Page 105 of A Doctor for Daisy

He laughed. “You aren’t a serious person at all. Or at least I would never think that.”

“I know,” she said. “That is the funny part. But we all have to grow up at some point and I said that to her. I asked what her big issue was with Charlie. Was it his behavior? She’d told me he was perfect and yet I saw no signs of that.”

“What’s perfect in one person’s eyes is different for another,” he said.

“I know that. But she told me that in the beginning he was so great and she realized that he was trying too hard. That she didn’t like men who did that. And that maybe she wanted a little of what I had going on.”

He thought that was sad Penny was comparing her relationship to her daughter’s but wouldn’t address it. “Do you think your father did that? Do you even know?”

“No clue,” she said. “It’s one of those conversations we’ve never had. She won’t talk about him and it drives me nuts. I know his name, but that means nothing. It’s a common name and not like I could find anything on him.”

“What’s his name?” he asked.

“John Greene. Do you know how many John Greenes there are in this world?”

“A lot,” he said. “Just like there are a lot of Joneses in the world.”

“Exactly,” she said. “I just know they were young and he didn’t finish high school. Or he didn’t finish it at their high school. He had to go to summer school, if he did. No clue. He left the area and that was it.”

“I’m sorry you never had that in your life,” he said.

“Don’t be sorry. It’s hard to miss something you never had or experienced. Most of my friends came from broken homes. I think those that were better than me—”

“Don’t say those things,” he said.

“I don’t mean it as much as those that thought they were better than me. Is that better? They didn’t hang out with me. Those are the ones that were more likely to have stable home lives. My point is, I didn’t miss what I didn’t have. And sometimes I think it was easier to only deal with one parent and not be shuffled around.”

“You could say I came from a broken home,” he said.

“That’s true. But both of your parents were in your life. I’m sure it was still stable.”

“It was,” he said. “Though my parents divorced when I was around ten, I did spend time with my father. My mother remarried and Jerry is nice enough. I never had a problem with him. And as you know, I was away atcollege at sixteen.”

“I’m not sure how I’d feel being away on my own at sixteen. I like to think I’m pretty independent, but that’s still young to try to fit in.”

“Oh, I know,” he said. “But back to your mother. What else was said? Are you two okay after the talk?”

He wasn’t sure since she was bringing this up. Maybe her mother and she were fighting now and he got the feeling that never happened.

“I think we are okay, but it’s best to give each other space and let her deal with Charlie. I said a lot of things that I’ve been wanting to say. She was stunned by some and understanding of others. I didn’t want her to feel bad. I mean she did the best she could so this was a hard conversation.”

“Life is about hard conversations, Daisy,” he said. “Why should you sit back on the things you feel because you are afraid your mother won’t want to hear them? Then she keeps doing the stuff that you don’t want or need in your life.”

“I didn’t think about it that way. There were so many times I thought she was selfish because it seems she couldn’t give me what I needed even when I told her.”

“We have to be selfish in life too,” he said.

“I know. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you we talked. It’s all good. I think she will think about some of the things I said. But she also said that Charlie wants to take care of her and she doesn’t want anyone taking care of her. I said it’s not a bad thing if she can find a happy medium. She did agree with that. She also apologized and said that she knows she was acting differently at Thanksgiving and that she felt Charlie made her act that way.”

“People do change when they date someone. Not always for bad reasons.”

“Like you not being so serious,” she said, her hand coming over and patting his thigh.

“That’s right. And you wearing a solid-colored dress and looking so stunning I’m afraid my tongue might roll out of my mouth looking at you tonight. Or that I’ll say something really stupid and just not care.”

“I guess you’re right,” she said. “I don’t always wear very bold clothing. I just like to have one or two things stand out. My purse and necklace did it today.”

“You do it so well,” he said.

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