Yesterday's Gone: Season Three (THE POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIAL THRILLER)

her up?
    What aren’t they saying?
    Ed couldn’t take it any longer. He finally blurted, “What is it you girls aren’t telling me?”
    Teagan and Jade traded a glance.
    “Tell him,” Jade said.
    “I can’t,” Teagan shook her head.
    “Someone better tell me something,” Ed said.
    “I met someone,” Teagan said, her face flushed, bright red like a schoolgirl admitting her first crush. And other than the guy who put the bun in her oven, this might have been her first crush.
    “Ohhhhkay,” Ed said, shifting on the bed, waiting for the other shoe to hit the floor. “And?”
    “This is so weird,” she said, looking toward the door instead of Ed’s eyes.
    “Yeah, super weird,” Jade agreed, raising her eyebrows.
    “Stop it,” Teagan said.
    “I’m sorry, it’s just … well, you know,” she said.
    Ed was getting frustrated with all the coded young-girl chatter, “Will someone just say it?!”
    Teagan turned to him, then blurted, “I’m seeing Ed Keenan. The other Ed Keenan,” then quickly looked away again.
    Ed stood, feeling a flush of anger as if he were the girl’s father. “What?!” he tried not to roar, and mostly failed.
    “I know, I know, I didn’t expect it to happen. Believe me ,” she said in a way that made Ed feel as though he were the last old codger in the world a girl like her would find attractive.
    “Yeah, right?” Jade said, smiling.
    “But,” Teagan continued. “He took care of me and Becca, and he was so nice.”
    “I’ll bet he did,” Ed said, about to storm from the room and go beat the shit out of the pervert who was old enough to be the girl’s father.
    “No, Dad!” Jade cried, jumping from the bed and inserting herself between him and the door with her hands out. “It isn’t like that.”
    “It’s not,” Teagan pleaded. “He is so sweet. He never even tried anything. It was just friendship for a long time.”
    “He held you prisoner,” Ed said. “He kept you, both of you, hidden from me while he forced me to work for the Black Island Guard, to put my life on the line for them! I don’t know what you think you know about him, but he’s not a decent man. No decent man would take advantage of a gullible teenage girl like that.”
    Teagan rested Becca on the bed, then stood, her face red and twisted with fury. “What? Do you think I’m some stupid hillbilly girl who got suckered by the first man she met? Maybe you think I have daddy issues or something, making me a ripe target for a pervy old guy? Is that it?”
    Ed was exasperated, as he’d felt so many times with Jade. “It’s not an insult to say you’re young and inexperienced, is it? It’s the truth. It doesn’t reflect badly on you that an old guy took advantage of you. It’s on him. He should know better. I only know a little bit of what you told me about your dad, and I hate to use a cliche, but yes, you do have daddy issues. Hell, most people have daddy issues. Find someone whose father wasn’t an asshole, or busy, or somehow messed them up just a little, and I’ll show you the face of a certified liar. I’m sure I screwed Jade up, too. Fathers do dumb shit because, most times, they were too damned young or too damned stupid to know any better. And it messes up their kids — boys and girls both. It’s just when it comes to girls, it manifests in a way that makes them needy, and—”
    “Just stop it, Dad,” Jade said. “She doesn’t need a lesson in family dynamics from you, of all people. It’s her life, and Ed, despite being another version of you, is a surprisingly sweet man. And, he’s emotionally available.”
    Ed ignored the slight. He didn’t feel like arguing with the girls, particularly after just reconciling with his daughter.
    He looked at Teagan, meeting her wounded eyes. He’d offended her, and as he took a moment to calm down, felt bad. He wasn’t wrong. Even if the other Ed was a perfectly nice guy, he was still too damned old for her. When it came down to it, who was he to question her choices, to say her love wasn’t real just because it may have been borne of circumstance?
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m not sure I’m wrong about this, but I am sorry I shot my mouth off before waiting to see for myself. It’s just that I—” He stopped himself before he went on to say that he was all too familiar with how guys like this operate, because that would only reinforce all the things he’d already said. And he was trying to make things