Page 69 of Reckless

They shook hands while her dad gave him the dad look. Friendly but also with an edge of parent who wanted to be sure this person would treat their baby well. “Hey, Miles, good to see you.”

“Thanks for including me today.” Miles looked effortlessly cool. It was sort of annoying because she had to put a lot of effort into looking effortless and he just rolled out of bed that way.

But he was also sweet and warm and good with people and her dad was smiling and looked relaxed, so there was that.

“Come in. Lunch just got set up so we’re ready to go. I made everyone stay in here, so I got to hug you first,” her dad said as she was then hugged by a line of her honorary uncles.

“Punky, you’re there in the middle of the table. Miles is on your left and I’m on your right. That way everyone is close enough to you to visit but I still get to be right next to you.” Her dad pulled a chair out and she sat in it, pulling it in herself.

Soon enough, smoked meat sandwiches showed up with two different salads. This smoked meat thing was something she really liked about Canada.

Once everyone started eating, her dad made them stop pelting her with questions. “Let her tell everyone at once. Go on, Punky,” her dad urged.

She told them the song they’d just contracted for a movie, their gold record, singles charting and that they’d been added to two more summer music festivals in the U.S. and nearly cried at all the wonderful things they said in response.

“Tell me good things about Harlow,” Miles asked everyone at the table, making them like him for it because they loved her too.

“We all watched Harlow grow up,” Stuart, her dad’s closest friend, said. “Remember your gig out in San Bernadino? Still in high school if I remember correctly. Y’all were babies.”

Miles turned to her. “God, let this be one of your stories,” he said crossing his fingers, making her laugh.

“I don’t remember what the name of the festival was. We were still in high school and didn’t have licenses yet, so Marcella drove us.” Harlow and her dad both laughed at that. “It was hot as balls. Dusty. We were on the new talent stage at eleven in the morning or something like that. I think the crowd consisted of my dad and the band and a bunch of other dudes who were also dads and wanted to support us. Adorable.”

“That was a very short story,” Miles said, disappointed.

“Tell him the best part,” her dad said.

She cocked her head, trying to remember anything notable other than being sixteen and having a bunch of dads rocking out to their music.

“The thing you said to the guy from that other band. I can’t remember the name. Seems we’re both getting old, Harlow.”

“Oh! That guy. I don’t know the name anymore. One of those names with the super fancy gothic looking fonts. Murder Stains or Satan’s Taint, whatever.” Harlow waved a hand because she did remember what her dad alluded to.

“So, as I said it was the up-and-coming stage at a time most of the musicians weren’t even up. But lots of young bands were there and there was a strict timekeeper to keep things going or there’d have been nine minute guitar solos, and half the bands wouldn’t have been able to perform because everyone went over time.

“Satan’s Taint played before us and went overtime. It was early enough in the day that the timekeeper dude wasn’t super grumpy yet, so he gave them two chances before he pulled the plug. No working mic, nothing. But there’s beef and the lead singer is yelling about being silenced and we’re just doing our thing. Roadies—not even theirs I don’t think—have shown up and are taking their gear away. There’s more whining and the other members of the band have accepted this and are off the stage.

“We plug in becausewedeserve electricity, thank you very much. And then the lead singer comes up to me andtries to take my mic. I mean. Timekeeper is pissed and naturally the dad filled audience isn’t pleased and there’s rumbling and dad looks. I take my mic back. He wants to explain to me why he has been wronged like I wasn’t there when their band went six minutes over their time and wasn’t wasting our band’s time. Which I said to him and told him to back off or I’d back him off. Then he told me to calm down.”

Harlow wanted to laugh at the gasps in the room. They’d all been there but they still knew what a thing it was to say to a woman.

“So you did time for murder and didn’t tell me?” Miles teased.

“Ha! No. I said into the microphone,when a man tells a woman to calm down, a deep, dark fissure to her meanest, angriest self gets opened up a little deeper. Do you want to be the one calm down that finally releases all that lava all over you? No? Don't tell women to calm down. Now get the fuck off this stage.” She shrugged, pleased by that memory. “Nora counted off and started playing and he slunk off.”

“That’s my girl,” her dad said.

Not too long before they had to leave, Miles got a chance to speak one on one with Richie, so he took it. He knew how much Harlow respected her father and he deserved that respect. Miles wanted Richie to like him and support his relationship with Harlow.

Richie gave him a sideways look. “Tell me about the situation in Atlanta with Gloria. Jenna said very little, but that you’d been at a dinner where something terrible went down.”

Miles shook his head. “No sir. I don’t think I can. You need to ask Harlow. She’s the one who needs to talk to you about it.”

“She’s trying to protect me by not telling me a lot of very bad things that came her way from Gloria, isn’t she? I should have known. She was a terrible chapter in our lives, and I just wanted to close that book to protect us both.”

Sure. Miles agreed that in retrospect Richie should have known. Should have pushed Harlow to tell him more. But Miles also heard the way the man spoke about his child. And he’d seen over and over how much he loved Harlow. Richie might have fucked up. But he did the best he could at that time, Miles was beginning to believe.

But there was something there. Something more than Richie trying to protect his kid by pretending away the bad shit and being the best he could to make up for it. Miles could feel it. And it had to be connected in some way to whatever the hell had ended their marriage and had Gloria dumping Harlow off without looking back.

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