Page 10 of A Home for Harmony
“Thanks.”
Micah went to his room, put his gun in the safe, grabbed a change of clothing, and hopped in the shower.
Not even ten minutes later, he was sitting at the table with his daughter waiting for her to tell him what happened today.
“How was your day at work?” Scarlet asked.
“What’s going on with your mother that you’re here tonight?”
“I don’t know what her problem is,” Scarlet said, her shoulders dropping in an exaggerated teenage pout. “I took one look at her when I got home from Carly’s and her RBF said it all.”
He stopped chewing his chicken. “RBF?”
“Dad,” Scarlet said, rolling her eyes. “Resting Bitch Face.”
“Scarlet,” he said firmly.
“I tried to say it without swearing,” she argued. “You’re too old to get it even when I tell you what all these things mean.”
He would never keep up.
“Thirty-eight isn’t old,” he said.
“Old enough,” Scarlet said, grinning.
“Did you ask Mom what was going on?”
“I did,” his daughter said. “Then she bit my head off, so I grabbed my keys and shouted I was coming here, and left.”
He sighed. It never ended.
“So you have no idea if something is wrong?”
“No,” Scarlet said. “You can call and ask if you want. I think it’s just hormones. Maybe she’s going through her change.”
“Don’t say that to her.” Good lord, he didn’t need to address that battle.
His ex-wife was the same age as him. Maybe she got a little testy at certain times of the month. No different from his daughter who got emotional and snappy too, but he wasn’t stupid enough to ever saythat.
The last thing he needed was having the roles reversed and his daughter trashing him to her mother.
It was the one thing he worked really hard at when his marriage failed.
He couldn’t be a good husband it seemed, but he was going to try his hardest to be the best father he could.
“I wanted to,” Scarlet said. “But I didn’t. She’s probably fighting with Randy.”
Randy was his ex’s new boyfriend. Or old boyfriend. He couldn’t keep track. They’d been on and off for a year, per Scarlet.
“Whatever it is,” he said. “She knows where you are and she can call or check in with me if she wants.”
“She won’t,” Scarlet said, digging into her potatoes. “I don’t think she cares if I’m there half the time.”
“That’s not true,” he said. “Your mother loves you.”
“I know she does,” Scarlet said, grinning. “I’m a loveable person. But she still likes having the house to herself.”
He wouldn’t argue any of that because he didn’t know the truth either way.
