Page 53 of Once Upon a Holidate
“I don’t know. They’ll want to go out soon enough. When that happens, I’ll tell them not to come back.”
Garrick looked concerned. “You don’t have to do that, Joylyn. They can stick around if you want.”
“It’s not fun for me. I wish I’d stayed on base.”
“You could go visit those friends.”
“It’s too long a drive.”
“What if I took you?” he asked. “You could stretch out in the back of the SUV. We’d stop every hour for you to walk around.”
“Thanks, but no.”
“Then let’s decorate the house later. It’s the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so we need to put up wreaths and stuff.”
He sounded sincere, like he would really do that with her, she thought. This was the father she remembered—the one who took care of her.
She put down the half-finished snowman. “Dad, why did you stop seeing me? Before, I mean. When I was a teenager.”
He stared at her, his confusion almost comical. “We’ve talked about this, honey. I didn’t stop seeingyou. You’re the one who told me to go away. You said our weekends were boring and that you had better things to do. You refused to see me for weeks and weeks.”
He was right, she thought reluctantly. Thatwaswhat had happened. She’d been angry and she’d lashed out. Her mother had talked about forcing her to see her dad, but she never had. Joylyn had been left to make the choice herself, and once she’d turned her back on him, she hadn’t known how to change things.
“You should have tried harder,” she whispered, staring at the table. “You should have made me.”
“Is that what you wanted?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” She looked at him. “Then you were gone. I talked to mom about calling you, but you were just gone. You abandoned me.”
“Joylyn, you weren’t abandoned. I was working.”
“Doing what? Why would you disappear for months?”
“The first time was only a few weeks, and I was on assignment.” He hesitated. “I was in a joint task force with the DEA.”
She stared at him, not sure what to think. DEA? As in Drug Enforcement Administration? “Why would you work with them?”
“They were doing some things in the Phoenix area, and I had a little undercover experience. They’d offered me a couple of assignments, but I never took them because I didn’t want to be away from you. When you refused to see me for all those weeks, I finally accepted the job.”
“You worked for the DEA?” she demanded. “Was it dangerous?”
His gaze slid from hers. “I was perfectly safe.”
“You’re lying. You weren’t safe. You weren’t safe at all. You were working for the DEA and you didn’t tell me. That’s wrong, Dad. It’s really wrong.”
“Joylyn,” he began, but she cut him off with a shake of her head.
“No. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I don’t wantto know any of it. You should have told me back then and you didn’t, so I don’t want to know now.” She pointed toward the front of the house. “I have work to do. You need to leave me alone to get it done.”
“I want to talk about this.”
“No. We’re not talking.” She felt the familiar tears fill her eyes. “No talking.”
“Joylyn, please.”
She closed her eyes, willing him to leave. It took nearly a minute, but finally she heard him get up and walk out of the room. When he was gone, she opened her eyes.
More laughter erupted from the backyard. The sound made her feel empty inside. They weren’t her friends, not anymore. She placed a hand on her belly and willed her love to flow to her son.
