Sure enough, we are in Cabazon. Home of two massive roadside dinosaurs.
I pat Harper in her leg. “Want to go see the dinosaurs, Harper?”
“I do!” Sasha says excitedly from the back. “Look, they have a restaurant there too. We can stop and eat and then go look at them. Can we look at them, James?”
“Harper?” I ask again. She turns towards me with a smile, but something is definitely off with her too. “You in for food and a tourist trap?”
“Sure, I’m starving and that looks fun.”
I try and ignore all the warnings going off in my head and just pay attention to the moment as I get off the freeway and head over to the giant T-Rex. I park in front of a restaurant with the sign Eat in front. I switch the engine off. The lack of air-conditioning affects us immediately. If you don’t have a constant stream of cool air blowing on you, the desert heat moves in. All three of us open our doors to get out at the same time. You can’t fight the sun. Even three hardened killers know this.
Sasha takes a long look at the gigantic dinosaurs and then notices me watching her and blushes in embarrassment. “I was obsessed with dinosaurs when I was a kid.”
“You’re still a kid, Smurf,” I tell her as I open the door of the restaurant for them. Inside it’s cool again.
“Did you ever see Jurassic Park, James?”
I laugh. “I think everyone’s seen Jurassic Park, Sasha.”
“I haven’t,” Harper says.
“See!” Sasha exclaims. She’s very excited about the dinosaurs and this makes me smile. “Harper grew up on a boat, she probably never even had TV. I grew up with TV, and we went to the movies, but not a lot. I saw Jurassic Park on TV once when I was like six and that’s when I decided I’d like to be a paleontologist. Did you know that Thermopolis, Wyoming has real dinosaur tracks and bones in the same place, James? That’s not very common. You almost never see them both in the same place.”
I shake my head as I hold up three fingers for the waitress. She smiles at Sasha, who has directed her impromptu dinosaur lesson towards Harper now, and winks at me. “They are fun at that age, aren’t they?”
“Who?” I ask, following behind her as she leads us to a table.
She sets the menu down and smiles again. “Daughters. I have three.” And then Harper and Sasha arrive and sit together in the booth. The waitress walks off before I can correct her and for a moment I just stand there.
Daughters?
I slide into the booth across from the girls, but I’m sorta stunned. “I’m only twenty-eight,” I say. But she’s long gone, already chatting with another group of people on the other side of the restaurant.
“Twenty-eight is old, James.” Sasha quips. “You’re definitely old enough to be my father.”
“I’m not your father, Sasha. And it would be a very big mistake to think of me that way.” I feel the silence more than hear it, because neither of the girls were actually talking. But things go still.
When I look up Sasha is glaring at me. “Don’t worry,” she says through her clenched teeth. “I’d never want you for a father anyway. You’re an ass**le.”
People in the next table look over at her swearing. “Sorry,” I mouth to them and they look away quickly. “Sasha, watch your mouth. Especially in public. You are thirteen years old. Act like it.”
“I was acting like it,” she says on the other side of her menu. “And you are definitely an ass**le.”
“OK,” Harper says. “What’s everyone gonna get? I’m thinking one of everything.”
Sasha puts down her menu and looks at the dinosaurs through the window. “I’m not hungry.”
I let out a long grumble before I can stop myself. “I’ll order for you if you don’t choose. And you’re gonna eat it whether you want to or not.”
“Whatever,” she says back.
I take my case to Harper. “She needs to eat. We have no clue what will happen after we get back to the Beach. I need her to be ready.”
“Ready for what?” Harper looks around cautiously. “Do you think we’re in trouble?”
“Not yet, Harp. Calm down. I just feel like something’s coming, you know? And I’ve learned to listen to my gut intuition. If things feel off, then they probably are.”
“Things feel off with me too,” Harper finally admits. “I can’t put my finger on it, but it feels bad.”
“That feeling is James betraying you, Harper. And If I were you, I’d definitely listen to that one.”
My hand comes up, ready to smack the shit out of her, but Harper reaches for it before I can do something I regret. “James, stop. She’s trying to make you react.”
I take a deep breath. “It’s working, and believe me, she does not want to be on the receiving end of my reactions.”
“I’m right here, you know.”
“Sasha,” Harper says sternly. “Shut your mouth and choose some food. You’re making this more difficult than it needs to be.”
Sasha glares at Harper now. “I don’t get you. He’s here for you, ya know. And you’re practically handing yourself over.”
I put my hands on the table this time, ready to get up and drag her outside so we can have this out for real, but the waitress comes. “You all ready to order?”
I relax back in my seat and point to Harper.