I tried not to take the hesitation to heart as I waited.
He eventually reached out, shaking my hand. He didn’t say a word.
I wished he would. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking or feeling. “Do you have any questions for me?” I asked.
“Do I have to call you dad?”
I swallowed hard. “No, not if you don’t want to.”
“How about we take it slowly with all that?” Naomi suggested. “We can just work on getting to know you first.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding.
“Do you want to come by our place later this week?” she asked. “We can talk things out a little more.”
I agreed.
She wrote down her address and phone number for me. It was only about a mile away, and I was already familiar with the area.
“Bye, Gavin,” I said as I walked them to the door a moment later. I gave him a smile.
He didn’t return it. “Bye.”
When they were gone, I looked at the clock and was surprised to see that only twenty minutes had passed. How was that possible? My entire world had changed in less than a damn hour.
I really wanted a cigarette to help calm my nerves, but I had quit a month ago, and I hated to break that streak. So, I would just have to suck it up. Now, after all that, I had a wedding to get ready for.