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“And since when do you text?”
He grinned. “Isn’t that how people talk now?”
“I guess.” Erin gripped her hands together beneath the table, then hopped up from the chair. She couldn’t sit still. She paced across the room and then back again. “This is just too much. I never expected that you were seeing someone, much less for a couple of months. And to not tell me. I don’t know what to say.”
“How about saying you’re happy for me?”
“But what about Mom?” Erin hadn’t really thought of her dad with anyone else but Mom. Isn’t that what every little girl dreams of? Their Mom and Dad happily in love for the rest of their lives. But fate had other plans and for years, Daddy hadn’t been living, much less falling in love.
“What about your mother? I loved her. I still love her. This doesn’t change that.”
“But for so long…” She couldn’t bring herself to even mention his drinking.
“I was lost. That’s true. For a long time. Heartbroken. I didn’t know how to go on. And you took care of me. And Melissa. I’m not sure we would have survived without you. I lost myself in a bottle for way too long.”
Tears pooled in her eyes. This was the father she had been looking for, hoping for, all those years when she’d felt so alone. Taking care of Melissa while Dad sat by and mourned.
“But when…”
He answered like he knew she couldn’t finish the question. “I haven’t had a drink in a hundred and twenty-three days.”
Tears ran down her cheeks. She spread her arms wide and Daddy stepped into her arms, strength she hadn’t seen in him in a long time reflected in the firm grip around her body. “That’s so great. I wish you had told me sooner.”
“I didn’t want to get your hopes up. What if I didn’t make it? What if I took another drink? I didn’t want to disappoint you again.”
“Oh, Daddy. You never disappointed me.”
He leaned back, looking her in the eye. “Yes, I did. But I’m not going to anymore. At least I’m going to try not to.”
Erin stepped out of his embrace. She wiped her face and then quirked her eyebrow. “So, you and Gladys?”
A huge grin broke out on his face. “Yeah.”
She searched her heart. She wasn’t bitter that Dad found love again after Mom died. He deserved to have love, especially if loving Gladys made him feel even a tenth of how she felt around Jake. “I’m happy for you. I really am.”
“Oh honey, that means so much to me. Now back to my original question, what are you doing home so early?”
“The office was quiet so Austin let me go early and Jake has plans tonight.”
“Well, how about you let your dear old dad take you out to dinner.”
Erin wrapped her arms around her father again. She had the Daddy she had wanted… and needed… for the past ten years again. “That would be great.”
* * *
Erin climbed in the car with her dad, smiling at the changes that had hit her out of the blue. How had she let such a significant turnaround slip by her unnoticed?
“I know how you love Mexican. Thought we’d go to Las Brisas.”
“We don’t need to do anything that nice. I’m just so happy to spend time with you.” She reached across the car, squeezed his hand, and grinned. “But I do love Las Brisas.”
“I know you do. That’s why I picked it.”
A few minutes later, he pulled up to the curb, left the car with the valet, and the two of them headed into the restaurant. They approached the hostess stand, the peaceful elegance of the expansive dining room spread out in front of her.
At a table in the middle, she saw a man with his back to her, pushing in the chair of his dining companion.
The man reminded her of Jake, his broad shoulders, his gentle touch.
