Page 108 of Shortcake
“Thank you, Dad!” She launched over the bed, throwing her arms around my neck to hug me. “So wait, you’re not mad that I was kissing Adam?” She pulled back from the hug, inspecting my expression.
“I’m not thrilled about it. But you’re sixteen. Whether I like it or not, it’s your choice who you kiss and when. Though, I would prefer it if he wasn’t touching your butt…”
“Dad! Oh myGod.” She buried her face in her palms.
“Butthat’s also your choice to make,” I reluctantly added. “Just know that if I have to arrest you for public indecency, I’mnotbailing you out. You’ll spend the night in one of my cells.”
We both laughed, but Iwasn’tkidding. God, I hoped she didn’t have to learn that the hard way.
“If you ever need someone to talk to about this stuff… ask questions… whatever, I want you to feel comfortable reaching out to me. Or Addy if you prefer.”
Harper’s cheek touched her shoulder as she tilted her head and leveled me with a look. “Yeah right. And then Addy will run right to you and tell you everything I just said.”
I shook my head no. “I’m going to tell her not to. Unless it’s something truly terrible like your life is in danger, I want to respect the relationship you and Addy have, too, okay? But in order to do that, I need to trust you. I need to trust you’re not going to be sneaking out, drinking, partying, doing things behind my back. Can we get to that place? A place of trust and respect?”
Harper nodded. “Yeah, Dad. We can.”
I pulled her in for another hug, just because I could and kissed the top of her head.
“So… can I go out with Adam tonight?”
I chuckled into her hair and shook my head. “How about the grounding officially lifts tomorrow night?”
She gave a half-snort, half-laugh kind of thing and shrugged. “Okay, fine. Maybe tonight we can watch A Fistful of Dollars.”
I clutched my heart. “You really are trying to butter up your ol’ dad for something aren’t you?”
Grinning, Harper shook her head. “Nah. I just like spending time withthisdad a lot more than the grumpy, stressed-out guy I’ve been living with these past few years.”
Ouch. But I knew she wasn’t wrong. I had too much on my plate. I was too alone in everything. Taking on too much. “I like being this dad a lot more, too,” I admitted.
This was the moment. I could feel it. I needed to tell her about Addy and me.
My mind raced with all the different possibilities on how to start this conversation. I’d gone over about a million variations on how to bring this up with Harper, but in the moment, I couldn’t even remember one. Not a single word of the dozen speeches I’d created in my head for just this moment.
I cleared my throat. “You know… Addy and I had a nice time the other night.”
“Yeah,” Harper nodded, popping up and grabbing a slice of pizza off the plate and inspecting the burned bottom. “She said Nowhere was too loud, so you two just went to dinner instead.”
Nowhere. Right. The stupid lie about the stupid club.
“Um… yeah. The dinner was great. I like her a lot.”
With the pizza halfway to her mouth, Harper froze.
Which only made me freeze.
Then… she started laughing.
Hystericallylaughing.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Oh God. I just thought… for a second… when you said you liked Addy that youlikeliked Addy. As in, you wanted to date her or something.”
Oh shit. I didn’t like where this was going.
“And that’s… funny?”
