“Nope.” I shrugged. “I swear, my life is one long string of weird coincidences.”
“Right.” Aimee snorted. “It’s not fate or anything.”
“Or God’s plan,” Matt offered.
“Matt!” Aimee elbowed him. “Ix-nay on the od-gay.”
“What? It could be fate but it couldn’t be God?”
“You have to admit, it’s all pretty weird.” Aimee didn’t answer her new husband. “You’re obsessed with Tyler Vincent—and you meet Dale Diamond, who happens to be Tyler Vincent’s love child.”
ghed. “Once he gets to know you, he’ll be fine.”
“So tell me, is Aimee back from her honeymoon yet?” he asked, picking up the pictures again and leafing through them. I’d mentioned Aimee in our phone conversations.
“Yes, we’re having dinner with them tonight actually.”
“Oh look at this one.” Ben laughed, holding up a picture to the light. “You were the most beautiful little girl. Did Carolyn put curlers in your hair?”
“Is that the Shirley Temple picture?” I glanced over, seeing the white lace dress and the long blonde curls. “She made me wear those curlers to bed. They were torture. Child abuse, I tell you!”
“Is this where you grew up?”
I nodded, looking at the picture. Me and a snowman in front of a little house. Back when the stepbeast only drank—and beat up my mother—on special occasions. I couldn’t remember how many jobs he’d gone through before he couldn’t keep up the mortgage anymore and we’d moved into the apartment complex. Of course, Dale lived in those apartments too, so perhaps it hadn’t been all bad. The universe giveth, the universe taketh away.
Ben continued to sift through pictures, asking questions, genuinely interested, and I found myself unraveling more of my past for him, untangling it as I went. It took hours and we both laughed and cried a little, but it was one of the memories I would hold onto forever, kept in my mind like a sensory snapshot—the smell of roasted coffee, the sweet taste of hot chocolate, the feel of my father’s hand in mine, the big, roaring sound of his laugh.
And when Dale came over and told me it was time to go to dinner, I couldn’t believe it. Had we really talked so long? It had gone by in a blink. I tucked the pictures back into my purse, but I let Ben keep the one he asked for—the Shirley Temple snapshot. And then Ben put his big arms around me and hugged me goodbye. And for the first time in my life I called someone, “Dad,” and meant it.
And even when Dale insisted, I still didn’t want to let him go.
CHAPTER NINE
“I just don’t get why he didn’t try to find you before now.” Dale parked the car in the Olive Garden parking lot, pocketing the keys. Dale still didn’t own a car so we were driving my old Dodge Dart.
“When my mom took off, he says at first he was relieved.”
“Nice.” Dale opened the door for me and I stepped in, my stomach growling. I’d only had a scone and a hot chocolate all day and now I was starving. I could smell garlic and onions. I was suddenly wishing we’d called ahead because all the people waiting in the lobby were standing between me and my dinner.
“Come on, he was just a kid—younger than us,” I reminded him. “Would you want to have to take care of a newborn at that age?”
Dale didn’t answer. He was looking over the crowd, trying to find Aimee and Matt.
“Once he got a little older and thought about looking, he couldn’t find us,” I explained, hanging onto his sleeve as he weaved through the crowd.
“He seemed to find you pretty easy,” Dale countered. “Took him just one afternoon.”
“Well he agreed to the blood test,” I snapped.
Dale stopped, looking back at me. “You asked him?”
“I figured I’d better, before you brought it up,” I said, sticking out my tongue.
He snorted, taking my hand and leading me toward the bar.
“I don’t get why it was so hard to find you before. Didn’t your mom tell her family where she was going?”
“She didn’t see them much.” I shrugged. “One of my first memories is of grandmother asking for our address so she could send me a birthday gift and my mother refusing. I was so mad at her. I just wanted my birthday present.”