyes and sighed. “I kinda like having you around.”

She kept her eyes locked on his. “You won’t get rid of me that easily.”

Relief covered him. He leaned over, kissed her, and pulled her into his arms.

Chapter Three

Eight hours after leaving Denver, Levin drove towards the setting sun while his mind kept returning to his date with Maggie. The late afternoon light had brightened her hair and skin, and her laugh echoed in his memory. Instead of his story scaring her away, she’d drawn closer to him. The more he dwelled on her, the more the truth insisted on occupying his attention: he loved her.

He allowed the euphoria to course through him, as he hadn’t come anywhere close to this with other girls. His status as a soccer player might have helped his dating situation in high school, but his awkward computer geek status canceled out any benefits his athleticism offered. He’d taken his cousin to the prom.

Considering how much his life had changed, he couldn’t suppress his smile.

“Okay, what’s going on with you? You’ve been super quiet and randomly smiling since we left.” Rana lowered her tablet to her lap and cornered him from the passenger seat.

He tried to think of a way to explain himself. Aware his relationship would present a source of incessant teasing, he hadn’t told his sisters about Maggie. But Rana busted him, and they still had nine hours of road trip before reaching San Diego.

“Well, are you gonna tell us or not?” Dayla asked from the back seat.

“Oh, I get a choice? I choose not.”

Rana smacked him on the shoulder. “Don’t be like that. Is it about a girl?”

“What? Come on.” His stubborn smile betrayed the surprise he tried to fake.

“Oh my gosh, it is,” squealed Dayla. “Out with it!”

He expressed an exaggerated sigh. “Fine. You win. Her name is Maggie. Happy now?”

“No,” the girls said unanimously.

He kept both hands on the wheel and his eyes straight ahead. “We met four months ago. A friend set us up.”

“Four months. That beats your old record by . . . what? Three months?” Rana asked.

He looked away from the road long enough to glare at her. “Yeah. Anyway, I really like her. She’s beautiful and smarter than I can imagine. She’s finishing her biology degree and going to medical school after that.”

He smiled again as his heart raced. How had he attracted such an amazing girl?

Dayla bounced in her seat. “Can we meet her?”

“I wasn’t even going to tell you about her. One step at a time, okay?”

Adrenaline raced through him when he imagined introducing Maggie to his sisters. In his mind, she naturally fit with his family, like she belonged in it.

The thought gave him enough energy to run to San Diego. “How about I drive through the night? Then we’ll get there by morning.”

Rana nodded, and Dayla added, “I bet Maggie’s really pretty.”

He smiled again. Rana laughed. 

****

They arrived in San Diego early the next morning. After a fast food breakfast and plenty of coffee for Levin, they found a health club with public access and showers.

Rana left Dayla to finish showering and wandered to the front of the building, where she’d arranged to meet Levin. He pulled his phone away from his ear and pocketed it.

“Did you call Scott?”

He nodded. “He’ll text the address. We’re meeting in a couple hours.”

“Are you nervous?”

He shrugged. “A little. Are you?”

Rana’s nerves crowded her stomach so much she’d had to force herself to eat her breakfast sandwich. “Yeah. It’s pretty huge. We might meet our real dad.”

He blinked a few times. “Okay, now I’m nervous. Thanks for that.”

She laughed. “You haven’t thought about it?”

“Yeah, I’ve thought about it. I just...” He peered over her head. “I guess I got used to the idea of not having a father, you know?”

Rana’s throat tightened. Though their mother had married Walt around the time Dayla was born, he was frequently deployed for many of their early years as a family, and after his discharge he hid away in his bedroom or office, rarely interacting with them. The situation had brought her and her siblings closer over the years. Her mother often said Levin grew up quickly, acting like a father towards his sisters at times. Their relationship was unusual, but Rana had no desire to change it.

Levin’s phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and grinned when he looked at the screen. “I’m gonna take this. Why don’t you check on Dayla?” He put the phone to his ear and walked outside.

Rana and Dayla met him at the car a few minutes later. They piled in, and Dayla leaned forward, putting her head between the front seats. “Can we go to the zoo today?”

Levin started the engine. “Not today. I have an appointment.”

“An appointment? We’re on vacation.”

“I know. An old friend wanted to get together. It won’t take all day.”

