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I chuckled. “Me too.”
I looked out into the courtyard. It hit me that maybe this place wasn’t so bad. Dad had some friends, nurses who could manage him on days that were bad, and access to activities that kept his mind active. I’d thrown money at the situation, hoping for the best, and Duke had taken care of the details. I hadn’t given him the credit he was due.
“You lose a game?” He shook the small bag, testing out how much seed was left.
I turned to Dad, confused. “What? No.”
“You got that pissed-off look on your face like you always do when you lose a game.”
He can still read me. That part isn’t gone.
I chuckled, then sighed and stretched my arm around the back of the bench. “Nah. Pissed off about a girl.”
Dad laughed. “Yeah, they’ll do that to you.”
I missed this. Talking with Dad and not having every conversation be steeped in disappointment or sadness. I didn’t want to push him and ruin it, but I took a chance anyway. “It’s Lark, the dark-haired one. I’m in love with her but realized I haven’t treated her like she deserves. Plus, she’ll be leaving town. It’s what she needs to do.”
“She break up with you?”
“No. But she might have a new job, and she should take it. Then she’ll be gone.”
Dad seemed to be thinking about my words. I wasn’t sure if he’d registered what I said, but I stayed quiet.
He slapped a hand on my knee. “Then she has to go.”
I studied his face. At one time, he knew me and my drive to achieve my dreams better than anyone. “Is this one of those,If you love them let them go, if they don’t come back it wasn’t meant to bekind of things?”
I frowned. That was not the heartwarming encouragement I had been hoping for.
“Hell no—that’s horseshit. You let her go so that girl can see what she’s missing. Then you do everything you can to convince her to bring her pretty little ass back home.”
Home.
I hadn’t allowed myself to consider the concept of truly settling in. Sure, the nature of my job meant travel, but if I dug down, leaned on the people who mattered, maybe I could pull it off.Wecould pull it off.
Warm thoughts of sharing a home with Lark filled my mind. I had a lot to think about and even more to do if I was going to step up to be the man she truly deserved.
“I gotta go, Dad. Thanks.”
* * *
On Saturday afternoon,Penny and I walked through Outtatowner and browsed the shops, looking at blown-glass artwork, trinkets, and an assortment of crap designed to cater to the tourists. For the millionth time, I thought about asking Lark to join us and spend a lazy day in town before getting dinner down at the beachfront restaurant she loved so much.
Meetings and practices kept me busy, and while we still fumbled for stolen moments, we hadn’t talked about her audition or what happened when summer inevitably came to an end.
My heart sank every time I thought about it.
“Look at that one, Daddy!” Penny tugged my arm and pointed at a glass suncatcher casting long bands of colored light. It was shaped like a bird with a yellow face and a black mask that stretched across its eyes. It cast sunshine like a prism, and the detailed work was impressive.
“Can we look at it? Pretty please?”
I nodded and followed her into the little shop. “Don’t touch it,” I warned.
Penny tucked her hands behind her back and gazed at the array of little glass trinkets—birds and fish, a fox.
“What bird is that?” Her nose got closer and closer to bumping the glass shelf.
“I don’t know, baby. I’m not really a bird guy. A yellow finch, maybe? Grandpa Red would probably know.”
