Chapter Sixteen #2
Harper checked her watch. They had at least ten minutes to spare, but Alana was in a hurry. Emmett had joked last night that Alana was the reason they sometimes missed the bus because she was too busy putting on her makeup and getting ready.
Harper didn't think he realized how hard his words landed on his eldest daughter. Not even when she'd joined in on Alana's side, saying that a girl had to get her makeup right.
This morning, it seemed that Alana was trying to make sure everything ran smoothly. Harper had heard her alarm go off at 6:15, and when she'd come downstairs, her makeup was done and she looked all ready to go — before Tanya was even up.
"You're not giving me a hug before you go, Sprout?" Emmett asked.
Alana rolled her eyes at him as she came back into the room. "Of course I am, Dad. I wasn't going to go without hugging you." She shot a quick glance at Harper. "But you don't need to call me that anymore."
Harper's heart fell at the flash of disappointment that crossed Emmett's face before he smiled and said, "Yeah, right, sorry. I forgot. You're grown up and past all of that now, aren't you?"
"Yeah."
Harper felt for both of them. Alana was trying to walk the line between becoming her own person — her own woman — and not losing the bond that she shared with her dad. Emmett was trying to give her freedom without necessarily understanding just how much she still needed to be his little girl.
Harper cleared her throat. What did she know? She'd never been a mom. She was probably just projecting her own crap onto them.
She turned away but stopped when Tanya came to her and wrapped her arms around her. "Thanks for breakfast, that was awesome. And I'll see you after school, right?"
"You will. I'll be there to get you, and we'll hang around until Alana's done with her rehearsal." In fact, she glanced at Emmett. "Maybe we'll go grocery shopping while we wait."
"Yay," said Tanya. "I love grocery shopping."
"You love sneaking ice cream and cookies into the cart," Emmett told her sternly. He didn't manage to keep it up, though. He smiled at Harper. "You need to keep a close eye on her, or you'll come home with more surprise desserts than actual groceries."
"I'll be good," said Tanya.
"You better," said Alana. "Come on, we need to go or we're going to miss the bus."
Harper walked with them to the door and watched them make their way up the long driveway toward the road. She'd offered to drive them out to where the bus stopped, but apparently that just showed her up as someone from the city.
Alana had explained that it wasn't that far, and out here, it was just what you did — when you couldn't get a ride to school, that was.
From what Harper understood, Emmett took the girls all the way up to school a couple of days a week when he could. But they were used to riding the bus. This was nothing out of the ordinary for them.
Tanya looked back and waved when they were halfway up the drive. Harper waved back and waited, but Alana didn't turn around.
She was hoping that things would run smoothly with Alana. She understood the girl was in a difficult position. Fifteen was a tough age for a girl, especially when she didn't have her mom around.
She closed the door and went back into the living room. "How do you think we did?" she asked Emmett.
He checked his watch before saying, "I don't remember the last time I ever got them out the door this early. But I'm damn sure it never went this smoothly. You have the magic touch."
"No." She sat down in the armchair across from him, looking serious, even though it saddened her to see his smile disappear. "It's not me that has the magic touch, Emmett. It's the circumstances. They're both trying really hard."
"I know. I can see that. I'm just trying to keep things light."
"Fair enough. But…" She hesitated, but only for a moment—she had to say it.
"Don't keep things too light. Tell me to butt out if you want.
But then again, you did say you were going to ask for my perspective on things.
So here you go; I'm going to give it to you. You need to go a bit easier on Alana."
He frowned. "What do you mean? I'm not hard on her." His eyes darted from side to side. It was obvious to see he was trying to check if he could think of any instances when he'd been hard on his elder daughter.
After a few moments, he looked back at her and shook his head slowly. "I don't understand what you mean."
"I know," she said with a wry smile. "That's why I feel like I have to say it—things you think of as a joke land hard for her."
"Like what?" he asked immediately.
"Like about her taking too long with her makeup."
He scowled. "That was a joke."
She held his gaze and waited.
"Shit. But she didn't take it as a joke, did she?"
Harper shrugged. "All I'm going to do is point things out.
You don't need my opinion. The fact that I'm pointing them out tells you all you need to know in that respect.
What I will say is that she was up very early this morning and down here in the kitchen, full makeup on, before Tanya was even awake. "
"Shit. I didn't mean to do that to her, Harper. I didn't realize..."
She held her hand up. "I know. And I feel terrible being the one to point it out to you, but someone has to.
You're a fantastic dad, Emmett. You've done an amazing job raising those two girls.
But Alana's on the brink of becoming a woman.
She's not just a girl." She shot him a quick smile.
"And I know sometimes it's difficult for you men to understand us women — unless we spell it out for you.
So, this is me volunteering my services to point things out to you on Alana's behalf. "
"Thanks, Harper. I appreciate it."
"Don't look so stricken. You haven't done anything too horrendous.
And at the end of the day, she's also going to have to learn that sometimes people will say things that hurt her feelings.
But at the moment, with you hurt and me here in her home as some kind of interloper, she needs to know that Dad's on her side. "
"Yeah, I can see that. Thanks, Harper. I hope she can see that you're on her side as well, though."
Harper smiled at that. "I wouldn't be here if she couldn't. But that's the thing.
While she's caught between being a woman and a girl, just because she can see the good in having me around doesn't mean that all of her likes it or even wants to accept it.
I get that. I'm not sure she does, but you need to, okay? "
He gave her a wry smile. "You're not just a pretty face, are you — you're smarter than the average bear."
She laughed out loud at that. "Well, coming from Papa Bear, I'll take that as a compliment. Thank you. Do you want some tea?"
He held up his travel mug. "I’m good thanks."
As he moved to the edge of the sofa, she hurried toward him. "Let me guess, you still need to get rid of the last one before you have another."
"Afraid so."
With that, she helped him to his feet and tried to help him down the hallway to the bathroom. "You're really not good at accepting help, are you?" she asked when he hissed from the pain instead of letting her take any of his weight.
"Hey, you can't get mad at me for it—you knew that from the beginning."
"Not mad," she told him as she pushed the bathroom door open for him.
"Good," he told her as he went inside. "I'd hate to make you mad at me."
She pulled the door closed and left him to it, murmuring to herself as she went. "Not mad at you. I just wished... Just hope you might learn to trust me enough to lean on me."