The week seemed to crawl by. Every day felt like an eternity. On Thursday night, a text from Henry finally came through.
Henry: Good news. I’ve been working on a prototype for Shirley. Can I bring it by on Saturday?
Me: Yes! That would be great. Do you and Graham want to stay in my guest room, so you don’t have to drive back and forth to Lou Ellen’s?
She only lived forty-five minutes away, but if they stayed with me, I’d get to spend even more time with the two of them. Graham cracked me up, and I loved watching Henry as a dad. He was different around Graham. More open, more laid back, more loving. I hadn’t had the guts to ask what happened to Graham’s mom and Lou Ellen hadn’t been at the rescue over the past week. Her sweetie had taken her on a three-day cruise out of Galveston for Valentine’s Day.
Henry: Let me think about it. I might ask Lou Ellen to watch Graham part of the time so I can focus on Shirley.
A shiver ran through me. If Graham stayed with Lou Ellen, that would mean Henry and I would be alone. He’d never given me any indication that he thought of me as anything beyond Duke’s sister, but still, my pulse spiked as I thought about the two of us all alone at my place.
Me: Whatever works best for you. Just let me know.
Henry: Will do.
Even the possibility of them staying over had me buzzing with pent up energy. I pulled up my text with Cleary to give her an update.
Me: Hot Dad is coming back this weekend.
Cleary: Girl, tell him how you feel.
Me: I can’t.
Cleary: Wimp.
Me: Guilty as charged.
Cleary: Get over yourself, girl. Do it.
Part of me knew she was right. If I ever wanted to know how Henry felt about me, I needed to put myself out there. But what if he blew me off? Or worse, felt sorry for me and tried to let me down easy.
Me: It would never work out. He lives too far away. AND he’s got a kid.
Cleary: You like kids.
Me: Goat kids. I don’t have any experience with human kids.
We’d always lived outside of town, so there weren’t any neighborhood kids around to babysit. My experience around children could be summed up in a very short, simple word: none.
Cleary: How different could it be? They both like to eat a lot and get into trouble.
Me: LOL. Nice try.
Cleary: If you don’t take a chance, you’ll never know.
The truth of that statement weighed me down. What would be worse? Risk making a fool out of myself and finally knowing, or continuing and possibly letting him slip through my fingers a second time?
Me: I’ll think about it.
Cleary ended the conversation by sending me a GIF of a chicken.
I was hesitant to take a chance on Henry without checking in with my brother first. We hadn’t talked about what happened between them in years. Duke had always brushed me off when I tried to bring it up. I moved out onto the deck with a glass of wine and dialed my brother.
“Yo, Dev. What’s up?” Hearing his voice on the other end of the line always put a smile on my face.
“Not much. Just got done shoveling horseshit, and it made me think of you.”
A deep laugh rumbled through the phone. “You always say the nicest things.”