Page 89 of Saison for Love

“I’d say not.” He leaned against the side of the door. “Now tell me what’s going on.”

“My dad wants me to visit him in California, which I sort of wanted to do at first. But now, I’m not so sure.”

“Why’s that?”

“I guess he thinks I’m sort of weird. He got all up in Mom’s face about buying me my chain-mail gloves, but I don’t understand why exactly. And he said he thought I was strange. Or sort of strange. Mom said he was talking about some TV show, but I didn’t get that part.”

The need to punch David Mobley had become acute. “Yeah, well, that’s horseshit. You’re not strange at all. You’re smart, and sometimes dumb people get nervous about smart kids. But you just ignore them if they do that.”

“It’s hard to ignore somebody calling you strange,” Carol said slowly. “Particularly when it’s your dad.” Her lower lip began to tremble. “He says I should move to California with him full time. Then I wouldn’t be so weird. I guess he thinks he can fix me.”

Liam bent down on his haunches until the two of them were roughly eye-to-eye. “Look, here’s the thing. You don’t need fixing. You’re the least broken person I know. Your mom is a great mom, and you’re a great kid.” He had no idea if he was putting that the right way, but it was the only way he knew how.

Carol nodded stiffly. “Yeah, I know. But I really wanted to visit him and see California. Only I don’t want to go if he’s going to try to make me different.”

Liam shook his head slowly. “He can’t make you different if you don’t want him to. And you can come back here and be the same person you were when you left.”

Her jaw firmed. “I don’t know if I want to do that anymore. Why should I go to California if he’s being such a butthead?”

Why indeed? But he didn’t think agreeing with her was a good idea right then. “Because this is your best chance to get to know him better. And for him to get to know you better. He’s not used to Antero. He probably thinks we’re all weirdos because we’re not like the people he knows. Hell, even I think we’re all sort of weird, but I’m used to it, so it doesn’t bother me.”

Carol’s lips crept up slightly into a ghost of a smile.

“Maybe you need to be patient with him. I mean, you can let him know how you feel, and you should. He may not realize he hurt your feelings.” Yeah, she should definitely tell him about that—and hope that he’d listen. “But let him get the hang of this parenting thing. It’s tricky. The two of you need some time together to work things out.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to him. Maybe I can make him understand what he did wrong.”

“I hope so.” He started to push himself to his feet, then paused. “One question—why did you come here tonight?”

She blinked at him. “To talk to you, of course.”

“Why me?” He’d never figured his charm extended to twelve-year-olds.

“Because you like my mom. And she likes you. And I sort of helped you get started with all of that. I figured you might be able to help me. Which you did. Why did you go away, anyway? Mom’s been awful unhappy for the last few days.”

He shouldn’t have been pleased to hear that, but he was. “Your mom and I had an argument. It was sort of stupid, but I was letting her cool down.” And hoping like hell that she’d let me come back.

“Okay, maybe I’ll talk to her about it.” She gave him a beatific smile that managed to turn into a yawn.

“Come on, kid, let’s get you home.” He extended his hand toward her and she took it.

It was still early by Antero standards. As they walked down Main, he could hear music from some of the bars, and couples stood two-deep outside the doors of the more popular restaurants. Black Mountain Tavern could have made it. There’s room for another bar. A good bar, anyway.

Something to think about once he took care of the current crisis.

The lights were on at Ruth’s house. They climbed the stairs to the porch as the front door flew open. Ruth knelt down in front of her daughter and gave her a fierce hug, which Carol returned. Then she leaned back to look at her daughter. “Okay, kiddo, you’re in major trouble, you know.”

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