“Why do I let him upset me this way?” Her voice was muffled by his jacket. “After all these years, he shouldn’t have any power over me.”
Glad his gloves were still poked in his jacket pocket, he stroked where her hair spilled from beneath her hat. “Because you care.”
“I don’t want to care. Make it stop.”
Holding her close, breathing in her apple-pie scent, caring way more than he should about her, about this Christmas-crazy little town, and about his own family woes, he sighed. “If only it was that easy.”
*
“It’s really him?”Isabelle’s fingers tightened their hold on her cellphone. When Zach had taken off for Louisiana three days before Sophie’s wedding, she’d known he might soon be coming face-to-face with her father. But that didn’t prevent the nausea washing over her to the point she rested her head on her desk. “You’re sure?”
“It’s him, but he’s not coming back to Pine Hill for Sophie’s wedding.”
Disappointment, anger, frustration, and emotions she had no label for had her rolling her head back and forth against the desk’s cool surface. Of course, he’d said no. Why would he say anything else when he’d chosen to stay gone for over two decades?
“Make him, Zach.” The request that had sounded much more like an order surprised Isabelle, but it suddenly felt imperative that he do so. “For Sophie. Please.”
“You want me to tie him up and haul him back on the plane with me? I’m not sure the FAA will allow that, Blondie.”
Would he think her crazy if she said yes?
“Surely you have military buddies who can pull strings to get him here? Maybe on a private plane? Something?”
There was a brief silence, then Zach’s heartfelt sigh sounded in her ear. “Because kidnapping your father and forcing him back to Pine Hill will convince him to walk Sophie down the aisle two days from now?”
Isabelle counted to ten, then swallowed. “I wanted this for Sophie.”
“I wanted it for you. You need to make peace with the past.”
Heart shattering that they were so close and yet were going to fail, Isabelle’s hand shook as it clenched her phone. “Says the man who walked away from his own family and never looked back.”
“My family is different.”
“Really?” The emotions she’d been trying to choke back erupted. “How are you any different from my father, Zach? You just walked away from them, too, didn’t you?”
“My situation is nothing like your father’s.”
“Right,” she snapped, knowing he was right, but lashing out even when he wasn’t to blame for her father’s shortcomings. “Go back inside, Zach. Please. Video call to where I can see him. I need to see him. I have to convince him to do this for Sophie.”
The line was silent long enough that for a moment Isabelle thought they’d lost their connection.
Finally, he asked, “You’re sure? He doesn’t look the same as when you last saw him. He’s older, rougher, thin.”
Stop, she wanted to scream.Stop trying to make me empathetic to him.
“No, but I have to do this.” She did, didn’t she? “For Sophie.”
“I’ll go back in. For you.”
Isabelle could barely breathe as she waited for Zach’s call. She straightened the papers on her desk, pulled up her hair, untied the ribbon and let it fall back to her shoulders, put on lipstick, then wiped it off. What was she doing? What did it matter what she looked like? It wasn’t as if she expected her father to see her and suddenly want to come home for Sophie’s wedding.
“What is taking so long?”
Then, her phone rang with the video icon lit. Isabelle’s breath caught. Her stomach clenched. Tossing the phone across the room tempted. Recalling Sophie’s tears, Isabelle knew she had to at least try. If she didn’t, she’d always wonder if she could have said or done something that would have convinced her father to do this one thing. Hand shaking, she slid her finger across the screen, not quite sure what she was going to see.
Cliff Davis was there.
An older version, of course, but she’d know those blue eyes anywhere. They were the same ones that reflected back at her in a mirror. Tears prickled. Anger burned. Words failed and she just stared at the phone. The man on the other side of the screen did the same, obviously uncomfortable and not knowing what to say.
