Your One True Love (The Bennett Family 8)

I open my mouth, close it again. Can’t argue there, and in any case, Dad didn’t frame it like a question.

“Now you’re telling me that you think you’re not right for him because... what? Your lives are not one hundred percent compatible? Because you think a schoolteacher isn’t glamorous enough for him? Good enough for him?”

I haven’t actually uttered any of those words, but obviously Dad can make more sense of my jumbled words than I can.

“Let me tell you something. You’re worth everything, and Daniel knows this. And another thing? Compatibility is overrated. Your mother and I agreed right out of the gate on maybe ten things during our entire marriage. Why do you think you kids each have two names?”

The corners of my mouth twitch. My middle name is Siobhan. “Which one was your idea?”

“Siobhan.”

“Thank heavens Mom stuck to her guns, then.”

Dad laughs, then goes serious again. “If I said black, she said white. If there was only one option available, she’d make up the second one just so we could disagree about it. And I don’t regret any of those moments. She was the love of my life. I’d give a limb to have her back. And if it was the other way around, if it was your mother here in front of you, she’d say the same.”

The tears are falling in earnest now, and I’m not even bothering to wipe them away. And Dad isn’t done.

“Nothing came easy for us. Moving all the way from Ireland, away from our parents. Starting a family here with no one to rely on. Every couple has their challenges. Everyone has problems. That’s life. One challenge after the next. And the best thing by far is to have someone you can love and trust by your side to take on those challenges.”

I wipe my eyes and cheeks dry.

“Daniel is a successful man, and success comes with its own set of challenges. As I said, challenges come in many forms. With patience and compromise, you’ll get far. You’ll both make mistakes, but if you’re willing to work on them together, they’re halfway solved already.”

“Wow,” I say finally, moving to Dad’s side of the table. I don’t hesitate to lean into his open arms.

“Still my baby girl, eh.”

“Yeah.”

“Sleep on this, baby girl, and tomorrow give him a call. Talk to him. You’d be surprised how everything seems doable once you talk it through.”

We make our way back to the house, but once I’m on my own, I dial Daniel’s number. I can’t afford sleeping on it. Thanks to the time zone difference, he’ll be asleep after I wake up, and I want to hear his voice, talk to him now. Except the call goes directly to voice mail. Maybe he’s in a meeting. I pace around the house, go to the kitchen. There is still some chocolate mousse left, and Jenna insisted so much for me to eat it at dinner that she won’t mind if I eat it now, right? I need some sustenance.

I concentrate on the sweet treat, and after half an hour dial his number anew, but I get voice mail again. I have a sour taste in my mouth, despite having just swallowed the last of the mousse. Energy strums through me and I head outside, take a long walk on the property. An hour and a half long. Whatever meeting he’s in, there have to be breaks. I try him again to no avail.

My heart seems to weigh double as I return to the house and climb in bed. When I talked to him today, I felt him put up some walls of his own. Will I be able to get through them? To reach him?

***

Since I go to bed at four o’clock, I wake up feeling hungover the next morning. I might have done a bit of crying in my pillow too. I’m still clasping my phone. That’s how I fell asleep. I look at the screen and my stomach plummets. I have no messages, nothing. Thank God I took the day off today as well. I wouldn’t have the energy to deal with a group of kids.

After dressing, I go down to the kitchen, only to find Dad already there and looking much better than I feel. Jenna is trying to feed him the contents of her entire fridge. I smell bacon and eggs, and my stomach rumbles. How I can still be hungry after all the mousse I had last night, I don’t know. But hungry I am.

“Morning,” Jenna greets. Dad merely waves, chewing on his breakfast.

“Where are Richard and Summer?” I ask.

“Summer’s at the gallery. Richard is in the gazebo, repairing a loose board.”

We make small talk over breakfast, and I do my best to assess Dad’s health status without seeming overprotective. He truly does look much better than yesterday. He’s no longer pale, and it helps that he isn’t wearing the hospital gown anymore. He looks like my strong father again, not the sick man he seemed yesterday.

After breakfast, Dad goes out to help Richard, despite mine and Jenna’s protests.

“I’m not a sick man.” He shuts us down and strolls out of the room.

While I help Jenna clean up, my mind races to Daniel. Even if he had back-to-back meetings, he could at least have texted. Now I’m worrying not only that he might have dumped me cold turkey, but that something bad actually happened to him. For the tenth time this morning, I wonder if I should ask Jenna if she heard from him, but I don’t want to worry her.

“Someone ate up all the chocolate mousse last night,” Jenna comments with a smile.