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“Really?”
She sighed. “Fine…it’s just…I don’t know…this isn’t…it’s not…” She groaned. “I’m going through the motions, and I honestly don’t care if I make it. Part of me was seriously hoping I wouldn’t make it to finals.”
“Wow,” he murmured. “I’m honestly a little surprised you admitted that.”
“Why lie? It kind of feels good to say it out loud.”
“So, why are you still there? Why not just come home?”
She didn’t have to think about it. “Because I’m not a quitter.”
“And that’s very admirable, but if you stay and, let’s say, make it into their training camp when you really don’t want to, you’re taking a spot away from someone who does,” he reasoned. “And that’s worse than quitting.”
Ugh…she hated when he was right.
“I have until Tuesday to think it through. I want to make sure I’m doing this—or not doing this—for the right reasons.”
“What reasons could there possibly be? You obviously wanted to do this enough that you were willing to head back down to Miami on short notice.”
“I know, but this was my dream five months ago. Is it still my dream now?” With a sigh, she added, “And am I going to want to keep auditioning for the next ten weeks until they announce the squad? I mean…this is a big time commitment.”
“It sounds like it. Are you going to stay in the hotel for all that time?”
“Well…if I make it to training camp, I’ll have to get an apartment. I just didn’t want to have to deal with that until I was sure it was necessary.” Another sigh. “You know, all the other shows and productions I was in weren’t like this. We auditioned and either we got the part or we didn’t. It wasn’t this long, drawn-out thing where you’re essentially in limbo for almost three months.”
“Mm-hmm…” her father hummed. “Take the next day or two and really think about this, Lil. You know you always have a place here at home. And if you don’t want to move back in with us and want to find a place of your own, we’ll help you find that too.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“There’s nothing to thank me for. I’m your father and I love you and want you to be happy.”
Happy? What was that like? It might have only been a little less than two weeks, but it felt like a lifetime since she’d felt pure happiness.
She missed Noah.
Unfortunately, she didn’t want to admit that to her father but she was also dying to know how he was.
“So, um…how does it feel to be back in the office?” she asked. “I’m sure after a month off it was kind of a drag to go back and have to catch up on everything.”
“It wasn’t too bad,” he admitted. “We have a great team and I had a couple of guys handling my clients for me, so it was pretty easy to step back in. I had several reports waiting for me. Once I read them, it almost felt like I hadn’t missed anything.”
“Oh, well…good for you!”
And not good for me because that was totally vague!
“What about Uncle Mac and Uncle Jason? They doing okay with being back without Grandpa?”
“Yup! Like me, they read over their reports and could just get back to it.”
“I’m sure Sara was glad you’re all back,” she went on. “You know, what’s Montgomerys without any Montgomerys in the office, right?”
“Lily?”
“Hmm?”
“If you want to ask about Noah…”
Dammit!
