Page 90 of The Wedding Favor

Megan’s dumb, smug face flashed in my mind explaining why Hallie wasn’t a pageant girl and then that look of complete horror when I announced we were both entering.

I’d felt that look in my soul.

With a renewed sense of purpose, I marched down the short hallway to Abe’s office. As I got closer, I slowed down when I heard the low rumble of his voice. The words were impossible to make out. I inched closer. The door was open so I leaned against the wall.

Don’t judge. You would have done it, too.

At first, I thought he was on a phone call, but I began to pick out a familiar word or two and I realized he wasn’t speaking to someone, he was reading aloud from a book I recognized.

Huh. I waited another minute and then knocked on the door. His voice halted.

“Yeah?” he finally called out.

I peeked into the office. “I’m sorry if I’m interrupting. Where you reading out loud?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. Pink tinged his cheeks like he’d been caught reading Fifty Shades of Grey. Nodding, he set the book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on the desk.

“That’s the book you’ve been reading with Hallie at bedtime, right?”

“Yeah.”

I waited for him to explain. He stared at me; I stared back.

Finally, I said, “That’s… weird.”

“I’m dyslexic.”

Not what I’d expected him to say. “I had no idea.”

“Funny. I had no idea until I was in my twenties.” He folded his hands and set them on the desk. “You know when you’re a kid and your teacher makes the whole class read red-robin style?”

I nodded.

“I hated it. Didn’t hear a word of what anyone else said. I was too busy trying to count the paragraphs and praying there weren’t any words I didn’t know. That was the worst. When there was a word I couldn’t figure out.”

My heart squeezed, thinking of Abe as a terrified third grader. “How did you find out?”

“I took a business class. There were a few weeks where we talked about budgeting and stuff. I’ve always been pretty good at math until it involved word problems. I bombed the first test. The professor asked to speak with me, and she asked if I was dyslexic. I had no idea. I always thought everyone saw the words the way I did; I was just too much of an idiot to figure out how to read them.”

“That must have been hard.”

“It helps explain why I struggled so much in school.”

“And that’s why you listen to audiobooks and you rather talk on the phone than text.”

He shrugged. “Autocorrect only works if you’re already a good speller. Which I am not. Hallie loves books and reading. Always has. Picture books were easy. Junie B. Jones was a piece of cake, but the books are getting longer now.”

“Oh,” I breathed. “So, you read the chapter out loud ahead of time to make sure you have it all down.”

“Yeah, and if there’s a word I need help with, I can look it up, listen to someone say it, take notes even. Then when Hallie and I read it together, I can worry less about the reading part and focus on the story.”

“That’s really smart. You’re a good dad, Abe,” I said softly. “And as someone who had a really bad dad, I feel like I have some experience here.”

The whole thing tugged at a piece of my heart I kept tucked away, the part of me that was still a little girl hoping her dad would show up but he never did. It hurt and made me hopeful all at once.

Oh, and I found it wildly attractive.

Because, of course, I had a crush on Abe Ramos. He made it impossible not to. I knew it was just that though—a crush, something sweet and silly. Nothing could or would ever happen between us. If I hadn’t known that before, the car ride yesterday had cleared up any lingering doubts. Maybe if I had my life together, it might be a possibility. What did I have to bring to a relationship? My giant jar of pickles, chocolate stashes, daddy issues, and black t-shirts. It was a real mystery why more men weren’t beating down my door.