Page 52 of One Chance to Stay
“So…” I almost regretted the decision. What if I said too much? Did Grace know her dad’s secret? I couldn’t be candid with her and hold Seamus’s confidence. I stepped out onto the tightrope.
“Why’s your dad such a grump?”
She snorted, nearly dropping her coffee cup. Shaking her head, nose scrunched up, I could see a bit of her dad. Herpersonality might take after her mum, but there were moments when I spotted Seamus’s contribution.
“That’s a loaded question,” she said between coughs. “Dad is…”
“A pain in the ass?”
“Such a pain,” she said. “But a lovable pain, you know?”
If she only knew. “Can you help me understand?” I could feel the sway of the rope as I tried to walk the fine line. “He’s a nice guy. I mean, hedidsave my life. I wanted to repay him, but there’s?—”
“An impenetrable wall? Every time you think you’re seeing therealhim, he patches up the cracks? He’d let everybody believe he has an antisocial disorder. Honestly, I’m not surprised he saved you. He’s a giant teddy bear. Talking to you like a normal human?Thatsurprises me.”
Grace had run up one side of her dad’s personality and down the other. I should have guessed she’d have turned a little of her social worker know-how on her dad. Instead of beating around the bush, she lunged into the heart of the problem. The more she talked, the more I liked her.
“It’s like you grew up with him.”
“He wasn’t always like this,” she admitted. “My parents split when I was young, but—” She scooted to the edge of her chair. “One year, I told my mom this dumb boy claimed Santa wasn’t real.”
“Lil’ bastard.”
“Right? She must have told my dad. I was celebrating with Mom. She would always wrap the presents in green paper. There’d be one…onlyone, in red paper. That’d be the present I got to open on Christmas Eve. I scoured under the tree. No red present. Mom claimed she must have forgotten.”
I smiled, knowing exactly where the story headed.
“It was almost bedtime, and there came a knock on the door. When I opened it, there stood Santa.” Grace took a deep breath before wiping the tear from her eye. “They were on rocky terms, I think. But there was Dad, with a white beard and red suit. When I saw him next, I told him all about it, and he kept his usual straight face.”
I couldn’t help but think about the stern-faced man feeding the deer. Or the way he folded my clothes each morning. On the outside, he held onto this steely version of himself. Yet, inside, I found him to have a gentle sweetness. I’m sure there were many men like him, taught to keep their feelings in check, but he took it to an extreme.
“Based on your expression, you know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“He’s a complex man.”
“What did you hope to get out of me? Do you want my personal or professional opinion?”
I had a thousand professional questions for Grace. What drew her to working with kids? Did it leave her fulfilled? Why kids and not adults? What was school like? Would she do it again? I hadn’t committed to the idea, not yet. My brain barely had a moment to breathe since Evelyn put the idea in my head. It’d wait. Right now, I wanted the opinion of Seamus’s daughter.
“Your dad makes it hard to be friends. There are moments when it feels like he’s trying to connect.”
“Then he pulls away,” she said. She didn’t wait for my nod. “Mom left Dad for his own good. I truly believe that.” Did her mother know the exact reason? “I’m sure she told him that a thousand times. He only saw his family abandoning him. I see it with the foster kids. They’re slow to trust.”
“How do their foster parents handle it?”
“The most you can do is to be there for them when they’re ready. A gentle nudge now and then can be helpful. Good foster parents have patience and let it happen organically.”
“What happened between him and Walter?”
She shrugged. “I honestly couldn’t tell you. One day, Walter was over having coffee while they talked about the weather, and the next, Dad was mumbling about wanting solitude.”
I hoped for more insight. She had?—
“You’re not the man I pictured him with.” I gagged, trying to disguise it as a cough. “But you obviously care.”
“What? Huh? I don’t?—”
“Good grief. What did you think? That I didn’t know my dad is gay or that you’re sweet on him?”
