Page 78 of Just This Once

She couldn’t always protect me from my decisions, but she had always been there to weather the storm of any consequences that came after.

“Do you think the Bluebirds know?” I asked.

My mother’s soft laugh filled her kitchen. “Darling, you were sucking each other’s faces off in a dark corner at a highly anticipated carnival in a small town. I doubt anyone is going to believe he was simply performing CPR. I think it’s safe to say everyone knows.”

From across the room, my dad cleared his throat, and Mom stepped back from our hug. I hopped off the counter, and Mom gave my arm one last reassuring squeeze.

“Good luck, but don’t let him fool you. He is still a big marshmallow,” she whispered.

I gave her a quick nod and walked across the kitchen, past Dad, and into his office down the hallway.

His home office was much more personable than the one at the station withChief Martinpainted on the door. Here, his computer desk was tidy, but framed pictures covered nearly every available surface. Snapshots from family vacations, Christmases, and old black-and-whites of his granddad, who was also a fire chief, added a cozy ambiance to the office. Despite it being summertime, his oversize sweater still hung on the back of his chair.

I turned to face him, leaning my butt against his desk and crossing my feet at the ankles. In the thirty steps between the kitchen and his office, I’d decided that my newfound Emily-ness was something I needed to embrace.

So I gathered my courage to face my stepdad. I took a deep breath and clasped my hands in my lap to keep from fidgeting. “So... I think I owe you an apology. I’m sure it was a shock to see the woman you raised in a slightly compromising position last night. However, Whip and I are both adults, and I don’t need your permission regarding who I date, so for that I will not apologize.”

“Okay.” My dad blinked. “Do you think you need to apologize for running away from me?”

“Perhaps.” I bit back a smile. “I panicked.”

Dad rounded his desk and sank into the chair with a sigh. “Oh, Melly. What am I going to do with you?”

I turned and sat on the love seat across from him. “I’m not a kid anymore, Dad. You don’t really have todoanything.”

He rubbed his eyes. Over the years the fine lines had aged him, but he was still exactly as I always remembered him. “Do you know I fell for you even before I loved your mother?”

I blinked at the man across from me.

“It’s true,” he continued. “You were three and your mother and I had been seeing each other for a while. She made me wait six months before I met you. Your hair was up in these little blonde pigtails, and youlovedparty dresses. In the backyard you plunked down in the mud, making a mess and having a ball.” His eyes went unfocused, as if he could see that tiny version of me so clearly. “I walked up to say hello, and you just looked at me, stuck out your chubby little hand, and said, ‘Well, come on.’” He laughed. “That’s all it took. Three little words and I was a goner.”

Tears pricked my eyes. I had never known my biological father, but the man in front of me was 1,000 percent always meant to be my dad. “I’m still that girl, Dad. I’m just...” I looked down at myself and sighed. “Older.”

“Time is a thief. You’re going to wake up one day and realize that all these days you wished would pass,have—and you’d give anything to slow it down.”

Emotion thickened in my throat. I hated thinking about my parents getting older and what that meant. Staying in Outtatowner would mean more time with them, and I clung to that thought.

“Which is why,” Dad continued, “you shouldn’t waste any of it on the wrong person. You and your mother are the reasons my life is as happy and fulfilled as it is.”

I frowned, not liking his implication. “What makes you think Whip’s the wrong person?”

He smiled. “I never said he was. He’s a good man. His work ethic is unrivaled?—”

“But what?” I stood, a tiny spark of indignation building in my chest. “That’s not good enough for you?”

Dad chuckled and lifted his hand to give me pause. “No man will ever be good enough for you, peanut. That’s just the way it is. But if you say he’s the guy then, well...” He sighed and let his hands fall to his lap. “Then he’ll be the guy. Change your mind,and there will be a hundred more lined up behind him waiting for his shot.”

I laughed at the ridiculous image he painted. “I doubt there would behundredslined up,” I joked.

He leaned forward. “You give so much of your attention to the man right in front of you that you can’t see anything else—and that’s not always a bad thing. But I saw it with that dipshit Craig, and I’m telling you, if you would have taken a peek around him, you would have seen what I saw a lot sooner.”

My voice was barely above a whisper. “What’s that?”

“You’re the prize. Always have been.”

My eyes dropped to my lap. “Thanks, Dad.”

“Ah, go on.” He laughed and cleared the emotion from his throat. “You’re a grown woman. Go live your life.”

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