Dayla scowled, fell back into her seat, and opened her book featuring a variety of African animals on the cover. “I wanted to finish this before we went anyway.”

Levin referenced his phone and punched the address Scott sent into his GPS.

His address
.
The guy who could be my brother.
Rana took a breath to settle her nerves as Levin turned right onto a busy street.

Levin drove for thirty minutes, and they looked for a house with numbers matching those Scott gave them. They soon left the residential area and drove into an industrial one.

Rana scowled. “That’s weird. I thought we were meeting Scott at a house.”

“So did I, but I guess he didn’t actually say that.” Levin picked up the GPS and examined it.

“Why are you meeting him, Rana? Isn’t this Levin’s appointment?” Dayla asked.

Rana’s eyes widened, and she mentally kicked herself for blowing their cover story. She tried to recover. “You’re right. It is. But he’s not meeting a friend. It’s about…”

“It’s about our dad,” Levin said.

“Dad? You mean Walt?”

“No.” He waved his finger between Rana and himself. “I mean
our
dad.”

“But he died.”

Rana sighed. “There might be more to the story. No more questions for now.”

“But–”

“I mean it.”

“Fine.” Dayla fell back into the seat.

The address belonged to a large, clean office building. A guard sat in a booth next to a gate that closed off the parking lot. He grabbed a clipboard and left the booth as Levin pulled up. Levin lowered his window.

“Can I help you?” The guard glared through the window. 

Levin blinked a few times. “Uh . . . yeah. I’m Levin Davis, and I have an appointment with Scott Miles.”

The guard referenced the clipboard. “Mr. Miles canceled your meeting. Go back the way you came.” He re-entered his booth before Levin could ask him to elaborate.

Levin scowled at the guard and put the car in reverse. He pointed it towards the houses.

“Now what do we do?” Rana asked.

“Good question. I’ll call Scott when we stop somewhere and find out what happened.”

After Levin drove through the neighborhood and reached the commercial area where they’d started their day, Dayla asked, “Where are we going now?”

“I’m not sure.” He stopped at a red light. A man wearing dirt-covered clothes stood on the corner. His beard reached his chest, and he held a cardboard sign asking for money. He glanced at Rana, pulled a paper from his pocket, and walked towards her window.

She tensed as he approached. The man tapped on the window and motioned for her to open it while showing her the paper, which had Levin’s name written on it. She looked at Levin. He nodded.

Rana lowered the window an inch. The man slipped the paper through the gap, saluted them casually, and returned to his corner.

She unfolded the paper and read another address. Levin entered into his GPS. Ten minutes later, Levin pulled into the parking lot of a small coffee shop.

“Levin, what’s going on?” Rana asked. Following strangers to random addresses couldn’t be a smart move.

“I don’t know. Wait here. I’ll check it out.”

****

Levin left the girls in the car and entered the coffee shop. He scanned the place for any patrons who looked like him; an old lady drinking tea and a young Hispanic guy typing on a laptop comprised the shop’s current customer population. Unsure of why he was here, Levin approached the counter and ordered a double shot cappuccino. He read the fliers on the wall while the barista prepared it.

Scott must have paid the homeless guy to give them the address–a strange way to communicate, but maybe Scott liked to play with people. Levin assumed Scott changed the location and had expected to find him sitting at a table when he arrived. Should he wait for Scott to join him?

As the barista handed him his drink, she asked, “Is your name Levin?”

He stepped back. “Uh, who wants to know?”

She leaned over the counter. “A guy came in here earlier. Said another guy who looks like him would come in. He told me to give you this. Paid me twenty dollars. Said he would come back for the money if you didn’t get it. I really need the money, so here.”

She handed him a small, sealed envelope with something solid and rectangular inside.

He scrunched his eyebrows. “Okay, thanks.” He took the envelope and his coffee and returned to the car.

Rana glared at him with wide eyes.

He set his coffee in the cup holder and tore open the envelope. He reached inside and removed a thumb drive.

“Where did you get that?” Rana asked.

“Scott paid the barista to give it to me.” He yanked his phone from his pocket. “Time to find out what the hell’s going on.”

He pressed Scott’s name in his recent contact lists. A recorded message saying the number was no longer in service answered back.

He ended the call. “I guess we’re on our own.”