Page 52 of Bring me Back

A few weeks ago, Dad and Daniel were best friends and now he was Miller? I fought the urge to roll my eyes or ask what crawled up his butt.

“How’s it going, Preston?” Daniel offered, at least he sounded natural.

“Are you Hallie’s daddy?” April asked, stepping closer.

“Yes, ma’am,” Dad replied with a twitch on his cheek.

“You don’t look old.” April frowned. “Just as old as my dad. That’s weird.”

We all exploded in laughter, of course. I heard Mark grumbling behind us, and my dad looked like he liked April much more than he liked me at that moment.

“Why thank you. That must be because Hallie here isn’t much older than you,” Dad said, as his eyes slid to Daniel.

Not much older than an eight-year-old?

“Oh, burn!”Abby whispered somewhere to my left.

“Excuse me?” I protested.

“Not that long ago you were that little,” the man who raised me insisted, pointing at April.

I scoffed. Rose asked; “How old are you, Hallie?”

“I’m twenty-two.”

Mark whistled and then coughed. Dad arched an eyebrow at me like he made his point. And Abby commented, “Damn, this is better than daytime television.”

“Thank you, Abby,” Daniel cut in.

I wanted to say something more, but I really didn’t want to talk about my age. Instead, I cleared my throat, “This is April and Rose, Dad,” I introduced. “Daniel’s nieces.” Dad took both of their hands in his like they were important business partners. “And this is Abby, the girls’ mother.” I turned a little to the side to let Abby come to us. “And Mark, Daniel’s brother.”

Dad shook hands with them both, but then, turned to April. “You’re right, your daddy definitely looks older than me.”

April giggled and Mark groaned as Abby patted his chest. “I love your dad-bod, honey.”

Dad seemed satisfied with the mess he was causing. He was just forty-five, and by looking at him, no one would have guessed he had a grown daughter.

April tugged my sleeve to show the line progressed a little. I followed her as Mark asked, “You own the hardware store, am I right, Preston?”

Dad nodded. “I never saw you around and I can’t seem to get rid of your brother.”

“We don’t live in Bluehaven,” Abby replied. “Just here to visit Dan.”

“Even if you did,” Daniel mocked, “Mark is shit with repairs. You wouldn’t catch him dead in a hardware store.”

“Excuse me?” Mark protested. “I know my way around, you know…”

“Tools?” They all laughed, but in my defense, he seemed to forget the wordtool.

“Are you good at fixing things?” Dad asked Abby.

She shrugged. “I’m better than him. But we are all very grateful when Dan comes to stay with us.”

Mark tried to defend himself just to have Abby tell everyone a story involving him and a leaking faucet. The faucet won.

“I was going to go for a ride with them,” I jerked my thumb toward the Ferris Wheel. “But I can do something with you after?” I’d have gone with Dad first but I didn’t want to disappoint the girls.

“No, no, bug. You have fun. I’ll move along and see if Marian can feed me.”

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