“For real?”
“Cars and guitars, Willow Halliwell. I’m shit at everything else.”
He roared away before I could call him a liar, and Kara chose that moment to open her front door, annoyance written all over a face so often clouded with disappointment.
I got out of Orla’s RAV4, ignoring Embry’s chuckle, and met Kara halfway up the path.
Sensing danger, Willow kissed my cheek. “Love you, Dad.”
She disappeared inside.
I offered Kara an apology. “Sorry about this morning. I didn’t realise I’d given her the impression she could bunk off college and come to the club.”
Kara sighed. “That girl hears whatever she wants to hear. I said I’d think about letting her go to the Sea Rave festival on adayticket and I caught her googling camping supplies ten minutes later.”
“Sea Rave Dark Nights? It’s in November. There is no camping.”
“How do you know that?”
I sent up a quick prayer of thanks to whatever deity had allowed my brother to fall in love with someone light years cooler than us. “Remy performs at the summer fest every year.”
“Well, regardless, after today, I don’t think she should go.”
“She’s nearly eighteen, Kay. After that, you won’t be able to stop her doing anything.”
Irritation flushed Kara’s thin face. “So you think I should just let her do what she wants?”
“No, I’m just saying maybe it’s better to let her go slowly before you have no choice in the matter and she fucks off anyway.”
“Like you did?”
A stalemate stretched out between us. Kara wasn’t exactly wrong, but it was ten years too late for this fight, and she knew better than to think she could goad me into it.
After a beat, she clicked her teeth. “Sorry, it’s frustrating when I’ve tried so hard to teach her to be responsible and she still ends up just likeyou.”
An apology with a jagged edge, but I’d take it. Kara was a good mum. She only bitched at me when she was worried. “I get it. How about if I take her? Would that work for you?”
“Would that actually happen, though?”
Ouch. But fair. “I can make it happen. My life’s different now. You know that.”
By her bank balance, if nothing else, but I wasn’t here for that conversation either. Man, I just wanted to spend some quality time with my kid before she flew the nest and never came back.
“All right,” Kara conceded eventually. “I’ll think about it. But don’t make her any promises, okay? She already thinks you’re going to buy her a car.”
“I did buy her a car. I took her to the auction this morning.”
Kara’s brows shot up, and she glanced beyond me to the idling Toyota. “That big-wheeled monstrosity? Are you joking right now?”
“No, and I’m not shitting fuckin’ money either. I got her a Fiat 500. A blue one, but a mate of mine is going to fix it up and spray it red for her.”
“What mate?”
“Nash.”
“Oh. Folk mentioned him. You’re sure it’s safe, this car? It has a service history?”
“Yup. Just needs brake discs and an oil change.”
