“We’re coming.”
“Well, hurry up. We’re not waiting for you. Our reservation is at six, and you won’t have time to get here and be ready,” Dad said gruffly, and I sighed.
I hated that my dad cared about appearances.
He never hadbefore.
He was a billionaire a few times over, honestly, I didn’t know how much was in his account these days and I didn’t care. The moment Nikkie strutted onto the scene, Dad changed. Before Nikkie, he spent more time in his ripped jeans and worn flannel than anything with a brand name on it. Now, though, the man I’d always known, the man I’d grown up adoring and admiring was all about how he looked.
What hurt the most was it wasn’t just Dad who changed. I changed, too. One morning, I’d come out the front door of my cute three-bedroom house, the house that still had a mortgage on it that I was proudly working on paying off, to find my old trusty and reliable Toyota on the back of a tow truck replaced by a brand new black Porsche Cayenne. I’d protested at the driver, demanding he give my car back, but he refused. Said he’d been paid and had his orders. It didn’t seem to matter that it was my car he was stealing. He’d just looked at me, shook his head, and told me, “Lady, stop complaining. If some old dude was giving me a Porsche you wouldn’t hear me bitching.”
“It’s fine, Dad. We’ll grab something on the way.”
“Fine.”
“Look, Dad, it’s getting dark, so I’m going to go.”
“Drive carefully,” he added, softening. “I’ll see you soon. Noelle, Poppy’s got a surprise for you,” he threw in, and I caught my daughter bouncing in her seat in the rearview mirror.
“See you soon, Dad,” I replied.
“Mom! Poppy said he has a surprise!” Noelle cheered full of excitement.
Dad’s promises were worse than a sugar hit.
“Yeah, he did,” I replied, hoping he hadn’t gone too over the top this time. She already owned a pony.
He might think he needed to show his love through extravagant gifts, but at the end of the day, all he ever needed to do wasbe there. Noelle loved spending time with him and when he visited, they’d sit for hours out on the porch swing, taking turns to read the books Noelle was obsessed with.
A two-dollar book and an hour of his undivided attention was all my daughter wanted, and for that, I was so proud. I was under no illusions that I was the perfect parent, I doubted anyone was, but I had to be doing something right if all my daughter wanted from her rich grandfather was to sit and read.
We approached another sign and I slowed again.
Thirty miles to Evergreen Lake Inn.
The advertisement showed the perfect holiday getaway. A huge Christmas tree. Lights. A family laughing.
My stomach recoiled.
A family. A family was a mom, a dad, and a child. It was a home filled with love and laughter. It was something Noelle and I had once, but she was too young to remember. It was a blessing and a curse.
Noelle’s father, Nicholas, had been the love of my life. We were high school sweethearts who shouldn’t have stood a chance. We had everything against us, including my parents. My family was rich, there was really no other way to sugarcoat it, and Nick, well, he wasn’t. Nick wore clothes his mother purchased at the thrift store and lived in a small house on the other side of town. But they were an amazing family. When they were all home together, his mother, father, Nick, and his two sisters, there was so much love around the dinner table. It didn’t matter that his mother worked two jobs and his father worked long hours. They were a family and fought and loved ferociously.
He was my first everything. My first crush. My first love. My first heartbreak.
The day Nick told me he was enlisting, my heart shattered. He was leaving me. He was choosing to leave me. Something hepromised he’d never do. We were eighteen with the world at our feet with plans for our future.
Nick had driven us to our spot. A shady spot under a large oak tree down by the lake. We’d made out in the front seat before moving into the back and taking it further. It wasn’t until I was lying in his arms, wearing my panties and his T-shirt, that Nick decided to obliterate my heart.
“Holly,” he’d begun, shifting me in his arms.
“Mmm,” I’d murmured my reply, still completely blissed out.
“I’m leaving,” he announced.
“What?”
I was sure I’d heard him wrong. He didn’t say what I thought he did. He couldn’t have.
