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I opened my eyes. My father stood in the doorway. I dropped my mother’s hand, rose, and ran into his arms.
“Daddy, I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Me too. How’s she doing?”
“They say she’s stable, but she’s unconscious, and she has a shattered knee, fractured ribs, and a bruised pelvis. And of course she looks like shit.”
My father chuckled against my hair. “Poor Brooke. If only she knew what she looked like right now.”
I couldn’t help but return my father’s chuckle. It was the God’s honest truth. My mother hated not looking her best.
“You know, I don’t think Brooke ever really knew just how beautiful she was,” my father said. “We did have some good times.”
I pulled back a little from my father and regarded him. His blue eyes, so much darker than mine, were sunken and sad. My dad had dated over the years, but he had never remarried. Was it possible he still held a torch for my mother? He had rushed out to be here by her side, but I’d thought that was because of me. My father adored me, so it was probably true. But had he also come out because of Brooke?
“You never ta
lked much about her,” I said.
He shook his head. “No. I couldn’t. The emotion was too raw for a while, and then I didn’t want to talk about it because of you, sweetie. I didn’t want you missing your mother any more than you already did.”
“But you missed her. I never knew.”
“I had to be strong for you. One day, when you have your own child, you’ll understand.”
I gulped. “Obviously my mother didn’t feel the same way.”
My dad gripped my shoulders. “Listen, Jade, you are everything to me. And I know that’s the way you’ll feel about your own kids. Your mother did the best she could in her own way. She was just never satisfied with who she was.”
“She ran out on me to be a supermodel. She could have done both. Didn’t she know that?”
“I’m not sure she did. I said just a minute ago that Brooke never realized how beautiful she was. I meant that in more ways than one. She was never satisfied with anything. She thought she wanted to be Brooke Bailey, supermodel, instead of Brooke Bailey, wife and mother. It never occurred to her that she could be both, that she was good enough to be both. She was never satisfied in her career either, and as gorgeous as she was, she never thought she looked her best.”
Thinking of that famous blue swimsuit poster my mother had made when I was a teen, I shook my head. “That’s unbelievable. She’s freaking beautiful.”
My father sighed. “Even strapped down in the hospital bed hooked to all those machines, her face a mangled mess, she is still Brooke Bailey. And she is beautiful.”
I looked into my father’s eyes, and I saw more than just sadness there. I saw the way I looked at Talon and the way he looked at me. I saw love. My God. How could I have been so blind to it?
My father was still in love with my mother.
I sniffed. “I’m surprised they let you come back here. They told me only one person could be back here at a time.”
“They told me the same thing, but I begged and pleaded, said I was her husband and that she needed both me and her daughter. Little white lie never hurt anybody.”
Yes. He still loved her.
“Why don’t you stay here for a little while, Dad? I have someone waiting for me.”
“Do you? No one was there when I came through the waiting area.”
“He probably went to get a soda or something. He loves Coke.”
“Jade, are you…seeing someone?”
What a loaded question. I hadn’t even realized I never told my father about Talon. But heck, I hadn’t told Marj—my best friend and his sister—for the first couple months. I’m not sure why, but I just didn’t feel like I could go spreading the news about it.
“Yes, actually. I’m seeing one of Marj’s brothers.”
