Page 64 of A Lesson for Laurel

“I’m glad you did. You know I like to hear your voice over texts all the time.”

“I thought I’d call and talk to you about Easter.”

“Oh,” her aunt said. “We can eat whenever works for you. I know an earlier dinner is better.”

“Is it okay if I bring someone with me?” she asked. She hadn’t asked Easton yet and was pretty sure he’d be alone. That didn’t sit well with her, but she wasn’t sure he was ready to meet her family either. It was going to be a slippery slope to navigate.

“Always,” her aunt said. “Is it a guy or a girl?”

“It’s a guy,” she said.

“Let me find a chair and get comfortable. I need to hear all about this.”

“I figured you’d say that. His name is Easton Cooke and he’s temporarily living next door while helping his cousin run his business.”

She told her aunt everything that was going on, for the most part. She kept the sex out of it. Some things she’d never share.

“Sounds like you shoved those pretty toes of yours deep down your throat there in the beginning.”

“I did,” she said. “But he was nice enough to hear me out, let me apologize, and we’ve moved on from it.”

“Which is a great quality to have. Your father has no idea about this, right? Because you know he would have come to me to ask all sorts of questions. He’s still pissed about everything with Philip.”

“No, Dad doesn’t. Can I ask you a favor?”

“You want me to play the peacemaker?” Aunt Helen asked.

“Kind of. I’ll tell Dad when I hang up with you. But he’ll come up to talk to you to know what you know. I just don’t need Dad being Dad right away.”

“Girl,” Aunt Helen said. “Your father is who he is. You can’t ask someone to be someone they aren’t. You should know that well.”

She didn’t need to feel the shame with those words. “You know what I mean. It’s more about him not coming on so strong. He didn’t with Philip.”

“And look at how well that worked out,” Aunt Helen said.

“Fair point,” she agreed.

“I’m not telling your father what to do. It’s his right as a father. But you can tell him what you told me. Give him some information and ask him not to be too harsh. Do you think Easton can’t handle it?”

“I’m sure he can handle anything,” she said.

“Then I have no idea what the problem is,” Aunt Helen said.

She didn’t know either other than she worried that Easton would think it was too much too soon.

Normally she loved it when her father was protective of her, but this time, she wasn’t so sure she wanted it.

She hung up with her aunt and called her father. “What’s going on, Laurel?”

“I’m dating someone,” she said. Might as well lead with that information.

“Good,” her father said. “I’m glad to know you’re not still beating yourself up over Philip.”

“I didn’t beat myself up over him. He got what he deserved. I don’t regret one minute what I did.”

“I didn’t say that,” her father said. “I meant that you questioned what you could have done differently. You’ve done that your whole life.”

She had done that in the beginning. “I didn’t do it long,” she said. “He wasn’t for me and I was the idiot who fell for it. That’s on me and no one else. I learn from my mistakes.”

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