No.
My heart sinks like it’s made of lead.
That would make me twelve. And that wooden plank I can clearly remember him tucking under his arm… that was for Hailey.
Dread coils in the pit of my stomach with the secret I’ve been unknowingly keeping from her. The one where I went on a camping trip with her father that she wasn’t invited on.
“It was the first gesture you ever made that showed you thought of me,” she whispers. “I was ready to feel like I was floating on that swing. But you never came back.” She shakes her head. “You nevercomeback.”
Jack stands and clears his throat. But he pinches the bridge of his nose and says, “I thought I could do this. You came home, and I thought?—”
“That things would be different this time,” she finishes for him, like she can relate.
Anguish grips his features. “I don’t know how to do this, Hayes. How to be a good father. I know I’ve failed you. I’m so sorry.”
I hear his boots clunk against the floor as he backs out of the living room and through the front door.
Like hell he’s sorry!If he thinks he’s going to just leave her here crying without making sure she’s okay first, he’s got another thing coming.
I burst out of the bedroom and rush to her, wrapping her in my arms. She quakes against my chest.
“Shh, it’s going to be okay,” I whisper into her hair, then press a kiss to the top of her head.
She tries to grab on to my arm as I chase after him, but her fingers only trail at the hem of my shirt.
“Reed, no,” she calls from behind me, and I pause my steps. “He wants to go.”
“He’s your father, Red. If he can’t see for himself, he needs to know what he’s missing out on.”
It takes everything to leave her there, but it’s something I have to do.
He’s almost at his truck when I step onto the gravel driveway and call out, “Why do you shit all over her, huh?”
He doesn’t turn around to look at me when he speaks next. Not that I’m surprised. “Stay out of what you don’t know, Reed.”
Be damned my goal of getting him to trust me. She doesn’t deserve this.
“No, you know what, I won’t stay out of it.” I reach for his arm and jerk him around. We may be the same height, but the man hasn’t taken a day off in years, and he carries the fatigue around with him like a weighted blanket. I could rip his arm right out of its socket if I’m not careful.
“I know more about her in a few weeks than you ever have.”
He pulls himself free and continues his march toward his truck. But I stay no more than two feet behind him.
“Did you know she likes her coffee black? Just straight black, no sugar. Or that she eats M&Ms in the order of a rainbow.”
He reaches for the door handle and stops. I take it as my sign that this is working. That I’m getting through to him.
“She likes it when you sing the lyrics wrong to a song when she gets anxious. And her eyes…”
He yanks open the car door as he whirls around.
“Don’t tell me about my own daughter’s eyes!”
“Why?” I press in closer, getting right in his face. “Because?—”
“Because I know what they look like! There isn’t a single moment I don’t spend seeing them everywhere I go. So, stay out of it! This is the last time you’ll be defending her to me.”
Jack jumps in the front seat and slams the door shut, peeling his truck away in reverse.
