Nola went still beside him and Rick wondered for the first time if perhaps he should have had this conversation in private after all.
“Well, hello to you, too, Rick,” Lindsay answered with a touch of sarcasm. “I’m doing fine. How about you?”
“What’s the point of wasting time dressing this conversation up with a bunch of pretty chitchat?”
“Direct and to the point. You haven’t changed a bit.”
Nola had said she liked that about him. He found himself smiling and not so totally pissed off about having to play the Lindsay game right now. “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine, thank you. Very happy right now, as a matter of fact.” At least she had the grace to pause. Awkward silence crackled for the next four telephone poles whizzing past. “I was going to call and tell you about the engagement.”
“That would have been nice, but it’s not the point.” Although it was a subpoint. He would have liked a heads-up when talking to their kid. “She’s upset. Actually that’s an understatement. She’s really shaken up enough to say she wants to come live with me.”
Lindsay snorted. “That’s not going to happen.”
He knew it wasn’t possible, but still he bristled at Lindsay’s outright refusal to even consider the possibility. Sheesh. He wasn’t the Antichrist.
Wait.
Calm the hell down.
His ex wasn’t a bad person, just ill equipped to handle military life, complete with a husband who hurtled out of airplanes and only spent two or three months a year at home.
Who could blame her? He never had before. Why the resentment now? He’d stopped loving her long ago.
Because for some reason he found himself wondering what a real life would be like. The kind of life she was building. Not with her, though.
Ah damn.
Nola gestured for him to turn left. He nodded, before resuming his conversation. “I’m concerned about Lauren. She didn’t sound happy.”
“She’s at her friend’s mountain cabin for the week. Maybe you remember me mentioning Becca Levy to you. Or maybe you don’t,” Lindsay said with one of her traditional not-so-subtle digs at his crappy parenting. “She’s having a great time skiing.”
Could be, and Lindsay undoubtedly knew Lauren better than he did. He’d barely spent any time with his own daughter. Although now that he thought back to her call, she’d sounded mighty upset for a girl playing ski bunny with her friend.
His mother would be ashamed of him. That burned. He was working to be a better man, a better father. Hopefully he would get there sometime soon.
Starting with being more perceptive—and he could swear his daughter was upset. But he’d learned long ago not to argue with Lindsay once she’d made up her mind.
“Okay, she’s homesick. Still, I would appreciate it if you would give her a call and check in. Or better yet, you could give me the number and I’ll call her. The number she used didn’t come up on my cell and her cell is out of range.”
“You want the number?”
Lindsay’s shock was unmistakable.
“Yeah, what’s so strange about that?”
“I tried like hell for years to get you to call her more often.”
The censure bugged him more than a little. He knew he’d screwed up in being “Father of the Year” material, but he had made an effort. “I couldn’t help it that there were times I didn’t have telephone service. There were times I needed to go silent. Communication is better now with cell phones and e-mail.”
Not that any of it mattered since he was out of the service anyway, something he would be telling Lauren and Lindsay soon. And maybe he was getting wiser thanks to the insights of a certain pushy—hot—lady pilot.
“Sure, whatever. I’m just glad for Lauren’s sake. I don’t have the number handy, but I’ll text message the number to you after Ben and I finish up our lunch at his partner’s.”
Sounded like Lindsay had the life she’d always wanted. “That would be great. Thanks.” He hesitated, wishing the towering pines lining the road could offer up some help on what he should say to smooth the way with this woman he would be linked to forever through their kid. “And hey, Lindsay?”
“Yeah, Rick?”