“Makes sense.”
“I should have had one of my buddies ship my suit here but by the time I thought of it, there wasn’t time.”
“No need. We’re a similar size. I’m sure mine will fit you.”
This might be the longest almost-cordial conversation he and his father had exchanged in a long time. Maybe ever. How weird that it didn’t involve flying or the military but instead was focused on fashion, of all things.
“So. About Holly Moore.”
He tensed, feeling defensive all over again.
“What about her?”
His father seemed to be choosing his words carefully, which he found unusual from a man who usually plowed ahead, damn the consequences.
“If you like her, I don’t think you need to rule out a relationship completely.”
“We live a thousand miles apart. And I’m likely to be reassigned back east next year.”
“You don’t have to be. You could get out. I always have room for a good helicopter pilot at Caldwell Aviation. We get requests for heli-skiing all the time and it would be great to have you working with me.”
What a nightmare that would be, working for his father.
“Besides,” Doug went on, “eventually I would like to retire. When that day comes, I would love to be able to pass the torch to my son.”
“We can hardly be in the same room for ten minuteswithout bickering. Can you imagine us trying to run a business together?”
Doug paused, his hands in his pockets. “That’s my fault,” he finally said, his voice low and resigned. “I’m more sorry than I can say for that. I’m trying to do better.”
He stared, shocked. When was the last time he had heard his father apologize for anything? Had heever?
“This accident of Diane’s has been a real wake-up call. I could have lost her. I don’t want to spend the rest of our time together on this planet with work as my only focus. I want to travel with her, work on our garden, enjoy our retirement together.”
He had to bite his tongue to keep from asking why the death of his first wife, the mother of his children, hadn’t provided the same kind of wake-up call.
Somehow he managed to hold back the words. This wasn’t the time or the moment.
“Think about it,” his father went on. “That’s all I ask. This area is a great place to settle down, with plenty of recreational opportunities and really good people. I’m certain you would be happy here.”
Once more, his father was trying to rearrange Ryan’s life to suit his own purposes. He was thinking about retirement and wanted his son to uproot his life and his career plans to take over the business Doug had started here—whether that was what his son wanted or not.
If he let himself fall for Holly—okay, fallharderfor Holly—and tried to figure out a way to mesh their lives, he would be playing right into his father’s plans.
He considered that yet one more reason to make sure that didn’t happen.
“I need to go,” he said, grabbing hold of the suit hangers. “Thank you for the loan. Whatever jacket I end up wearing,I’ll run it to the dry cleaner on Monday and get it back to you as soon as it’s done.”
“It’s fine. Again, I’m in no hurry.”
That made one of them. Suddenly Ryan couldn’t wait to get back to his carefully organized life, away from this morass of emotions every time he was with his father, away from this attraction to a woman he couldn’t have, away from the seductive appeal of this area of the world.
After saying goodbye to Diane again, he hurried out of the comfortable house beside the lake, loaded the suits in the back seat of his pickup and headed back toward Shelter Springs.
Chapter Eighteen
“OH, HOLLY. THE FLOWERS ARE STUNNING. YOU HAVE REALLYoutdone yourself.”
In one of the rooms of the church set aside for the wedding party to use, Holly looked up from tucking another flower into Lydia’s French braid to see Brittany in the doorway, her sleeping child nestled over her shoulder.
