“One day Kollette, all this will be yours. I think it’s time you start running it with me.”
If she wasn’t already sitting, she might have found herself on the floor. “You’re…serious? You want me to…to…”
“Learn everything I know. Be my shadow. We think alike, and yet also differently. I need someone who isn’t afraid to challenge my decisions, and yet bring forth resolutions.”
“I…don’t know what to say?” For Kollette, speechless wasn’t something she usually suffered from.
“Yes. And maybe come give your father a hug,” he said as he got up.
Kollette rushed around his desk and wrapped her arms around him. “Dad, thank you.”
“I should’ve done this a long time ago,” he said.
“I’m not talking about the job. I’m talking about…the hug. It’s been too long,” she said. “I’ve missed being…your daughter.”
He squeezed her tighter. “I’m sorry sweetheart. I shouldn’t have shut you out when I shut out the rest of the world. I…I was afraid that if I broke down, I might not ever get back up.”
She looked up at her father and said, “Of course you would’ve.”
“Because I’m a Sommers?”
“No. Because you got me, just like I got you,” she said.
When he released her he said, “Kollette, I’m glad you came to see me today. Because there’s something I wanted to talk to you about as well.”
“The Potters?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No. I was thinking that maybe we could have dinner Sunday night.”
“I’d like that.”
“And maybe you can bring that boyfriend of yours too,” he suggested.
Ethan?“I’ll see what I can do. But right now, how about that lunch?”
“Sounds good.”
“Oh Dad, do you mind if I start my new job next week? I have a few things I need to take care of first.”
“It’s here whenever you’re ready.”
Ethan was her next stop, but meeting with her father seemed easy compared to seeing Ethan again. With her father, she was just fighting for a job, but with Ethan, she was trying to save her heart from being ripped apart. And I’m the one who did it.