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He glances at me, and I know why.
Because I’m never here.
“You need a new house,” I say, getting Dad’s attention. “And, no, I’m not suggesting you move away from New Hope. We just need to get you a new house here.”
“Or we can buy a new hot water heater and fix the roof.”
“That’s not fun.” I stand, propping my hands on my hips. “And I have an idea. It sort of came to me when I was writing this morning.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“Well, Dad, remember when you said being an overachiever runs in the family?”
“Sure.”
“I’ve been thinking about Tucker a lot, and about what you and Lexi said.”
Dad turns fully toward me. “Glad to hear it, but what does that have to do with being an overachiever?”
“I don’t like the idea of giving up on Tucker. I love him, Daddy.” Dad grins as if he knew this would be where this would go all along, and I’m just now catching up. “I’m not a quitter. When I know what I want, I chase after it, even when it’s hard. And I want Tucker so much I ache with it.”
These last few days without him have made that realization increasingly clear. I thought I could walk away from him and what we have, but I can’t. I don’t want to.
What I want is Tucker.
My heart rate kicks up at the thought of getting him back.
“So, what’s your plan, sugar?”
“I’m making it up as I go, but I love New Hope, not just Tucker. This is home for me. It took coming back to realize that, but I get it now. I’ll have to go to Nashville from time to time, and there will still be tours and such, but I think I can work it out where I’ll spend a good deal of the year here.”
Dad’s eyes light up with hope.
“I’d like to buy some property, and build two, maybe three houses on it. One for Tucker, Chloe, and me, one for you, and if she wants it, one for Lexi and the family.”
“It’ll have to be a big piece of property,” Dad says, rubbing his chin. “Because that’s a lot of people living in one place.”
“If I bought like five hundred acres, there would be plenty of room.”
He raises a brow. “Can you afford something like that?”
I smile and wrap my arms around my father. “Daddy, I have more than enough money for this.”
“Okay, but I still don’t understand what this has to do with being an overachiever.”
“I’m going to win Tucker back. I’m going to prove to him that I’m serious about us. That this isn’t just another empty promise with no results. If I buy property, build homes, set down roots in New Hope, maybe I’ll convince him that we can both bend to make this work. I’ll only schedule tours in the summer when we can travel as a family, and try to be here for the rest of the time. I don’t have the particulars figured out, obviously, but it’s way better than where I was three days ago.”
“Why don’t you just walk your ass over to his house and tell him you want him back and get on with your lives?”
I shake my head. “I can’t. I’ve failed him, more than once. My word means nothing to him right now. So, I’m going to show him.”
“Building a house is a long process. What if during that time, he meets someone else and moves on?” Dad suggests.
My heart stops. I never considered that. “Do you really think that could happen?”
Dad scoffs. “No. That boy is crazy about you.”
“Geez, Dad, you about gave me a heart attack. You can’t say things like that to me.”
“Love is wasted on the young,” Dad says, shaking his head.
“Is that a yes? Do you like my plan?”
“What if I say no?”
“I’ll just talk you into it.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“This is the property.”
After I made my mind up yesterday, I got to work hiring a real estate agent, and I called Lexi and Jason over for a family meeting. It was an evening of laughter and plans, and for the first time that I could remember, it felt like we were a real family.
“Are you sure?” Dad asks as we stare out over the fields. “The view sure is pretty.”
“There’s a river about a quarter of a mile that way,” Chuck, the real estate agent I hired, says. “And a small lake over to the right. They have a tendency to be swampy now, but you can have it all cleaned out, get rid of the gators and such, and it would be quite lovely.”
“We can’t have gators,” I agree, shaking my head. “But a lovely lake would be great. I’m adding a pool area to my house that everyone can use whenever they like.”
