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I turn the knob and open the door, trying to leave before we have to hash it out.
“If you only spent ten minutes with Candi, where were you the rest of the time?” Logan asks, following me outside.
I keep walking to my car. “Just sitting on the pier.”
“Well, I’m sorry it was such a bad night.”
I open the back door to my truck and set Krew inside, shutting the door once he’s situated. My mind flashes to Meg.
Tonight wasn’t a complete waste. Her throwing herself at me and getting her shoe stuck did have some benefits. I broke down a physical barrier. Now, I won’t be so weirded out the next time a woman tries to touch me.
I’m through the awkward stage.
I can only go up from here, right?
CHAPTER7
MEG
“Hold on, Meg,” my dad says. I can hear the woman at the fast food drive thru ask my dad what he wants to order. “I’ll take a number two, but without the English muffin.” My dad lowers his voice so I know he’s talking to me now. “I’m down five pounds.”
I shift the phone into my other hand and smile, because Dad told me this exact thing on Friday, the last time we talked. I think he forgets which daughter he’s already talked to. “That’s great.”
“I know. I fit into all my skinny shirts.”
“Mom would be so proud.” I laugh, thinking about my mom. “Or so upset that it took her dying for you to finally lose some weight.”
“And what to drink?” the fast food worker says through the speaker.
“A large Diet Coke.”
I look at the dashboard in my car. It’s 8:17 in the morning. He’s starting early on the Diet Coke today.
“Yeah, I’m going to wear my skinny shirt to the widows’ dance this Friday night.”
I grip the steering wheel tighter. “Are you sure you’re ready for that kind of stuff?” My eyes sting with tears, because I knowI’mnot. “It’s only been four months.”
“The single dances are where all the singles are at.”
Yes, that’s usually how it works. Single women are at single dances.
“There’s a dance every weekend,” he says. “So I will have plenty of chances to meet someone new.”
I blink back my tears. I know my dad is lonely, but it seems too soon for him to be looking for a woman to date. It’s like his forty-five years with my mom meant nothing. Like losing her was no big deal.
I can’t handle this conversation, so I change the subject.
“Zak and I broke up this last weekend.”
“Yeah, Tess told me.”
Leave it to Tessa to not keep her mouth shut.
“How are you holding up?” he says.
I think of my embarrassing debut into the single world last night on the pier. “I’ve been better.”
I can hear the ruffling of paper sacks as the restaurant hands him his food.
