I close my eyes and sigh in relief. “I’m glad.”
Her sniffles quiet down, and she clears her throat. “To make things more awkward, I’m a little stinky and really need to take a shower.”
Even though she can’t see me, I shake my head. She’s definitely not holding back, that’s for sure.
I like that about her.
I’m starting to like quite a few things about her.
Enough to really hate she’s living across the country.
“Are you still off to Mrs. Zimmerman later?”
She huffs a laugh. “I am. That woman is interesting. We don’t talk much while I’m there, yet she asks me to come back every time. But I can’t complain, she bakes some mean cake. Who am I to say no to that?”
I have my suspicion that Harper’s elderly neighbor has some ulterior motives for constantly inviting her over since they ran into each other last week, but I haven’t brought it up. I’m not going to interfere if Harper’s loneliness can be helped even the slightest.
“I’m glad you’re getting out a bit. Even if it’s just a few doors down.”
“It’s been a nice change to get out of the apartment some more, even if it’s just for cake and swimming.”
“Agreed.”
“I can’t wait for the weather to warm up so I can go outside more. I need some vitamin D.”
“March should get better, right?”
“Yeah. It won’t be super warm yet but definitely better.”
“That’s good.”
“It is.” Bacon meows close to the phone, and Harper mumbles something to him. “Well, I better go. Same time tonight?”
“You bet.”
“Awesome.”
We’ve started talking before we go to bed most nights, which has become a pleasant routine and something I look forward to.
Bacon must be getting closer to the phone since the purring gets incredibly loud. “Talk to you later then.”
“Have fun.”
We hang up, and I stare outside the window some more. It’s weird how my life is still the exact same, yet everything has changed at the same time. But somehow, I’m glad all of this happened. Yes, the circumstances could be better, but maybe I needed this in my life. With my brother out of the nest, so to speak, I got a little lost for a while. I didn’t know what to do with myself, so coming out of retirement seemed like the next logical solution. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed swimming and the thrill of competing.
Now, I have a new purpose in life. Something new I can put my energy into because I’m going to be the best dad I could possibly be. And maybe partner? I was going to ask Harper to do a video call with me. Will the connection be as strong on the screen as it was when we were together?