At her nod, he shifted his gaze to Aunt Dahlia. Caleb’s question about her father still burned in Ariel’s mind—did he support the two women’s decision about her career? From the slight scowl on Daddy’s face when he saw Aunt Dahlia, Caleb might have been right. Her mother and aunt may well have railroaded him into a decision he regretted. His long-ago words sizzled in her memory again.
She’s too young, Mary. I won’t let you and Dahlia?—
If this visit had felt awkward before…
Ariel moved to the stove and stood beside her always-busy mother. “Can I help?”
Mama just laughed and used an antique meat fork to turn a golden drumstick. “You’d better stick to singin’, darlin’.”
Did Mama think she’d abandoned her northern roots too? The stilted conversation in this house certainly gave the thought credibility. More than ever, she felt like a stranger in the North. In this home. In this family.
Suddenly, all she wanted was clarity from her father. She turned toward him, but he had his nose in his magazine. “Could we take a walk down to the spring?”
“Uh, sure.” He closed his magazine and left it on the table as he followed her outside.
They started toward the pasture and the little spring that bubbled up from limestone bedrock, the ground still soggy from last night’s storm. The sky had turned cloudy, and now the wind picked up, blowing tall grasses and rustling leaves.
“I hope we can eat before the storm hits,” she said, her gaze on the clouds.
Daddy looked into the graying sky. “Storm’s a ways out. Might rain on your ride home.”
“I wish we could wait it out here.”
“Call the fire department and tell them Dahlia Denton wants a ride home.”
Now that she suspected he didn’t exactly approve of Aunt Dahlia, she caught the sarcasm in his tone. He’d spoken of her this way as long as Ariel could remember, but she’d always thought he said it in jest. Today she wasn’t so sure.
She glanced up at the sky again. If she hoped to ask him about that night, she’d have to do it soon.
They stopped when they reached the spring and the lush foliage thriving among the rocks, and she summoned all her courage and looked into his eyes. “Daddy, what did you say when Aunt Dahlia offered to take me to Nashville?”
He kept his gaze steady. “You mean when she took you?”
Oh. Those words alone answered her question.
Her father drew a deep breath and blew it out, looking to the sky. Maybe to check the clouds or beseech the Lord.
“Your aunt is a powerfully determined woman. Your mother has a mind of her own too,” he said in that Nordic accent she loved. “Whenever they get together, trouble ensues.”
She lowered her voice. “What kind of trouble?”
“That night? They joined forces against me.” He put his hands on her shoulders, turning her to face him. “You’re my special girl, my bonus child. The surprise of you was the best I’ve had in my life, and I didn’t want you to leave me.”
Oh, Daddy…
She raised a hand to her tightening throat.
He hadn’t wanted her to go.
“I needed to raise you. I wanted you here, in my home, playing on my farm, growing up on my knee.” His voice cracked, and he swallowed. “You were the sweetest, most agreeable little girl I’d ever known, and you were a comfort to me.”
But he hadn’t raised her, not after her tenth birthday. And now, did they really know each other? The kind of knowing that comes only when a man gets eighteen years with his child under his roof, at his table, in his life?
The awkwardness in the kitchen said they did not.
Ariel stepped closer, laid her head on his shoulder. “But you didn’t say no.”
“Those two women are a formidable force.” Daddy’s arm came around her waist. “When they make a decision, nothing can stop them.”
