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Just like she’d never fully gotten over him.
“What do I do now?” Mia whispered.
“Ha, well, for that bit of advice you’re going to have to ask Pops. I’m only good at causing trouble, not making it right.”
With that, Del winked and headed for the door. Mia shook her head as she watched her sister go, then turned to their father, who’d been quiet while the sisters said their piece.
“I take it you were the one to coach her through that rough patch with Isaac?” she asked.
He nodded. “Though I’m not sure my advice was all that extraordinary.”
“Well, right now, I could use even the non-extraordinary kind.”
They both took a seat on a bale of straw nearby, and her father pulled her into his side.
“You liked him, huh?”
Mia nodded.
“And not just a fling?”
“Dad, I—”
He held up a hand. “I’m not looking for explanations. I’m checking for sincerity.”
“Oh.” She dropped her head onto his shoulder. “No, he wasn’t just a fling. For Alex and me, it’s always been easy, but never the right time. I had a crush on him in college but refused to acknowledge it because I was already seeing Greg.”
Her father grunted. “If I’d known that, I would have paid this Alex guy to steal you away.”
“Stop,” Mia said, laughing. “Anyway, I had no idea, but he felt the same way about me. So, when he came around again a few weeks ago, we fell back into that easy friendship. But it went further this time. I started falling for him.”
“And that scared you.”
She frowned. “No, he lied. About multiple things.”
“Were they malicious? Adulterous?”
“No, but…a lie’s a lie. No matter the reason, they’re wrong.”
Because lies led to leaving. She’d learned that hard lesson once, and it was one time too many.
He nodded. “I see. So me pretending to be Santa yesterday, that was wrong as well?”
She shifted away from him. “Okay, now you’re just being silly.”
“Am I?” He smiled. “You’ve always been a black-and-white child, Mia. Never a fan of the gray areas. But with love, there needs to be a little room for creative reasoning. From the sounds of it, Alex did some of these things to spare your feelings, yes?”
“Allegedly.”
“Then believe him. You’re a smart cookie, and I have no doubt you would have sniffed out a compulsive liar on the first date.”
“So, you’re telling me I should just turn a blind eye to it all?”
“What I’m saying, daughter, is that love isn’t always black and white, right and wrong. Sometimes poor judgment happens, and when it does, you need to stop and think. Shouting or the silent treatment, they might feel like the right thing to do in that moment, but they don’t help in the long run. Tackling the hard conversations are what strengthens a relationship. But to have them takes courage, patience, and sometimes a healthy dose of grace.”
Mia’s shoulders fell. Grace. She’d offered Alex a smidge when he’d shared about his mom, but once the fake deer accident came out, she’d retracted it as quickly as those magicians who yanked the tablecloth out from under a four-place dinnerware setting.
Maybe her father was right. Maybe she was scared. Not about the lies, but of getting her heart broken again. Too late. And in the process, she’d ended up breaking someone else’s heart for the second time.
