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“I let myself down, too,” Grant told him. “Because I neglected myself. Didn’t think about my own needs. And eventually I became a prisoner of my own choices.”
“That’s why you left?” Nate asked, a frown pulling at the skin between his brows.
“Call it a late mid life crisis. Or call it being a bad father.” Grant shrugged. “Or maybe even being a good father. It got to the point where the café was no good for me. I was desperate to sell it but Ally refused to let it go.”
“So, you let her go.” Nate swallowed, but the bad taste remained in his mouth.
“I did it all wrong. I should have talked to her more. Explained how I was feeling. But I had this stupid idea that she was my daughter and didn’t need to know any of that. I didn’t want her to think I wasn’t strong. But then I did the weakest thing I could ever do and I ran away.”
Nate looked at him. “You hurt her.”
Grant nodded. “I know I did. And I’ll regret that forever. But one good thing has come out of this. Ally’s learned to see her own strength. She’s realized she doesn’t need me to get through life and that she can stand on her own two feet. She’s the strongest woman I know and I’m damn proud of her for that.”
“You should be proud.” Nate’s throat tightened at the thought of her. At the memory of how she’d felt when he kissed her. How they’d laughed together as they played that damn Echoes of War – and he’d been killed every time. Thinking about her made his chest hurt.
She might have been strong, but he felt anything but.
Grant shifted in his chair. “I’m not going to tell you how to raise your child. Nor am I going to tell you how you should be treating mine. But man to man I’m going to give you one piece of advice that I wish somebody had given me.”
Nate raised an eyebrow. “Okay.” He was too curious not to hear more.
“Don’t assume anything. Not about what’s best for your daughter. Talk to her and listen to what she has to say.” He rolled his shoulders. “Good luck with the café. My happiest memories are here. I hope yours will be, too.” He held his hand out, and Nate stood to take it. And once they’d shaken hands, he watched the older man walk out of the door, turning left and meandering along the boardwalk.
In spite of himself he liked Ally’s dad. His honesty had touched Nate in a way he hadn’t expected. And the questions that had been swirling around his head were joined by newer, deeper ones.
Would he and Riley be as happy here as Grant and Ally once had been? Right now Nate had no idea.
30
“Dad?” Riley’s voice echoed through the hallway. Nate was sitting at his desk, staring at the spreadsheet that had been on his screen for the past half hour. He couldn’t focus on the numbers. They seemed to be dancing on the screen, little inky blurs that made no sense at all.
“There you are.” Riley was breathless. “I thought you were working in the coffee shop today.”
Nate turned his head to look at her. “I had some work to do here.” Urgent work, too. He needed to sign off on the proposals for the Coastal Café chain. The bank had agreed to extend a line of credit to make it happen, and his investors were on board, too. Five locations along the Californian coast had been earmarked for purchase. All it needed was for him to give the go-ahead.
“How was school?” he asked her.
“It was okay.”
“And detention?”
She shrugged. “I got my homework done so that’s good.” She’d been in afternoon detentions since the day her principal had allowed her to go back to school, and she hadn’t complained about them at all. If anything her relief at not being removed from another school had made her throw herself into it with enthusiasm. “I also volunteered to help out at the elementary school once a week.” She held out a piece of paper. “But I need your permission.”
“You volunteered to do something?” His eyes widened. “And with little kids?”
“I figure I have a year to make my college applications look good. Volunteering always pleases the recruiters, or so my teachers tell me.”
Yeah, well it pleased him, too. A lot more than he’d ever tell his daughter.
“What are you doing?” she asked, walking over to where Nate was sitting. She leaned against the front of his desk and squinted her eyes as she stared at the screen. “Oh, numbers,” she said, wrinkling her nos
e. “I thought it would be something exciting.”
“It’s the business plan for the new venture.” Nate leaned to turn off his laptop, the screen flickering before it turned black. “But yeah, the numbers on their own aren’t that exciting.” He twisted in his chair until he was facing her. “What do you want to do for dinner?” he asked. “I have some steaks in the refrigerator.”
Riley shifted from her left foot onto her right. “Um, I was going to ask you if I could go out tonight.” She swallowed hard. “Laura asked me over for dinner.”
“I thought you and Laura fell out.”
