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Of course, that thought had to be followed with the thought that it wasn’t fair that he didn’t get to see her but once in a great while.
Again he thought of selling this place and moving to South Carolina where his daughter was being raised, but...he would not, because of his scars and his grotesque ugliness. He didn’t want his daughter to have to grow up with someone like that beside her. Someone she was ashamed of. Someone who embarrassed her. Someone she would rather not be around.
It was better this way. Even if he hated it.
He had just opened his laptop to check his portfolio and see how his investments were doing when he noticed headlights in the distance.
Although the sun had broken over the horizon, and the most colorful part of the sunrise was over, the angle of the sun hadn’t quite risen to the point where the morning was bright and cheerful.
Behind the headlights he could see a small car, blue. It was obviously not new.
Whoever it was, it was not someone from his baseball days, although he wouldn’t know why he would have thought it would be.
No one visited him. No one wanted to.
Maybe it was just someone who was too curious for their own good, and the car would be turning around and leaving. Sometimes he had some of those. Curiosity seekers, people who ignored the No Trespassing signs and the Private Drive signs and the Enter at Your Own Risk signs and drove the entire way to his house.
But no, this car stopped, the headlights shutting off and the figure inside moving.
As he watched, the door opened and a woman emerged.
She was dressed for the North Dakota temperatures, with a heavy coat, a beanie from which her long, honey blonde hair escaped, jeans, and warm boots.
She looked around, taking a moment to smile at the landscape, then her eyes were once again on the house, taking it in, like she couldn’t quite believe how big it was.
He had that feeling too, even though he’d seen plenty of grand houses. In North Dakota, big houses were uncommon.
It was then he realized his dogs had been barking, and he’d never let them back in, so as he watched, they ran around the side of the house, greeting the newcomer.
They were large dogs, Rottweilers mixed with St. Bernards and maybe a few other breeds, shaggy enough to keep themselves warm in the winter, but with enough of the Rottweiler characteristics that they looked scary.
In reality, both of them took after the St. Bernard in them with their calm, docile personality, friendly to strangers.
They would definitely let him know if an intruder was at his house, but they were far more likely to welcome them inside, showing them all the treasures of the house, and even helping them carry the loot back out, than they would be to bite anyone.
Still, they were large and scary looking.
He shoved back away from the table quickly. Most of him really didn’t care if the person who was visiting left faster than she came, but his mother had instilled enough manners in his childhood that he didn’t consider not striding to the front door and calling Duke and Daisy back.
They obeyed immediately, and the woman looked up, shading her eyes even though the sun was at her back.
Yeah. She’d probably needed to shade her eyes. She wasn’t used to seeing anything quite as ugly as what he was.
