He’s stifling it hardcore.
“So, General Daniel, do you live in Copper Valley?” I ask asFletcher gets to work in the kitchen and I try to repress the little squeal of joy that my accidental sleepover is ending with him making me breakfast.
This would be way better if we were alone.
I’d bend over and pet Sweet Pea and give him a show if we were alone.
General Daniel shakes his head. “Hadn’t heard from Fletch in a while, so I flew in last night from Arizona.”
Fletch.
Isn’t that sweet?
Also, I notice he doesn’t tell me not to call himGeneral Daniel.
“How did you meet my son?” he adds.
“He passed out on me while giving blood a couple weeks ago, and I decided to keep him.”
“You a nurse?”
“No, I’m a life coach.”
“How old are you?”
Ah, the oldyou’re not old enough to be a life coachquestion couched as mere curiosity. I live for this one. “Twenty-eight, but I was born into the soul of a seventy-five-year-old woman, and I’ve read basically every human behavior book that’s ever been written. Plus, I’ve lived through a few things.”
“Wars and famine, hmm?”
“Death, divorce, injury, illness, broken dreams, broken hearts.” I shrug. “Maybe I haven’t lived through it as many times as other people, but that doesn’t mean I can’t understand what makes people tick and how to put them on a path to achieving their goals. My favorite thing about life is that you can do anything you want to do, no matter who doubts you or tries to tear you down.”
He flinches and looks away while Fletcher glances at me sharply.
Bull’s-eye.
It’s always some variation on this theme when it comes to men and their fathers, I swear.
“And how old are you?” I ask the general.
Fletcher makes a noise that he covers by aggressively beating four cracked eggs with a fork in a glass measuring cup.
“Sixty-one,” his father says.
“Which branch?” I ask.
“Army. Retired.”
“Recently?”
“Two years ago.”
“You taking full advantage of retirement, or are you still finding your purpose in the next phase of your life?”
“Are you life-coaching me?”
He doesn’t seem bothered by me peppering him with questions, and he isn’t givingyou’re too young to do this job you claim to be able to dovibes.
So I smile at him like I don’t suspect he was hard as nails on Fletcher when he was growing up. “I’m puzzling out where Fletcher came from and what retirement might look like for him.”
