Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Luke
The Saturday before Thanksgiving, Addie and I had another daddy-daughter date night planned. Our activity this time would be making friendship bracelets.
I’d been on time tonight, in no small part due to the weather.
A cold, heavy rain had been falling for the past three hours, making work miserable.
The crew had finished stringing thousands of lights along the gravel road, around the parking lot, on the nearby outbuildings, and around the sections of trees that would be for sale this season.
There were so many lights out there you could probably see our place from space.
These last few days before Thanksgiving would be busy as hell, but if the weather cleared up enough, we’d get it all done.
When I came inside, I found my dad sitting at the table, reading a magazine. A red meat sauce simmered on the stove, and a bowl of steaming spaghetti sat next to it on the counter.
“Hey, Dad, you okay?” I asked as I wiped the water off my face.
“Just resting,” he grumbled. “Was on my feet too much today, I reckon.”
Cooking didn’t help, I knew. I felt bad that my dad got stuck with most of the cooking, even though he’d volunteered to take it on once his doctor ruled out heavy farm work. Between meal preparation and Addie, he had a lot to handle on top of chronic pain.
He shoved his chair back as if to get up and finish putting dinner on the table.
“I’ve got this, Dad. You rest.”
He muttered as he stood anyway, took stuttering steps to the counter as he regained his balance, and turned the burner under the sauce off. No one ever said he wasn’t stubborn.
“Go get your shower, son.”
I wasn’t going to eat in wet, smelly clothes, so I hurried through a shower and returned to the kitchen as he was taking garlic bread out of the oven.
“Hi, Daddy!” Addie finished setting the table and ran over to hug me.
“Hey, doodlebug. Are you ready to make friendship bracelets?”
“We have to eat first,” she said as if I was an idiot.
“Of course. We need fuel to power up the friendship bracelet factory.”
Once we were all sitting down and had our plates full, my dad asked about what our crew had accomplished today. We talked trees for a few minutes.
“When are we getting our Christmas tree?” Addie asked.
“We’ll see when we can find time. Probably one evening after all my work is done,” I told her, making a mental note to keep an eye out for a tree that would work in our usual spot in the family room.
“That would mean you can’t sneak out that night,” my dad said.
“I don’t sneak out.” I shoved a bite of spaghetti in my mouth to hide my reaction.
“Where’ve you been running off to every night anyway?” he asked.
“It’s not every night,” I said, quibbling with the unimportant part of his question. I took another bite to buy time, my thoughts spinning.
Looked like it was confession time. I was aware of Addie’s eyes on me as she nibbled her bread. Presenting this so that she could understand was vital.
“I’ve been dating someone,” I told them both.
“Who?” my dad asked.
“Magnolia James.” I took another piece of bread, trying to act as if I hadn’t just dropped a bomb.
I hadn’t dated anyone seriously enough for Addie to know about since her mom and I split up, which had happened when she was less than a year old.
“Are you gonna get married?” Addie asked.
“We only just started dating, bug,” I told her. “People usually take a long time to get to know each other before they decide to get married.”
The exception seemed to be all the guys in my dads’ group. They’d each met their ideal person and jumped in with both feet pretty fast. Every last one of them except for Ben had fought their feelings up to a point, but then that point hit, and they were all in: engaged, married, what have you.
Now?
I was only a week into spending time with Magnolia, but I couldn’t fathom letting something come between us again.
It was as if the old feelings had never gone away, even though I’d buried them with anger, and we’d cared about each other for almost two decades.
At least that’s how I felt. I wasn’t sure she was with me on that yet, but I could be patient.
“The James girl,” my dad said. “How’d you manage that? She’s not exactly in the same demographic as us.”
I’d never told my dad about Magnolia and me in high school, so he didn’t know about our past. He was removed from town gossip for the most part as well, unless Viola Berry, who cleaned the house for us every other week, got chatty.
He didn’t use his phone for anything other than texting and phone calls, so he missed out on all the news, legit or not, the Tattler spread.
He obviously didn’t know about Magnolia and her supposed father’s falling out a couple of years back.
“Her family has money, but she’s estranged from them,” I said, trying to keep it simple, well aware of my daughter’s little ears picking up everything.
He grunted. “That’s a point in her favor then. That Felix James is a—”
“Dad,” I interrupted. Whatever he’d been about to say, I’d likely agree with it, but I didn’t need Addie to have all kinds of conflicting ideas before she even met Magnolia.
“Magnolia lives in a studio apartment above The Lily Pad and works hard building her business up. She’s not like her parents. ”
“Can I meet her?” Addie asked.
“I’d like that,” I said. “I was wondering what you two would think if we invited Magnolia to our house for Thanksgiving dinner. She’s not close to her family, and I’d hate for her to spend it alone.”
My dad sipped his decaf coffee and eyed me. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I was under the impression you didn’t think much of this girl.”
That was an understatement, as I hadn’t ever hidden my opinion from him. He’d experienced the full power of my past anger toward the James family.
I’d thought about that a lot lately. What I’d concluded, I wasn’t too proud of.
All these years, I’d blamed Magnolia for my mother’s downward spiral.
That had been wrong for two reasons: one, Magnolia had never accused my mother of stealing her ring; therefore she wasn’t responsible for my mom being fired.
Two, my mom was ultimately responsible for her own mental health and wellness.
She’d been wronged without a doubt, but bad things happened in life, and it was up to each of us to come out stronger after challenges.
If that meant getting extra help, then that’s what we had to do.
Sadly, my mom hadn’t found a way to do that in spite of a family who loved her and tried everything to help her.
She’d refused counseling and hadn’t been good about taking her medications.
“I recently learned it was all her father behind Mom’s employment issues.” I glanced at Addie to find her paying full attention. “I was wrong about Magnolia.”
“Gotta admit it’s no surprise about the father,” my dad said.
“So can she, Pops?” Addie said.
“Can she what?” my dad asked.
“Can Magnolia come for Thanksgiving?”
“I got no problem with it,” he said, “as long as she understands that’s opening night for trees, and our day revolves around that.”
“Yay!” Addie’s eyes sparkled as she scooped up another bite of spaghetti and sauce.
My dad narrowed his eyes at me. “Been a good bit since you brought a woman home for dinner,” my dad said.
“Been a good bit since I’ve liked one enough,” I answered.
The truth was, I hadn’t ever had feelings like this.
Even Addie’s mom… There’d been attraction and chemistry and eventually love, but Magnolia was different.
We’d grown up together, had a special bond that I’d been stupid enough to ruin, and now we miraculously had a second chance.
I wasn’t going to screw it up this time. I was all in with Magnolia James.
Now I just had to hope Magnolia would get there too.
Step one was convincing her to spend the holiday with us.