Chapter 7 #2
“Good to know.” Then she remembered what she’d ordered for dinner. “You’re not allergic to shellfish or anything else, are you?”
“Nope, just the nuts.”
“It’s been a shellfish kind of day for me,” Mallory said. “I had a lobster roll for lunch with my dad.” After a pause, she added, “I really love saying that out loud. My dad.”
“It must’ve been weird to meet him for the first time.”
“Actually, it wasn’t. Mostly because he’s incredible. He was totally shocked, don’t get me wrong, but he said and did all the right things—much more than I expected, in fact.”
“What did you expect?”
“Nothing, really. I remember being on the ferry that morning and feeling sick with nerves. It had been exactly a week since I’d found the letter my mother left me that told me where I could find him.
Part of me was incredibly excited just to see him and to fill in that blank, you know?
The other half was terrified that he’d say there was no way he could be my father. ”
“I’m trying to see it from his point of view. A gorgeous woman shows up and says she’s his daughter. What that must be like.”
Mallory was stuck on his description of her as “gorgeous.” Certain her face must be bright red, she cleared her throat and gave thanks for the low lighting. “After he read the letter, he was stunned speechless for a minute, and I’ve since discovered that’s a rare thing.”
“I haven’t met him, but I’ve heard great things. Everyone likes him.”
“It’s impossible not to like him.”
“So what did he say when you told him?”
“He said I look just like his mother.” Mallory could still remember the wallop of that revelation.
“I look nothing at all like my mother, so I’ve always wondered where my looks came from.
Later, my dad showed me a picture of my grandmother as a young woman, and the resemblance is uncanny.
That and the letter my mother had given me were why he never questioned my claim. ”
“That’s so cool.”
“I know. I was overwhelmed by that. That picture of our grandmother made things easier with my siblings, too.”
“Were you afraid they wouldn’t believe you?”
“I wouldn’t have blamed them. My father and his wife, Linda, have been very successful. Here I am out of the blue claiming to be the daughter he never knew he had. They were pretty cool about it, mostly because he asked them to be. It was hardest on Janey. She was used to being his only daughter.”
“Something like this brings out the best and worst in people.”
“I’ve seen only the best of my family. I got very, very lucky.
When I arrived the other day, they were waiting to help me unpack and move into my new place.
What I thought would take three days took three hours thanks to their help.
Of course, my dad was right in the middle of it, bossing everyone around. ”
“And you loved it.”
“I did. I can’t deny it. I’ve never had a tribe to rely upon. It’s taken some getting used to.”
“You’re used to flying solo, and now that’s not possible.”
She appreciated that he understood. “It was my choice to move out here and live in the middle of the scrum.”
“True.”
“I’m dominating the conversation. Tell me about you.”
“Your story is far more interesting than mine.”
“Let me be the judge of that.”
“Let’s see. We grew up in Paramus, New Jersey, which is just outside of New York City.”
“Who is we? You and Jared and who else?”
“Two older sisters, Katherine and Melissa. They’re both married with five kids between them. Kath is a lawyer and Mel works for Jared’s company. We also have a younger brother, Cooper. He’s in grad school in Boston.”
“What number are you?”
“Three out of five. Middle child and first son, who was given our mother’s maiden name for a first name.”
“I like it. It’s not a name you hear every day.”
“I like it now, but not so much when I was a kid and wished I had a name like Tom or Mike.”
Smiling, Mallory said, “Isn’t the middle child the one who causes all the trouble?”
“That’s me. I’m the reason we had rules, or so the others say.”
Mallory laughed at the face he made. “So you’re the black sheep?”
“I guess so, although I never set out to be the rebel. Just sort of worked out that way.”
“How so?”
“I got into a lot of trouble when I was a kid. Drinking, smoking pot, running with the wrong crowd. You know the drill. The day I turned eighteen, my dad took me to an army recruiter and told me to sign on the dotted line.”
“Whoa. That’s pretty hard-core.”
“Though I wanted to kill him at the time, he saved my life. I was going nowhere fast until the army got ahold of me and showed me there’s more to life than me, myself and I.
At first, I railed against the structure, the authority figures, the rules.
The dreaded rules. There were so many of them.
” He took a sip of his ginger ale. “But they wore me down over time. They forced me to grow up and get my head out of my ass. I had this drill sergeant… You’ve seen An Officer and a Gentleman, right? ”
“Only a hundred times. Hello, Richard Gere in uniform.”
The comment earned her one of his rare laughs, and oh, what laughter did to his handsome face. Dear God…
“My guy made Louis Gossett Junior’s character look like a pussycat. He worked me hard. Made me hate him. Later he said it was because he saw potential in me, but you couldn’t tell me that at the time. I thought he hated me.”
“When did you find out he didn’t?”
“Years after boot camp. I was a lieutenant colonel when I ran into him at a retirement party for a mutual friend. He told me then that he’d always known I would go the distance.”
“That must’ve felt good.”
“It did. We became friends after that, and we’re still in close touch to this day. He’s someone I truly admire.”
“That’s a great story. Your dad must be proud of your career, too.”
“He is. Of course, he also likes to pat himself on the back for dragging me to the recruiter.”
Mallory laughed. “Likes to say ‘I told you so,’ huh?”
“Loves it.”
“So how’d you go from enlisted to trauma surgeon officer?”
“That’s a whole other story.”