“Yes! I’m fine. Really. I just got off a cruise with mom yesterday. We had a great time,” she said lamely.
And the man I’m in love with told me he loved me. I’m in love, Dad!
She wanted to share the news with her father, but it seemed so personal. She hated that they didn’t have the sort of relationship where things like this came naturally between them. It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t hers, either.
“How’s your mom doing?” he asked.
“Good. Dating someone, but not serious enough for me to meet yet. How are Melissa and the boys?”
He spent the next few minutes catching her up on his family. “Greg is taking a cooking class and he’s making these amazing desserts already. Culinary talent must run in the family.” She could hear the pride in his voice.
“That’s great. He’s, what, fourteen now?”
“Next week. Speaking of which, happy birthday, honey. It’s the big one, huh?”
She smiled. “So they tell me. That’s one of the reasons I called. Thank you so much for my card and the check. You shouldn’t have, you know. I’m a grown woman and it’s way too much money.”
“It gives me pleasure to know that maybe you can use it for something extra. Something that you might not be able to buy for yourself.”
You know, sweetie, money is the only way your father has ever been able to show you how he feels about you.
She didn’t want that sort of impersonal relationship with her father anymore. After so many years, it would be hard to change things up between them. But not impossible.
“That brings me to the other reason I called. I have some big news. I’m going to buy a café! Well, I’m going to buy half a café. There’s this great place in Whispering Bay, that’s a little town between Destin and Panama City in the Florida panhandle,” she explained. “And the owner is selling and it’s just too good a deal to pass up.”
“Honey, that’s fantastic! Do you need money? I could—”
“No, no, that’s all taken care of. I just wanted you to know, and to see if maybe you and Melissa and the boys could come out for the grand reopening. It wouldn’t be for a couple of months probably, but the weather should still be warm and the beaches here are beautiful. And it would be nice to have…family here.”
There was a long pause.
“Dad? Are you still there?”
“I’m here,” he said, his voice quiet and thick with emotion. “Just tell me when, and we’ll be there.”
“That’s great,” she said, trying to keep her voice from cracking. “And, Dad? In case I never told you before, I love you.”
“I love you, too, Sarah. I always have.”
* * *
Luke should have probably just spent the night at his condo in Atlanta, but he’d been gone already for three days and he’d promised Brad that he’d come look at a proposal to build a new science lab for the high school and they’d scheduled the meeting for eight in the morning. As principal, Brad wanted Luke’s input on the fund-raising, and now that Luke was returning to Whispering Bay permanently, he also wanted Luke to run for the local school board.
That last part wasn’t going to happen. Mimi was the politician in the family, not him. He didn’t mind offering up advice, but he was going to have his hands full opening his company’s new branch. After his meeting with Brad, he’d start scouting out possible office sites.
He pulled the truck onto his street then swore under his breath. Damn tourists. Didn’t they know summer was over? There were at least a dozen cars, all with Wisconsin license plates, parked along the street and in front of his house and driveway. He vaguely remembered hearing something about a couple of houses in the neighborhood being rented out for a family reunion.
Luke drove around the block, found a space to park, then trekked to his dark, empty house. It was after one in the morning and the residents of Whispering Bay had long since gone to sleep. He unlocked the door, grateful to be walking into a cool house. He was going to turn on a light, but he knew the layout by heart, so there was really no need. He was too tired to do more than crawl into bed, anyway.
He opened the door to his bedroom and froze. It was dark but his vision had adjusted enough that he could make out a lump in his bed.
His heart began to pound.
Luke flipped on the light switch. Sarah stirred, then sat up in his bed and arranged the sheet demurely around her breasts.
“I really hope you’re naked under those sheets, Goldilocks,” he said.
She rolled her eyes. “Naturally.”