Page 73 of Once Upon a Fall

He smiles. “I’ve always got time for you.”

He comes over and pulls me into a hug. “Love you, Rosie.”

“Love you too, Dad,” I say, trying to blink quickly away the moisture in my eyes so he doesn’t see it.

“I’ll see you Saturday night, right?”

I’m not sure what he’s talking about, but then I remember: It’s my birthday. Mine and Dominic’s. We’re having a little party that Emma wanted to throw together for us. I’d totally forgotten.

Actually, I’d forgotten it was even my birthday.

“Yes,” I tell him, giving him a smile as we pull out of the hug. “I’ll see you Saturday night.”

He shakes Dean’s hand, and then, with a wave, he leaves.

“Can you believe Edna B.?” I ask Dean, who’s gone back to cleaning up our dinner. “She’s not just a gossip; she’s a tattletale.”

“I still can’t believe you were right about your dad showing up.”

“I’m right about a lot of things,” I say.

“That hasn’t been my experience.”

I narrow my eyes, and the corner of his mouth lifts. There it is. The half smile.

I’ve missed it.

Dean

The prince saved the day. It was merely a pile of lumber.

I came to Autumn Ridge to sell a farm. I did not come here to learn how to grout tile while standing shoulder to shoulder with Rosie in a bathtub.

Yet here we are.

“You have to hold the float at a forty-five-degree angle,” she says, trying to demonstrate. She’s wearing the pink overalls again. I think they might be my favorite.

“I thought I was,” I say, trying again.

“Let me help you.” She closes her hand over mine, tilts the float to the right angle, and guides my hand across the tile in one smooth motion.

Grouting, it turns out, is not a neutral activity.

Maybe it’s just me in this close proximity with this infuriatingly charming woman.

The craziest part is she doesn’t even know she is.

I’ve done what she wanted. We’ve gone back to the way things were before Monday. Before the Ridge. I haven’t wanted to. But I’ve done it.

Last night, I watched her almost let her dad leave before asking him to help. The yes seemed to cost her, but she said it. Rosie can ask for what she wants when she decides to.

“Got it?” she asks.

“I think so,” I say.

She gestures for me to try again.

“Go diagonally across the squares. If you go with the line, you’ll pull the grout right back out.”