Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
He dipped into his pistachio (and yeah, I could have picked his too). “You got an all-around interesting posse, darlin’.”
He could say that again.
He took a bite and watched the people walking by.
I took a bite and did the same.
He took another one.
So did I.
I knew what this was.
We both had the same dilemma. When the wall between us was so high, and neither of us had a rope or a ladder, how did we even begin to climb it to meet at the top?
Dad, who had been a Dad Interrupted, was still a dad.
So he found a finger hold first and grabbed on.
“I’m more sorry than I can express that I didn’t tell you I started seeing Deb. I hope it goes without saying that it gutted me you weren’t at our wedding. It put a pall on the day, so it was a double gut, because Deb felt it, and I hate I left her with that being part of the memory of our special day.”
“You look good. Fit.” I smiled at him. “Handsome. Had to clean up your act to turn the eye of a pretty lady, hunh?”
He smiled back, not hiding his relief I lightened the mood. “Deb goes to the gym four times a week. Couldn’t have the guys hitting on her while she’s there, so I had to go with.”
I loved knowing this about his life.
I loved it with everything I was in that moment.
“She talked me into selling the house and moving into a condo about six months ago,” he shared. “I fought her on it. Thought I’d miss the yardwork. No clue why. Haven’t missed it once.”
This explained his text of six months ago, sharing his new address.
I downed a spoonful of bubble gum gelato and said, “I’ve never done yardwork. But I get that. Yardwork sucks.”
He chuckled.
This sound ended abruptly before he said cautiously, “Remember Brittany?”
Yes.
I remembered Brittany.
She was Deb’s daughter.
Macy’s friend.
“I remember Brittany,” I said quietly.
“She got engaged last month. She’s too young, and the guy’s a clown.” A pause and then, “Deb and I are both hoping she’ll wake up before Rich and Deb have to put any deposits down.”
Rich was Deb’s ex.
If memory served, he was kind of an ass.
I was glad she shook him loose.
“We ran into each other at a grocery store,” he went on, moving us into the meatier stuff. “I hadn’t seen her in years. I didn’t want to see her then, because of the memories. But she told me she’d been worried about me…about us, all this time, and she asked if I wanted to have a cup of coffee and catch up. To this day, I don’t know why I said yes. But I’m glad I did.”
“The way you are, I’m glad you did too,” I replied.
He shot me a look that was now dripping with relief, then shared sheepishly, “She told me she had a crush on me, back in the day before Macy.”
I nodded.
I could see that. My dad was good-looking.
“She thought it was just a thing, not important,” he continued. “You don’t stop being a woman, or a man, even if you’re married. Though, she realized it was more later, because in some part of her, she knew Rich and her weren’t going to make it. He could be a serious ass.”
See?
“I kinda remember that about him.”
This time, he nodded before he continued sharing. “She didn’t ask me to have coffee because of that. Fifteen years had gone by. She thought she was over it.” His eyes twinkled. “And I wasn’t the hot number in the neighborhood anymore.”
He had definitely been that, tall, blond, blue-eyed, funny and loving.
He still had that now, I saw.
Deb had brought it back to him.
“I don’t know.” He shook his head, then shrugged. “Somehow, being with her, I tapped into a part of me I forgot was there. A spark ignited and…here we are.”
“I’m so happy you two are there,” I said it and meant it.
“I am too,” he replied. “And that you’re happy about it as well.”
He went back to his pistachio gelato.
“I remember Mom yelling at you,” I whispered.
Dad looked at me.
Then he put his cup of gelato down, turned to me and admitted, “After we lost your mom, I should have found someone for us to talk to. On our own and together. So we could figure out how to go forward with our family cut in half.”
“By then, she’d convinced you it was all your fault.”
He shook his head. “Don’t make excuses for me, Raye.”
I put my cup down and turned to him. “I really want to say let’s bury all of that and move on from here.”
Before I could finish my thought, he said firmly, “We can’t do that, sweetheart. And we shouldn’t. I need to make amends. And your sister and mom are a part of us, they always will be.”