“Somehow I don’t believe you.” He settled back. “But I want to know about you. Tell me what’s going on in your life. I want to hear everything.”
“It’s pretty much the same. You know things rarely change at the station house. We hired a new guy, and he seems pretty nice.” He wasn’t about to tell his father he’d gotten stuck in a damn bog and needed a pretty actress to get him out.
His dad’s eyes narrowed. “What happened? When you don’t want to tell me something, your jaw tightens.”
Major frowned. He was pretty sure he didn’t do that. He didn’t exactly wear his heart on his sleeve. Although . . . “Is that why Armie can always tell when I’m bluffing?”
“Absolutely. If he’s played poker with you for any amount of time, he’ll be able to tell. So, fess up. Something happened today. Was it bad?”
Major shrugged. “I had a date tonight and it went well. It didn’t start out as a date. I was supposed to have dinner with Samantha Henshaw.”
“Why? I mean Samantha’s a nice young woman, but won’t her girlfriend object?”
He sometimes forgot that his father had lived here for years before he wound up in assisted living. He’d been a big part of this community. “Everyone seems to know that except me and her grandmother, although that seems to be willful ignorance.”
“Sally sees what she wants to see,” his father said. “Samantha was a good kid. That was all that mattered. If she brings home someone who lifts her up, then good for her. And honestly, Sally will give in eventually. She’s stubborn but she won’t lose her granddaughter over it. So you let Sally talk you into a blind date with an unavailable woman? And then you managed to find an available one?”
He had to smile at the thought. “I don’t know how available she is. I mean she’s single, but she’s in town for a job and she’ll leave in a couple of months.”
“Then you have a couple of months to get to know if she’s worth it.”
“Worth it?”
His father nodded. “Worth either trying a long-distance relationship or moving. Any chance she might move here? We have some great places to work.”
“Only if you want to drill oil or give swamp tours,” Major said with a huff.
“Where does she live?”
“LA.” Though from what he could tell her house there was more of a way station. The way she talked, she spent most of her time on the road working. She’d described herself as living out of a suitcase.
“Then you need to see if she’s worth moving to LA,” his father prompted.
“Slow down. We had one dinner.” And he wasn’t sure he could handle her world. He hadn’t lied to her. She’d dealt with the fans beautifully, but it would be a lot to deal with if that happened all the time. Could she get through a meal without someone she’d never met before coming up and talking to her like they were old friends?
“Yeah, but I haven’t seen you smile that way about a woman in a very long time.”
“Well, it was nice to be around her.” It had been the nicest night he’d had in a while. “How long did you date Mom before you knew she was the one?”
Brynn was definitely not the one. She would leave and he couldn’t, but he wasn’t about to argue with his dad about that. They’d had one date, and it had been mere coincidence that it had happened at all.
“Oh, I knew right away,” his father said with a smile. “She, on the other hand, took her time figuring it out. You are far more like your mom. You think too much.”
“There’s nothing wrong with thinking.”
“There is if you completely ignore your instincts,” his father countered. “Sometimes you have to go with your gut. A relationship is one of those things.”
“I can’t leave Papillon.”
“Of course you can.”
“All right. I can’t leave you.”
His father reached out. “Of course you can.” He placed his hand over Major’s. “And it’s not leaving me. It’s having a life, son. I’m not going to be around forever. We both have to accept that. The one thing I can’t accept is that you’ll give up having a life and a family because you focus too much on me. I want you to be happy.”
He wasn’t sure he could be without his father. “Like I said, it’s far too early to know if we’re even compatible. She’s nice. I might spend some time with her while she’s here. She’s doing some research for a project she’s working on, and I can help her with that.”
His father sat back, getting comfortable again. He glanced over at the silent television, his lips curling up. “I like this show.”
Major looked over and was shocked to see a younger version of Brynn walking through the streets of New York with another actress. “I’ve never seen it.”