“Huh?” Doc asked again.
Uncle John’s bearded chin jerked back. “You havin’ a delayed reaction to that crack to the skull?”
Doc shook his head, willing his thoughts into some semblance of order. “Sorry. I’m just…” He glanced once again at the closed door. “Distracted, I guess.”
Uncle John chuckled. “Yeah. Before all this craziness went down, Cami had whipped you up into a pretty good lather, huh? So what? You nervous about gettin’ whipped up again? Don’t tell me you, of all people, are havin’ performance anxiety.”
“It’s not that.”
“Then what is it?”
“If I knew, I wouldn’t be standing out here in the hallway, would I?”
“Hmm.” Uncle John crossed his arms over his chest. “You wanna hear my thinkin’ on the subject?”
Doc curled his upper lip. “On the subject of sex? No thank you. My old man covered that in trauma-inducing detail the day I turned thirteen.”
“No, dummy. My thinkin’ on the subject oflife.”
Uncle John had an uncanny way of cutting through the bullshit. So even as Doc nodded for him to continue, he braced himself for whatever might come out of John’s mouth next.
“Happiness isn’t somethin’ that happens to you,” John said with a firm dip of his chin. “It’s a series of choices you make. And from everything I’ve seen, Camilla D’ Angelo makes you happy. So what’s holdin’ you back from choosin’ her?”
“Choosing her?” Doc felt his brow wrinkle. “You mean likechoosingher, choosing her?” When John nodded, an uncomfortable laugh burst out of him. “It’s not likethat. There aren’t any white dresses and wedding bells in our future.”
“Why not?”
Doc wouldn’t have thought it possible, but he was evenmorediscombobulated than he’d been two minutes earlier. “B-because I alreadyhadthe white dress and the wedding bells,” he sputtered.
“And according to you, you don’t regret that for one moment. You said it was your greatest accomplishment. Your grandest adventure.”
Doc blinked in confusion. “Yeah? So?”
“So who says you can’t have another?”
“Isay,” Doc staunchly declared. And then, because he didn’t like the thoughts and questions that began darting around inside his head, he turned the conversational tables. “Andyou’reone to talk. When areyougoing to get yourself a white dress and some wedding bells, huh?”
To his astonishment, John, the bacheloriest of bachelors, shrugged. “Who knows? It’s never too late, right?”
Doc jerked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. “Are you yanking my chain or just pulling my leg?”
John shrugged again. “I’ve recently realized there’s a reason a windshield is bigger than a rearview mirror. We aren’t meant to keep worryin’ about what’s behind us. We’re meant to keep our eyes focused on what’s ahead.” Before Doc could come up with an appropriate counter-argument to that ridiculous bit of countrified hokum, John turned and sauntered toward the staircase.
“Hey!” Doc called. “I thought you were helping LT keep watch over the thieves?”
“I am,” John tossed over his shoulder. “But Dana needs some crackers to settle her stomach and I think there’s saltines on the top shelf of the pantry.”
“Is she what you’re focusing on through your windshield?” Doc asked teasingly.
He expected a flippant reply. Instead, John admitted, “She’s definitelyoneof the things.”
Two seconds later, Doc lost sight of John—he’d been swallowed up by the darkness—but he could hear John whistling a Jimmy Buffett tune as he continued down the stairs.
Will wonders never cease?Doc shook his head.John Anderson, willingly looking for a leg-shackle?
It was like watching a fish walk on dry land or seeing a bird breathe underwater.
Turning back toward the door, John’s words replayed inside his head.
