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“My dad said he was in love with you,” she said point-blank.
“Oh.” I stopped and gripped a nearby mannequin’s hand like an idiot, but I needed something to stabilize me after that jolt to my system. It’s not that I was surprised, per se, but to know he had admitted it out loud, to his daughter no less, was a bit jarring.
She looked down at her Dr. Martens boots. “Did you love him?”
I swallowed down my heart. “Bridgette, that’s a complicated question.”
She looked up at me with her dad’s aqua eyes, questioning me. “How come? Don’t you just know if you love someone?”
“I think some people do. But for some it can be a scary process.”
“Why?” Forget Rory, she was going to be the lawyer in the family.
I let go of the mannequin’s hand before the hoity-toity associates called security. “Honey, most of the time when something seems too good to be true, it is. But then there are rare moments in life that are even better than you can possibly imagine. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell the difference between the two.”
“So, which one was my dad?” She was relentless with her line of questioning.
I tugged on my scarf. “At the time, I wasn’t sure.” I paused. “Maybe that’s not true. I think I knew, but I was afraid. I had just broken up with my boyfriend. And I couldn’t envision myself coming home to tell my parents I’d met an older man, a doctor even, on vacation—and that we were in love. Could you imagine?”
“My dad would probably freak out.”
“Exactly. And those thoughts coupled with my ex,” I grumbled, “meeting me at the airport to propose when I got back from Colorado had me second-guessing everything.” I wanted her to understand. “I guess it was easier for me to believe your dad was too good to be true.”
She nibbled on her lip, pondering. “My mother did some things too, didn’t she? You knew her, right?” She had obviously talked to her dad about this.
I let out a heavy breath. I didn’t want to trash Nina in front of her kids, no matter what she had done. I knew that could come back to bite me, especially given my status as the girlfriend. I’d been around the block enough times to know that the way we saw dead people, even those who hurt us, could change dramatically. Somehow past misdeeds died along with them. Granted, I wanted to rail on Nina for what she had done, not only to me but to her children and Patrick. “Yes,” I admitted. “I knew her. Or at least I thought I did. We were roommates for three years. I thought we were friends.” I left it at that and headed toward the rack. Bridgette remained silently by my side.
I plucked the black flared-skirt vintage lace dress off the rack. It was shorter but not too short. “What do you think of this?”
Bridgette ignored the dress, her eyes fixed on me. “Do you hate her for what she did to you and my dad?”
I lowered the dress and swallowed hard. This girl knew how to throw out the tough questions. Patrick must have shared more with her than I thought he would have. “Honestly, I suppose I do hate her a little bit. But mostly, I’m hurt to think she would do such a thing.”
Bridgette’s eyes welled with tears. “I hate her too.”
I put the dress back on the rack before wrapping an arm around her. “I’m sorry, Bridgette. I know it can’t be easy to feel that way about your mother.”
Her head fell on my shoulder. “I love her too.”
“I know it’s complicated, honey.”
“Do you think my parents ever loved each other? All they did was fight, and my dad never looked at my mother the way he looks at you.” Did she resent me for that? Talk about complicated.
“Bridgette, your father would have never married your mother if he didn’t love her. Did you ever see their engagement photos?”
“A long time ago.”
“Did you see the love in your dad’s eyes?”
Her shoulders raised dramatically and then dropped in the same fashion. “It’s still not the same way he looks at you.”
“Oh, honey, what you see now is new love. New love and old love are something entirely different.”
“What do you mean?”
“When you live with someone for a long time, you tend to know just how to annoy them.” I laughed.
“My mother more than annoyed my dad.”
