Page 62 of And Then There Was Us
He heard a smile in his father’s voice.
“Your last race is this weekend. This is about the time of year when you get itchy for the next adventure. How’re you holding up?”
His father knew him too well. In previous years, it had taken Hugh a solid month to settle back down and not feel the need to drive fast or party all night. Actually, that part of him never really settled down until recently, and it was exactly why he had phoned his father.
“I’m holding up just fine with regard to racing, Dad, but I kinda have something else on my mind.” He checked his watch. He had to walk out the door in five minutes if he was going to pick up Brianna and Layla on time. “I met someone, Dad. Someone I really like.”Love. Someone I love.
“I might have heard something about a woman.”
Hugh closed his eyes.Of course you have.The phone call with Treat came back to him.
“And if I heard right, a child, too.” Hal’s voice carried no judgment. He had always been careful not to tell his children what to do, but he never failed to point out his thoughts in subtle ways. Ways that usually ended up revealing more about the person’s hidden feelings without them even knowing it.
Now it was Hugh’s turn.
“Brianna. She has a daughter, Layla.”
His father inhaled deeply and then blew it out slowly. “Well, children are blessings. How do you feel about Brianna?”
He had so many memories of driving his father crazy by wrestling in the living room with his brothers or sledding over the fields his father had told him to stay off of—but where the other kids sledded was too slow for thrill-seeking Hugh. He could hardly believe his father coined children as blessings, even if his father’s love was limitless.Rascals, maybe.Pests that he loved, definitely. But just blessings with no mischief wrapped around it? Five boys and one feisty girl couldn’t have been easy on him as a single father. Although now that Hugh thought about it, he couldn’t retrieve one memory where his father made him feel as though he were a burden.
“I love her, Dad.” There. He’d said it. He hadn’t even told Brianna yet, at least not in so many words. Hugh had never told a woman he loved her before. He’d always been too independent and self-centered to put a woman’s needs ahead of his own. Until Brianna.
His father made ahmphnoise. “And Layla?”
“That’s kind of why I wanted to talk to you. I don’t understand what’s going on with me. I’ve only spent a little time with Layla, but I swear, Dad, I have loved her since I fell for Brianna. It’s like because she’s Brianna’s daughter, she’s automatically in that love zone. Is that totally wacked or what?” He paced again, waiting for his father to tell him that he had no business with a woman and a child because he had no idea what love was, or he was too self-centered. And maybe he’d be right. Hugh had no idea if what he was feeling was crazy or not. He didn’t wait for his father’s answer. “Every time I think of not being with them, it’s like someone reaches into my chest and tears out a piece of my heart. It’s pretty messed up, right?”
“Well, son. You’ve always known when things were right in your life. I remember when you were home on a college break and I asked you what business you wanted to go into. You had no idea. You looked at me like I look at Max when she talks about that darn interweb.”
“Internet.”
“Whatever,” his father said. “So I asked you what brought you happiness no matter when you did it.”
“And I told you that I loved racing more than anything even though it was supposed to just be a hobby that I did on weekends and in my spare time. Then you told me to do it. I remember.”
“I raised you and your brothers and sister to love with your whole hearts. Heaven only knows why it took each of you so long to realize that, or to allow yourselves to love. That’s probably my fault, too. But you, Hugh, you love completely. So all you have to do is ask yourself if Brianna is the woman who makes you happy no matter what. And then you need to think hard about that little girl, because there will be times when she’s a teenager and she sneaks out of the house or brings home some crappy guy who only wants to get in her pants, and you gotta know in your heart that even when she lies or when she goes against your words, you’ll love her through it. No matter what.”
Hugh pictured his father looking over the horses in the fields and replaying memories of the trying times from Savannah’s teenage years. And smiling.
His father continued. “You asked me if it was wacked that Layla fell into the love zone before you spent much time with her, and, son, love has no zones. Love is whatever it is, and trying to fit it into a box all neat and tidy will never do anything but drive a man crazy. Love isn’t neat and tidy. Love’s messy and, in some ways, indefinable. I don’t think what you’re feeling is wacked at all. You’re an all-or-nothing guy. Always have been. If you’ve made up your mind with Brianna, and Layla is part of her life and part of her heart, then of course you’ve embraced her. That’s love, Hugh.”
An unexpected feeling of peace washed through Hugh, followed by a rush of adrenaline.
“Thanks, Dad. This is all so new to me that I wondered if I was losing my mind.” Hugh looked at his watch. “Hey, Dad. I’ve got to run. I’m taking Brianna and Layla on a date and I’m late, but your advice means the world to me. Thank you.”
“I look forward to meeting your ladies, son. And do me a favor, will ya?”
“Anything, Dad.”
“Let Treat in on your feelings. That man worries about you as if he were your father, and heaven knows you’ve still got me for that.”
Hugh laughed. “Sure. I’ll call him tonight. I love you, Dad.”
“I love you, too, son, and I’m so proud of you. You had me worried for a while there. I wondered if I had somehow turned you off toward love. That would have broken my heart.”
“No, Dad. You’re the one who made me realize how important love is and how much I should treasure it.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
