Chapter 2
Larry glanced over and caught a phrase that looked like unintelligible code—ZOMG SMH RLY?As he eased out into the flow of traffic, he asked, “What’s that even mean?”
“Dad!” Her voice rose a full two octaves and she shrunk away from him, holding the phone to her chest. “God, seriousbreach of privacy!”
“Hey, I pay for that phone,” he reminded her.
She didn’t answer.
For a few tense moments, neither spoke. Larry concentrated on navigating out of the crowded schoolyard, and his daughter ignored him. When he reached the red light again, he relaxed his shoulders, loosened his fingers from their death grip on the steering wheel, and took a deep breath. “Look, I’m sorry,” he began.
Crystal gave him a sideways glance but didn’t bother turning away from her phone.
Reaching for the dashboard, Larry clicked on the radio and turned up the volume enough to hear the music. Something light, easy listening, what he used to think of as his mother’s music but now found himself singing along to when he was in the car alone. As he sat back, he placed his hand on Crystal’s knee and patted it like he used to when she was a little girl. Her skin felt unnaturally smooth beneath his—what, she was shaving now, too? When did thatstart?
“I didn’t mean to embarrass you back there,” Larry said softly. “I want us to have a nice weekend, okay? Can we do that?”
Crystal glanced up. “Green light.” At least there was no longer any animosity beneath her words.
“So…” Larry searched for something to talk about, but nothing came to mind. Crystal kept her nose to her phone, ignoring him. After an awkward moment, he asked, “Did you have a good day at school?”
She let out an exasperated sigh. “Can we listen to some realmusic?”
Before he could reply, she reached over and started pushing buttons on the radio, changing stations. Static burst from the speakers as she twisted up the volume in her search for something better than what he’d been listening to. “Hey, I liked that song,” he said, half-joking.
“Lame,” she told him. The first station she settled on played only a snippet of music before switching to a commercial and she was off again, fiddling with the buttons to find something, anything she liked. Larry caught the tail end of an Aerosmith song and almost told her to stop, but didn’t bother.
When she finally stopped again, she cranked the volume way up. “Oh my God, I lovethis one!” she cried.
Larry gave her a quizzical look. “It hasn’t even started yet. How do you know—”
“It’s like my favoritesong,” Crystal assured him.
To him, it sounded identical to all the other noise the radio stations called modern music. Overproduced and unoriginal, with a thumping back beat that would play well on any dance floor and merge seamlessly in with the next song on the playlist. “This is crap,” he muttered under his breath. “You really likethis?”
“Everyonedoes,” his daughter said. “Geo’s awesome.”
“What the hell kind of name is Geo?” Larry wanted to know.
Crystal didn’t bother to answer. Instead, she turned the volume up another notch as the music dropped slightly and a breathy male voice purred through the speakers.
I know him.
The thought sent a shiver through Larry—half memory, half dream, all lust and longing and need. His knees weakened, his fingers tightened on the steering wheel. His heart stuttered in his chest. God, no. It wasn’t. It couldn’tbe.
Hoping his voice sounded steady despite the surge of emotion suddenly roiling through him, Larry asked his daughter, “Who’s this again?”
In the passenger seat, Crystal bopped along in time with the beat. “Geo. He’s good, ain’t he?”
Good?Hell, no. Good was the kid on American Idolwho could carry a tune. Good was the woman in the gym who belted out Britney Spears while wearing her iPod on the treadmill. Goodwas the older gentleman at the back of the church choir, the one with the bottom basement voice who could really get the congregation rolling during “Amazing Grace.”
Geo wasn’t good. The voice coming from Larry’s base model speaker system was pure honey, dripping into him sweetly and coating every inch of his insides. Lyrics in that golden voice were sung for him alone, and onlyhim, and no one else. If he closed his eyes, he knew he could let Geo’s soothing, soulful tone carry him away to places he hadn’t been in a long, longtime, back to people he used to know, dreams he used to have, things he’d loved and lost somewhere between then and now. Those words, in that voice—they were like a heartbreak, and Larry felt tears well in his eyes because he hadn’t known until he heard them how much he’d been missing in his life.