“Go get your shower, son.”
I wasn’t going to eat in wet, smelly clothes, so I hurried through a shower and returned to the kitchen as he was taking garlic bread out of the oven.
“Hi, Daddy!” Addie finished setting the table and ran over to hug me.
“Hey, doodlebug. Are you ready to make friendship bracelets?”
“We have to eat first,” she said as if I was an idiot.
“Of course. We need fuel to power up the friendship bracelet factory.”
Once we were all sitting down and had our plates full, my dad asked about what our crew had accomplished today. We talked trees for a few minutes.
“When are we getting our Christmas tree?” Addie asked.
“We’ll see when we can find time. Probably one evening after all my work is done,” I told her, making a mental note to keep an eye out for a tree that would work in our usual spot in the family room.
“That would mean you can’t sneak out that night,” my dad said.
“I don’t sneak out.” I shoved a bite of spaghetti in my mouth to hide my reaction.
“Where’ve you been running off to every night anyway?” he asked.
“It’s not every night,” I said, quibbling with the unimportant part of his question. I took another bite to buy time, my thoughts spinning.
Looked like it was confession time. I was aware of Addie’s eyes on me as she nibbled her bread. Presenting this so that she could understand was vital.
“I’ve been dating someone,” I told them both.
“Who?” my dad asked.
“Magnolia James.” I took another piece of bread, trying to act as if I hadn’t just dropped a bomb.
I hadn’t dated anyone seriously enough for Addie to know about since her mom and I split up, which had happened when she was less than a year old.
“Are you gonna get married?” Addie asked.
“We only just started dating, bug,” I told her. “People usually take a long time to get to know each other before they decide to get married.”
The exception seemed to be all the guys in my dads’ group. They’d each met their ideal person and jumped in with both feet pretty fast. Every last one of them except for Ben had fought their feelings up to a point, but then that point hit, and they were all in: engaged, married, what have you.
Now?
I was only a week into spending time with Magnolia, but I couldn’t fathom letting something come between us again. It was as if the old feelings had never gone away, even though I’d buried them with anger, and we’d cared about each other for almost two decades. At least that’s how I felt. I wasn’t sure she was with me on that yet, but I could be patient.
“The James girl,” my dad said. “How’d you manage that? She’s not exactly in the same demographic as us.”
I’d never told my dad about Magnolia and me in high school, so he didn’t know about our past. He was removed from town gossip for the most part as well, unless Viola Berry, who cleaned the house for us every other week, got chatty. He didn’t use his phone for anything other than texting and phone calls, so he missed out on all the news, legit or not, the Tattler spread. He obviously didn’t know about Magnolia and her supposed father’s falling out a couple of years back.
“Her family has money, but she’s estranged from them,” I said, trying to keep it simple, well aware of my daughter’s little ears picking up everything.
He grunted. “That’s a point in her favor then. That Felix James is a?—”
“Dad,” I interrupted. Whatever he’d been about to say, I’d likely agree with it, but I didn’t need Addie to have all kinds of conflicting ideas before she even met Magnolia. “Magnolia lives in a studio apartment above The Lily Pad and works hard building her business up. She’s not like her parents.”
“Can I meet her?” Addie asked.
“I’d like that,” I said. “I was wondering what you two would think if we invited Magnolia to our house for Thanksgiving dinner. She’s not close to her family, and I’d hate for her to spend it alone.”
