She stared out at the vines for a moment. "He went away on a climbing trip with his friends. And he didn't come back. Neither of us knew about Zia before he died."
Charles cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, my dear."
She shook her head. "No, I wasn't asking for your sympathy. I just wanted you to know." She tried to shrug it off. "Didn't want you thinking there's a deadbeat dad out there who might show up one day." She gave a short laugh.
But he shook his head. "Don't do that. Please."
"No. I'm sorry. You're right. I'm really not trying to make light of it."
"I understand. And it means the world that you shared it with me."
She nodded. "It means the world that you shared with me too, Charles. Thank you."
He smiled and turned to stare up at the sky again, darker now, the stars shining a little brighter.
~ ~ ~
Zia skipped along, shaking glitter from her pot onto the sunflowers as Reaves watered them. She did it every time, convinced it helped them grow. Reaves wasn't so sure about that, but she enjoyed herself so much that he couldn't bring himself to say anything.
She'd been chattering away while they watered and picked weeds, mostly about Homer and occasionally about Callie. She caught up with him at the corner of the house.
"What are you waiting for, Prince Daddy?"
He stared for a moment at Alara and his dad, sitting quietly, gazing out at the vine-covered hills, each seemingly lost in their own thoughts. He turned around and grinned at Zia.
"I'm thinking we should probably go water the flowers around the front. We forgot them."
Her little face fell. "Oh no. We can't forget those flowers. They're pretty, too." She frowned. "But we don't water them because they're pretty. We water them because they're flowers, they're growing things, and because they need water, and we have it."
He chuckled. "That's right. Come on, let's go."
She leaned to one side, peering around his legs at her mom and his dad. "Do you think they're okay?"
"I think they are. They look peaceful, don't you think?"
She nodded sagely. "Yeah. Mom doesn't often get peaceful time. We should let them enjoy it, right?"
"That's what I was thinking."
As they walked back around the house, the sound of a dog barking carried on the breeze, and Zia froze. "Do you think that's Homer?"
"I doubt it. He'll be tucked up safe and asleep at the shelter by now."
Her little eyebrows drew together. "He doesn't like it there, you know."
"What makes you think that?"
"Because there are lots of other dogs there, and they're all excited, and they want to play, and they bark a lot. They like to run around and play. Homer doesn't like to play."
"Maybe he does."
She smiled. "I think he'd like to play with me." She turned to look back over her shoulder. "But I think maybe he'd like to sit with Mom and Grandpa Grape and enjoy the peace too, you know?"
He ran his hand over her head. "Yeah. I think I do know."
"Can we go visit him tomorrow?"
Reaves let out a short laugh. "I don't know about tomorrow. There's a lot of work to do around here."
