Page 197 of Smooth Sailing

God, it was awesome to see Dad laugh.

And it came to the fore what I’d known all my life.

He was really handsome.

Totes, my dad still had it.

“I’d won most of that on an amazing roll of video poker, so I was feeling sassy, took it to the roulette table and let it ride,” I shared. “I cashed out right away and I’ve never been to another casino again.”

He put his arm around me and guided me through the courtyard toward my elevator bay. “Although I would never advise my daughter, who was working to build her life, or anyone, to lay down big money on a single-digit roulette bet, you certainly invested it well.”

Dang, I felt like preening.

I didn’t think I’d ever preened in my life, but I felt like doing it then.

I fobbed us into the bay, and as we were waiting for the elevator, Dad said, “You handled yourself well with your mom, Buttercup.”

I scrunched my nose.

“She’ll take you back in an instant, you decide to change your mind on your decision to go no contact,” he assured.

The elevator doors opened, we walked in, I fobbed my floor and turned to my father.

“We both know she’ll put me through the wringer, twist it until I’m apologizing to her, and things will go back to the way they were, which isn’t healthy.”

Dad decided not to say anything.

“It’s going to suck and I’m going to miss her, but, Dad, I told her I’d been assaulted. Gram nearly passed out, but Mom had zero reaction except about what was happening to her.”

“Indeed,” he muttered miserably.

Sadly, I couldn’t do anything about his misery; I was too busy dealing with my own. And in the end, we were both going to have to learn to live with it.

We got off the elevator and he took my hand.

I stopped and looked up at him.

“You and I need to talk about that,” he said carefully.

“No we don’t,” I disagreed. “You didn’t handle it well at the time. I made that abundantly clear and held my grudge too long. Honestly, do you think you haven’t made up for it?”

“I hope so.”

“So can we just move on?” I requested.

His fingers tightened around mine. “I’d love that.”

“And it isn’t about the money in the trust, though we should talk about that too.”

This time, his hand squeezed mine. “Diana, you shouldn’t refuse it.”

“I’m proud of what I did.”

“I’m proud of what you did too, sweetheart. But you could drain that trust and remortgage your condominium, and significantly reduce your payments.”

Hmm.

“Or you could let it sit and have a very nice down payment when you decide to move up the property ladder,” Dad went on.

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