“You, uh, still watch?” I ask slowly.
“When Dad isn’t paying attention. He hates the Knights now, always roots against you.” She rolls her eyes. “He’s like a child sometimes.”
“Still hates me, huh?”
She shrugs. “I guess. We don’t talk about you anymore. Not for a long time. Ivy’s pregnancy kind of overshadowed anything to do with you, especially when Will just joined the Navy and disappeared. That’s Charlie’s father.”
“I would have taken care of both of you,” I say firmly. “You know that, don’t you?”
She smiles, but it’s a sad, wistful smile. “I do. To be honest, it kind of hurt my feelings that you thought I would hide your kid from you. I wished more than anything that I hadn’t lost our baby. We were too young, but I already loved him or her. And I would have happily kept it. Even if you didn’t want to be involved.”
“That wasn’t even an option. I can’t speak to what kind of dad I would have been at nineteen, but there would have been money and at least a good amount of time in the off-season. I know my parents would have wanted to be involved too.”
She nods. “I know.”
“I wish…” My voice trails because it’s hard to articulate exactly what it is I wish.
That things had been different?
That I’d been different?
That her father wasn’t such an ass?
All those things are a given.
The only question now is how to move forward.
Can I just take her back to school, drop her off, and walk away without looking back? I did it once before, and everything inside of me is screaming that’s exactly what I should do now, but there’s a tiny part of me that doesn’t want to.
“You wish?” she prompts when I just sit there turning it all over in my mind.
“I wish we could go back in time and make things right,” I say.
She shakes her head. “But then we wouldn’t be who we are today. Or where we are.”
“Are you…happy?” I ask carefully. “Just, in general.”
She wrinkles her pert little nose, green eyes thoughtful. “I don’t know if happy is the word. I’m content. I’m too busy to think about the state of my life, if I’m honest. I’m in school Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from ten to two. Then I’m at work from 2:30 to 9:30 Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. And from nine to five on Saturdays. Then from ten to four every other Sunday. The rest of my time is spent studying or helping with Charlie. Once in a blue moon, like Friday night, I go out with my friends, but then I work a double on Saturday to make up for the hours.”
“Do you graduate in June?” I ask.
“Yup.”
“Then what?”
“I look for a job and start saving to buy a house or condo. Assuming my parents don’t start asking for rent.”
“And you’re, uh, single?” I shouldn’t ask but I can’t seem to help it.
She narrows her gaze slightly. “Does it matter?”
I shrug. “Not really. But it might if I was going to ask you if you wanted to do this again sometime.”
Chapter 6
Victoria
Do it again sometime?
