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I palmed my forehead. “I’m going to jump into a volcano.”
Dad was as happy as a clam. “I’ll catch you up. I’m Mark, Ag’s dad. You three are all dancing the pokey with my daughter. None of you are very good at hiding it.”
Zander whistled. “Does this magic trick extend to other people, or is it just for Aggie? I’d hire you in a second, sir. Hell, you could run the company with this skill.”
I glared at Zander. “Oh, really? You offerhima job? Pig.”
"Sorry, son, it's just a trick I have with Ag. I can read this girl better than any book I've ever crossed paths with. I just know things. She could never hide a single thing from me." Dad winked at me. "Of course, it helped that the three of you each looked at her like she was the last cupcake on the earth and she blushed like a schoolgirl."
Knight pulled up a stool. “I need to talk to you about the witch you raised. The puzzles, sir. I don’t know how you did it, but you raised a woman who almost made me cry yesterday. She made some of my best work look pathetic.”
I swayed closer to him and bit my lip. Yeah, he’d called me a witch, but he’d also admitted that I’d trashed his test. “That’s really sweet.”
He scowled at me. “Of course, you think it’s sweet that you crushed my spirit. Witch.”
Dad slapped his knee again and laughed harder. He was having a great time, clearly. “It figures that it’d take three men to meet her on her level. I shouldn’t be surprised, at all. She’s great, isn’t she? Takes after her mother, this one. Even down to the way she forgot to call and check in. She couldn’t go to college out of state because she missed her old man, but she can go a whole week without talking to me. Make it make sense.”
“Dad!” I groaned and walked over to the eat-in nook. Sinking into it, I gave into pouting. “I could’ve stayed at school, but there was that thing with the forest fire, remember?”
“No. I don’t remember a forest fire because there wasn’t one. I remember you saying something about starting a fire if I didn’t let you come home.” Dad smiled and I could tell he was reminiscing. “Truth be told, I hated the idea of her that far away. When you go through what we went through, losing her mother, and then spend the next decade as your own little family against the world, it’s hard to lose that.”
“You’reAggie’s dad?” Gracie’s voice was quiet but full of awe. She looked up at him from behind Kyrin. “You don’t look like Aggie.”
Dad’s face lit up and he groaned as he knelt in front of her. “You must be Gracie. Nice to meet you, sweetheart. IamAggie’s dad. She got her looks from her mother, thankfully. She’d look pretty silly if she had my face, wouldn’t she?”
Hugging Kyrin’s thigh, Gracie slowly moved out to face Dad. She studied his hair the most, even reached out and touched it. “My daddy died.”
Dad never missed a beat. “I’m sorry to hear that. Has Aggie talked to you about losing her mom when she was your age?”
“Mommy died, too.” She looked over at me. “Aggie talks to me about her mom.”
“Did you move here after that happened?” Dad took Gracie’s hand and cleared his throat. “Did Aggie tell you about what she did after I moved her to a farm? It has a barn almost like the one you have here.”
My bottom lip wobbled as emotion rolled over me. I had whiplash from the change of topic and hearing Dad talk about the time right after Mom’s death always got to me. I bit my tongue and ground my teeth together, doing everything to keep myself in check.
“She said she was mad.” Gracie inched closer to my dad. “What did she do?”
“She snuck into the barn at night and slept with the animals. When I first saw that she wasn’t in her bed, I almost had a heart attack. I thought she’d run away. I ran around that farm, screaming her name for hours. I called all of my brothers and sisters, any neighbors I could think of, and we all stayed out all night looking for her.” Dad glanced over me and I saw that his eyes were glossy. “When the sun rose that next morning, she walked out of the barn with her blanket and messy hair, yawning like she’d just had the best sleep of her life.”
Gracie gasped. “Did she get in trouble?”
I wiped away a stray tear and shook my head. “No. Dad told me that he liked sleeping outside when he felt like screaming, too. He said that sleeping outside when your feelings are too big gives them room to stretch out their long legs and relax some.”
Dad let out a watery laugh. “And that’s how I spent the summer sleeping in a barn that year. We did what we had to, to make sure we were okay. I’m really glad that my Aggie is with you, Gracie. She has secrets to help little girls like you feel better.”
“Aggie said we’re in a special club.” Gracie looked up at her uncles and sniffed. “Can Aggie’s dad stay today?”
Zander was suspiciously quiet as he welcomed Dad to stay. “We’d love it if you stayed. I think we have some tents in this house somewhere. What do you think, Gracie? Want to make a day of it?”
I didn’t get to hear her answer. I quietly slipped out of the room and hurried to the closest bathroom. Locking myself in, I sat on the toilet lid and silently cried. I stabbed wads of toilet paper into my eyes, desperate to stop the tears, but I hadn’t cried in longer than I could remember. I’d gone through the breakup, losing my job, and more without shedding more than a single tear, maybe two. Thinking about the time after Mom died, the way Dad saved me, and feeling that grief through Gracie, it brought everything rushing to the surface.
My chest ached as I desperately tried to shove everything back inside the box I kept locked in my head, but it was useless. I crumbled and wiped snot on my shirt in a bathroom that probably cost more than the farm when Dad first bought it. I’d never been so thankful to have Dad nearby, despite having wished him far, far away just a while earlier. When no one came near that bathroom and I was left alone with myself, I knew it was because Dad was there and because he knew me better than I knew myself. He’d know that I wouldn’t want anyone to see me at my weakest.
All I could do was let those giant emotions out to stretch their legs. I was at their mercy.
29
***Zander***
