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“Sorry. My big girl.” Seth brought his hand up to my ponytail and stroked it absently. “Our big girl.”
Laurie leaned into me and tangled her fingers in the chain of my arrow necklace at the nape of my neck. “I would.” Then she reached up to her dad. “A lot, a lot.”
I swallowed down a lump threatening to strangle me.
Seth hugged us closer to him. “I’d like it a lot, a lot too.”
I looked up at him, but couldn’t see exactly what was going on behind his mirrored glasses. But his familiar scent of smoky sugar and coffee mixed with the watermelon scent of Laurie and it made my head spin.
Did he have any idea what he was saying?
Was he really saying it?
I opened my mouth, but screeching feedback from the podium cut me off.
Laurie winced and slapped her hands over her hears. “Loud.”
A woman in a bright yellow dress leaned into the microphone. “Parents, we’re just about ready to begin.”
“How about that? It’s time to begin. Ally and Uncle Ollie will be sitting with me right there.” Seth pointed to the left side of the folding chairs. “Let’s bring you up there, okay?” He swung her out of my arms and up high in the air. “My pretty girl is graduating today.”
She laughed and clutched at his arms. “Carry me, Daddy?”
“You got it.” He turned back to me. “I’ll meet you up there?”
I nodded and blinked back the sudden wash of tears threatening again. God, hadn’t I cried enough last night?
I met Oliver at the chairs and noted that only the three of them were reserved. None for me?
Oliver looked up from his phone. He took the program off the chair to his left. “I saved you a seat.”
“Where’s your father?” I sat down and crossed my legs under my long summer dress.
Oliver’s jaw flexed. “Not here.”
“Right.” I swallowed and turned my attention to Seth and Laurie. How many times had the elder Hamilton bailed on these things? And yet there was Seth, bent down talking to Laurie as the teacher lined them up. He never missed a single event for her. Somehow I knew he was giving her a pep talk. A single father completely devoted to his little girl.
Even if his father and mother had been less than ideal in that arena, Seth had excelled in parenting. So much so that she was afraid she’d never live up to his ideals there.
He headed back to them with a sweet backwards wave to his daughter before he took the seat beside me. His knee bounced as he cracked his knuckles. He scrubbed his palm down his thigh with a laugh. “I’m nervous. Crazy, right?”
“First of many graduations.” I smiled up at him.
He flipped his hand, palm up and spread his fingers. “I guess you’ll just have to hold my hand through all of them.”
My throat clogged again, but I couldn’t resist the gesture. I laced my fingers with his and turned to watch our little girl.
For the first time I felt like we could be a unit and it scared the crap out of me.
17
Seth
What was that old saying? Can never go home again? I was learning that applied even when you’d never left your hometown.
The old homestead wasn’t all you couldn’t return to. You also couldn’t go back to high school and pretend you were still eighteen when all you cared about were the three Ps—partying, Pabst, and pussy.
I still loved pussy. Ally’s in particular. I sat back in my chair and rubbed my forehead. Actually, I didn’t want any other.
