Page 48 of Call Sign: Thunder
“Don’t tell my dad, but he’s a lot easier to keep up with than you are,” she said as they made the short walk to a nearby lodge. Between the air being thinner at this altitude and Zach’s athletic ability, the last four days of skiing was proving to be quite the workout.
“I would hope so,” he said. “Not only am I at least twenty-five years younger, I’m also on active duty while he pretty much has an office job.”
“Yeah, but he’s been skiing all his life.”
“Did you ever think he might be holding back just so you could keep up?”
“Why would he do that?” she asked, genuinely confused.
“For the same reason he doesn’t eat a meal until you come down to eat with him. And he won’t go clothes shopping unless you’re there to tell him if something looks good or not. Or how about how you picked out the Christmas gifts he sent to his staff.”
“You don’t understand. That only started after my mom died. I think it’s nice that he appreciates my help,” she said too defensively.
“Honey, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with him asking for your help. I just think…” Zach’s voice trailed off. “Never mind. I don’t want to start an argument.”
“There’s nothing to argue about. My dad and I are the only family either of us have left.”
“I know and like I said, it’s great that you are close.”
“But?” she pressed knowing he was holding his real feelings back.
He was saved from answering by the arrival of the server. “Hello. What can I get you today?” she asked.
Zach nodded in her direction. “Do you know what you want?”
Annoyed, Allison said, “Yes. I’ll take a Cosmo.”
Zach’s eyes grew a shade darker in the early evening lighting. “I thought we were gonna do one night run after dinner.”
“Oh we are,” she agreed before adding. “I’ll take a bowl of the mushroom soup and one of those heavenly dinner rolls with my cocktail.”
Allie was worried he might cancel her drink order so she was relieved when he let the waitress leave after placing his own order. Still, he looked like he was turning red from holding something in.
“What?” she finally prodded.
“Since when did you start drinking again? Other than a glass of wine with dinner here and there this last week I was happy to see you’d cut out the heavy drinking.”
“It’s one drink. I hardly think the world is gonna fall apart.”
He paused and finally nodded. “Fine, I guess one drink won’t hurt.”
For some reason it bugged her that he assumed he got a vote in what she ate or drank. Her “Gee, thanks daddy,” was full of the snark she was having trouble holding in.
Zach leaned forward until their faces were just a few inches apart. His hand gripped her forearm. “That’s the third time today you’ve called me your daddy. Knock it off.”
“What?” she said trying to make light of the comment. “I thought men loved it when their girlfriends called them daddy.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t mind if you were meaning it in a sexy way, but it’s just coming off as bitchy.”
“Did you just call me a bitch?” That he would call her a name truly shocked her.
“No. I said you were being bitchy and I’d really like to know why. I’ve racked my brain to try to figure out what I said and the only thing I came up with was it started yesterday morning when you bit my head off after I asked you about going back to school this coming semester.”
Ding, ding, ding. She didn’t answer with words, but she wasn’t a good enough actor to hide how his pressing her about the coming semester had thrown her into a panic.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she whined, looking out the bay window at the skiers passing by.
“Too fucking bad. We’ve had a great week together and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let things fall apart just because you don’t want to talk about something that makes you uncomfortable.”
