Page 82 of A Line in the Sand

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Ursula blinked her big eyes at the sound of the wordno, and Molly felt infinitely worse.

She gathered the puppy into her arms and whispered into her fur, “That wasn’t directed at you, I swear.”

Ursula licked the tip of Molly’s nose, all forgiven.

Molly was officially out of excuses. She grabbed her cell phone and tapped the contact information for her parents’ landline before she could chicken out.

Her dad answered on the first ring. “Hello?”

“Hi, Dad. It’s me.”

“Hi, honey. It’s great to hear from you. Your mother will be sorry she missed you. She’s out getting her hair done.”

That explained why he’d answered the phone. Molly’s mother usually answered on the first ring. “That’s okay. I actually kind of wanted to talk to you, Dad.”

“What a nice surprise. Might this be about your grant proposal?”

Here we go.

“Actually, yes.” Molly bit down hard on the inside of her cheek. Why was this so difficult? “I messed up. We didn’t get it.”

“I don’t understand. How did you mess up?” he asked.

Had he missed the part about not getting the grant? “We didn’t win the grant. I failed.”

She held her breath and waited for him to tell her that she should have deferred to Max and his PhD.

To her complete and utter shock, he didn’t. “Honey, just because you didn’t win the grant doesn’t mean you failed. Quite the opposite.”

“How so?”

“You put yourself out there. You had a vision and you worked hard to make it happen. Just because the grant committee didn’t choose you as the winner doesn’t mean you failed.”

Who was this man, and what had he done with her father? “You remember my vision included dogs, right?”

“I do, but dogs obviously make you happy.” He laughed under his breath. “And I’ll admit your little Ursula isn’t so bad.”

Molly wasn’t sure why this surprised her so much. Ursula was an excellent canine ambassador. “On our last night of training, all five of the dogs alerted to the sea turtle scent. Itwaskind of amazing.”

Funny how she’d forgotten how wonderful that night had been. Or maybe she just hadn’t let herself remember.

“Let me ask you a question, honey—do you have any idea why I’m always encouraging you to consider graduate school?”

Molly rattled off several answers, mostly related to salary, tenure, and job security, but one by one, he shot them down.

“I give up. Why?” she finally said.

“Because for a long time now, it’s like you’ve just been going through the motions. I know you’ve been hurt, honey. But since your breakup last year, you just haven’t been yourself.” Her dad’s voice went soft—softer than she’d heard it in years. “These past few weeks, you’ve seemed more alive than I’ve seen you in a long, long time. You did a good thing.”

Molly’s throat closed. He was right, and now here she was, hiding in her beach cottage again…alone. And she was more miserable than ever.

“You put yourself out there, kiddo. You got out of your comfort zone, and that’s the most important thing. I wish you would have gotten your grant, but the fact that you didn’t doesn’t mean the process was a waste of time. And it certainly doesn’t mean that you failed. Your mother and I just want you to have a full life, and it doesn’t have to be on our terms.” He sighed. “I’m sorry if I made it sound otherwise.”

Molly sniffed. Shereallydidn’t want to cry again. She’d practically sobbed herself dehydrated in recent days. “You don’t need to apologize.”

“I think I do,” he said, and the tenderness in his tone almost broke her.

But maybe that was a good thing. Maybe the tear in her heart needed to be fully ripped apart before she could put herself back together.