Page 36 of Her Cover Model Daddy
“Goodbye, Daddy,” Lacy whispered as she started the engine and put the car in gear.
She only had to stop twice on the way home to let the tears flow. Once she was cried out, she would mop up her face, blow her nose, and get back on the road.
Her phone buzzed several times with texts, but she did not check them until she parked in the driveway of the house she rented.
Only three were from Drake.
Daddy:
I miss you already, little girl.
Daddy:
My plane is about to take off.
Daddy:
I’ll talk to you tonight.
The rest of the texts were from Rebecca wondering where she’d been all weekend and why she hadn’t answered her phone. While Lacy had seen her cousin’s calls on her log, Rebecca had not left her any messages.
“She can wait until I unload and unpack,” she said, looking at Snowball.
The polar bear stuffie had ridden to the airport in Drake’s lap, then taken his place in the passenger’s seat.
Snowball agreed before asking if she was going to tell Rebecca where she’d been all weekend.
“I don’t know. I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it,” she said as she released her seatbelt and gathered Snowball, her purse, and the snack trash that had gathered at Snowball’s feet.
Half an hour later, Lacy stared at her phone, trying to come up with a believable explanation for her absence. First though, she decided to text Drake.
Lacy:
I’m home, unloaded and unpacked. Now to get to work editing photos.
After sending that message, she took a deep breath and called Rebecca.
“Where have you been? I needed your help with a shoot yesterday.” Rebecca answered the phone sounding aggravated. Lacy could hear noises in the background that told her Rebecca’s kids were tearing up the house. “Never mind. Can you come watch the kids this afternoon? I need to make a grocery run and David is spending the day at the golf course.”
With exhaustion weighing her down, Lacy took a deep breath and sighed. “I’m sorry, I can’t today.”
She rolled her lips over her teeth to keep from saying anything more. If she didn’t silence herself, she’d be telling Rebecca everything, including the fact that she was now competing with her book cover photography business.
“Oh. Well. Okay then,” Rebecca said sharply. “Guess I’ll have to take them with me.”
Lacy did not respond to that. Instead she yawned and said, “I’ll let you go then. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”
“Uh, sure. I guess,” Rebecca said before hanging up on her.
Lacy carried the phone to the bedroom with her. She would worry about making amends to Rebecca tomorrow. Right now, she needed a nap followed by a shower and something to eat.
Drake waited until he arrived home before turning on his phone. The texts from Lacy had him smiling, though the ones from work turned the smile into a frown.
Everyone working the weekend knew he was out of town, but they still texted him about the latest crisis. He was tempted to ignore the texts and messages on his phone, but being a responsible manager made him call in as soon as he finished unpacking.
It took three phone calls for him to find a plumber willing to fix the water-heater issue on a Sunday. Once that was handled, he went through the rest of his texts, emails, and voicemail messages and dealt with as much of the time-sensitive stuff as he could. The rest he would take care of when he returned to work the next day.
Maybe it was time to give real thought to changing jobs … and hometowns. He’d have to put out some feelers to see if there were any jobs open closer to where his heart lived.
