Page 54 of Falling With a Spin

We both answer her at the same time and my face turns red once again.

“Oh, my god, it smells so fucking good in here.” It’s a voice I haven’t heard in forever, and it brings a smile to my face.

“Watch your language, Lakeland Connor,” Leslies scolds my younger brother while pointing a pair of tongs at him.

He walks towards me, and I have to look up to see him. Lakeland is thirteen years old and looks just like their mom, with blonde hair and green eyes. He is much taller than me, which isn’t surprising. I’m the shortest. He wraps his arms around me, lifting me and squeezing me tight, not letting me go.

“Okay, okay, okay, you can put me down now.” I laugh.

Stepping back from him once he sets me down, I see him shoot dagger eyes at Hunter. “Lakeland, this is Hunter. Hunter, this is my brother Lakeland.” Lakeland stares at him while Hunter shifts between his feet and looks towards me. “He is my friend from school.” I quickly say.

“Alright, everyone. Breakfast is ready,” Leslie says, breaking the tension. I grab a seat towards the end of the table.

Hunter sits down to my left, in between Aurora and me, while my two brothers sit across from me. Dad sits to my right, at the head of the table, I gave him a small smile, murmuring a good morning, and Leslie sat across from him on the other side. Once we are all seated, we pile our plates up with food.

Breakfast is quiet with small talking filling the air. Once Lakeland is done, he drags Hunter to his game room, Aurora excuses herself to the bookstore with some friends and Caden sneaks off with Leslie. Which leaves my dad and I alone in the kitchen cleaning up.

“How are things going with school?” He asks while I wash the plates and hand them to him to dry off.

“They are going pretty good. I had to retake a test for Calculus, Hunter tutored me for it.”

“That’s good. I'm glad he was able to help you with that.”

I nod my head and continue with the rest of the dishes.

I hand him the last dish to dry and turn towards the bedroom to lie down since I didn’t get much sleep last night after we had landed.

“Hey, Emma, do you have a second?” My Dad's voice echoes.

Turning back around, “Yeah, what’s up?”

“Let's go outside and talk.” He walks towards the back door that leads to an open space patio with a few chairs and couches. In the middle of the backyard is a gated swimming pool, and a few loose toys are floating around.

He sits down on one of the couches, rubbing his hands together. Sitting down, I turn to him, only realizing then that his hair is a little grayer and the worry lines on his face are more prominent. People always say to cherish the time that you have with your parents because you don’t know when it will be the last.

“When you were born, that was the greatest day of my life.” My breath hitches, and I lean back. “Everything flipped upside down when I first held you in my arms, and you were just this small bundle in my arms. Then you wrapped your small hand around my pinky, and I melted. I couldn’t understand how someone that had just come into the world could do that.” He continues staring out past the backyard as silent tears stream down my face.

“Then I lost you. Becoming selfish by letting the divorce between your mom and me affect our relationship. All I wanted was the best for you.” He looks at me with a sad smile. “When you wanted to stay with your mom, I let you. When you did come to the house, I wasn’t sure what to do. There was so little time before you went back. If I have one regret in life it would be that. I know I did a lot of things that hurt you while you were growing up. But it didn’t mean I loved you any less.”

I wiped away the tears, “Our relationship hasn’t been sunshine and rainbows for a long time, Dad. I’ve always envied the relationship you have with my siblings.” I look out towards the mountains. “Seeing how you are with them made me feel that I wasn’t good enough. I was only ten years old. A little girl yearning for her Dad’s attention.” My voice shakes with nerves. “I wish we could go back in time and have the relationship we both wanted, but we can’t. All we can do now is move forward and create that relationship. It will take time and trust.”

He reaches over and grabs my hand, “I don’t like where we are at, and I want to get to the point where you come to me for everything and anything. I know we won’t have the same relationship as you have with your Mom, and I’m okay with that. But I would like to get to know who my daughter is.”

I throw my arms around him, and a small sob rakes through me. After a couple of minutes, I pull back and wipe the tears away.

“Alright, what would you like to know?”

“Anything,” He says, letting out a shaky breath.

For the next few hours, I tell him everything. Starting with the accident that happened junior year. He tells me that he knew how much dancing meant to me, and that takes me by surprise. He apologizes for not being at any of the recitals but the videos that my mom would take, she would send them to him. I tell him about the crazy adventures I’ve had so far in college and how I met Taylor. He asks questions in between about how my mom is doing and if Caleb followed me to college, like we alway planned on doing. When I mentioned the Basketball scholarship that Caleb got, the excitement in his eyes made me smile a little.

“That's all I really have. Not much else besides that,” I shrug, taking a sip of the iced tea that Leslie brought out to us earlier.

“I think you are missing one key person,” He raises his brow at me; seriously, how does everyone else do that but me? “the boy you brought with you.”

“Well, I'm not actually sure what we are.” I sigh, looking towards the mountains. “But, he was there for me during a rough time. Ever since then, we have been hanging out quite a lot.”

“Well, as long as he treats you right, that's all I care about.” I lean against his shoulder. “We should probably go inside. I think I can hear your stomach growling.”

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