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“Yeah, sure.” She leads him into the kitchen, throwing a quizzical look my way. Otis gives up and wanders in there, but I stay put to eavesdrop. He hasn’t exactly been father of the year since her mother died. What’s so wrong with being on standby just in case he upsets her?
“Sorry for popping in like this, Deanna, but I didn’t want to wait.”
“That’s okay, Dad. What is it? Is everything okay?”
“No. I’m sorry for treating you like I have since your mother’s death. We had been together so long and suddenly, she was gone. I didn’t know how to react; I still feel like I don’t. Not having you there at Christmas hurt, but I realize I should’ve listened better, too. I also realize that we never quite had a good relationship and,” he pauses for a moment, “lord help me, but I blame your mother for that. I allowed her to rub off on me. Your mother dying and reading those diaries of hers made me realize, too, that I didn’t know her nor you as well as I thought I did. She’s gone now and there’s not much I can do but miss her. But with you?” He sounds choked up now. “I hope we can get to know one another better. And I can get to know that boyfriend of yours.”
“Of course, Dad,” Deanna quickly agrees. “We’ll all have dinner sometime soon.”
“Great. That’s great. Okay, well, I best be going. I don’t want to interfere with your day.”
Footsteps quickly follow his words and he frowns when he sees me in the same spot as before, but I don’t care. Deanna says goodbye to him and then he’s gone. She turns to me with a smile on her face.
“Can you believe that? I’m assuming you heard?”
“I did. You look happy.”
“I am. A little skeptical, but happy.”
“Good. I’m happy for you.” I hold out my hand. “Let’s get back to work.”
Not thirty minutes later does she stop packing.
“This will take forever,” Deanna complains with a groan as she plops onto her bed. “I don’t want to move anymore.”
I laugh. “Too bad. We’re doing this.” All we’re doing so far is packing the things she’ll need to take to my house while also discussing what she wants to get rid off. “Hey, do you rent or own this place?” I can’t believe I hadn’t thought to ask before now.
“Rent. I didn’t want to buy simply because I didn’t want to have to fix things that broke. If I rent, the landlord has to do it. I wasn’t ready for that kind of responsibility.”
Makes sense. She lies on the bed for another five minutes, looking around the room and shaking her head, while I continue to pack her clothes. “This is a lot of work.”
“Which I’m currently doing alone,” I point out.
“How did I get all of this shit anyway? When I moved in, all I had was this bed and three boxes of clothes.”
“Deanna.” She needs to get up and help.
“This is a big deal, Brayden.” Her voice turns soft. She glances around the room as if she can’t believe what she’s doing.
Tossing the clothes in my hand into the box, I walk over to sit next to her and take her hand. “Yes, it’s a big deal. You still want to do it, don’t you?”
Deanna quickly snaps her gaze to mine. “Yes, of course. I just...can’t believe I’m doing it. I can’t believe I’ve lived on my own for all of these years with no help from my family. That I struggled until I could make it work. That I’ve had so much fun. That I liked living alone more than I thought I would. I was scared at first, you know? What if I got lonely? What if I couldn’t make ends meet? That kind of thing worried me for a long time when I first moved here.
“And now, I’m leaving this place to live with someone other than my parents for the first time. To live with a man for the first time. Now I have to figure out how all of that works without messing up too much or too badly.” She takes a big breath. “This is huge.” It’s like the enormity of what we’re doing has grown by three and suddenly hit her.
I squeeze her hand and lift it to kiss her knuckles. “Huge and great. It won’t be perfect. Things haven’t been so far and they won’t be in the future.” She frowns at this. “But look at us, darlin’,” I insist quietly. “Still here, still together. Life doesn’t have to be mistake-free for us to last.”
“I know. Thank you for reassuring me, but I promise I don’t actually need it. I’m just overwhelmed at the moment, especially with all that has to be done.”
“We’re in no rush. How much time is left on your lease?”
“Two months.”
“So, we have two long months to get everything settled. But we certainly aren’t getting anything accomplished by sitting here.”
I smile when she rolls her eyes at me.
“All right. Let’s do this. But under one condition.” She sets her phone onto a small stereo system. Music starts to play and she faces me. “You have to sing to me.”
