Chapter 4 #2
Maybe it was just as well she was here where he could keep an eye on her since he was spending half his time worrying about her anyway.
He couldn’t afford anything happening to her while he was gone—like another drinking episode.
If Sarah was this serious about needing his attention, he planned to make certain she had it.
By the time he finished speaking to the teacher—assuring her he’d come in for a meeting to discuss the issue as soon as he returned to Miami—he noticed Sarah had her head down on the table, arms folded.
“All set,” he told her, passing back her phone.
Only to realize she’d fallen asleep right there.
Crap. Now what?
A stress headache promised to level him any moment now. He gripped his temples and squeezed tight.
“Everything okay?” Erin asked, appearing at the open entryway between the back room and the rest of the store.
She stared at Sarah and then at him, her new bronze highlights catching the overhead light. He told himself to pull it together. Now that Sarah had passed out on Erin’s table, there was no pressing need to get out of the store.
“I suppose everything is all right. Until the next crisis that comes with having a teenager.” He tucked Sarah’s phone in his pocket for safekeeping. “Sorry I didn’t get to introduce the two of you before she conked out. That’s my daughter, Sarah.”
Erin watched him with a wariness that he hadn’t seen in her before. She carried an armful of clothes on hangers.
“You’re married?” She spoke the words carefully, annunciating each syllable with an awkwardness that felt uncomfortable.
Or was that just his imagination? Sometimes he felt like the whole world must know he was a widower, as if that grief had been permanently etched into his features at all times.
He knew he should probably get out of Erin’s store and take Sarah with him, but finding out what his daughter had done had thrown him for a major loop.
He was exhausted, and it wasn’t even noon yet.
Besides, Sarah looked like she could sleep for three days straight, her right arm pillowing her head and her braid draped over her chin.
Poor kid.
“I was married. My wife died two years ago.” Because of him. Even then, he’d been on the road too much. Was the answer to quit his job? To make sure Sarah was safe and stayed out of trouble for the rest of her senior year?
Too bad he couldn’t come close to affording it. He needed to work to bring his finances back in line to pay for Sarah’s college tuition.
Erin’s expression shifted in predictable ways. Empathy, sympathy, a trace of pity.
He’d become adept at picking out all three in people’s faces. More so once they’d heard how she’d died.
Something he would not be sharing today as he was still recovering from the shock of seeing Sarah. He brushed a hand across his forehead, the skin cold and damp.
“I’m so sorry.” Erin laid the garments on a credenza. “That must be hard for both of you.”
Her eyes went to Sarah, for which he was grateful.
“I thought she was doing better.” He watched his daughter’s shoulders rise and fall ever so slightly with each breath. “It’s tough to tell what behaviors are normal teen drama and what things are in reaction to her mom’s death—the things I should be watching out for.”
“So she drove herself all the way up here?” Erin filled a coffeepot at a utility sink against one wall. “From Miami?”
He noticed she hadn’t apologized for butting in regarding his parenting. Then again, maybe she wasn’t sorry.
“She was in Gainesville on a school trip.” Was Sarah really serious about wanting experience in television?
He’d dismissed it in the past when she’d asked to join him, assuming she was merely trying to take a few days off from school.
“That put her several hours closer. But still…she had to have been driving for nine hours.”
“No wonder she’s exhausted. Thank goodness she made it here safely.
Want some coffee? I don’t know if you’re going to move her anytime soon.
” Erin spooned coffee grounds into the machine, the storefront quiet for the moment except for Sarah’s light snores coming between measured breaths.
“I’m surprised she knew to look for you here. ”
“I gave her a rough itinerary before I left.” Thank God she was safe.
He wanted to just stare at his daughter and rejoice in that fact.
“And I did mention stopping by here to the woman who runs the bed-and-breakfast.” His voice was gravelly with exhaustion after these past few days.
And please, no need to make any coffee for me.
I’ll get out of your hair as soon as I recover from the heart attack of seeing Sarah. ”
“You’re staying at Heartache B and B?” Erin asked, flipping the switch that turned the coffee pot to brew. “Just so you know, telling Tansy Whittaker spreads news faster than Twitter in this town.”
The dry note in her voice made him smile in spite of the crap kind of day he was having.
“Today, that turned out to be a good thing.” He didn’t need Sarah getting any more upset. Her tears and worry were painful for him.
“Amen to that.” Erin nodded slowly, her blue eyes resting on Sarah again. “Is she your only child?”
“Yeah.” The sound of the coffee percolating filled the silence as it stretched, strangely comfortable, between them.
He wished he hadn’t snapped at Erin, even if he hadn’t appreciated her advice.
“I adopted Sarah when I met her mom. Actually, maybe Sarah adopted me first. She’s got a powerhouse personality. She’s all in when she likes someone.”
“My father was like that—very magnetic. He was the mayor of Heartache for almost fifteen years before he died.” Erin’s gaze shifted to his. “I always admired that charismatic side of him.”
“You were the mayor’s daughter while you were growing up?” Sarah’s phone buzzed with incoming messages so he reached into his pocket to turn it off.
“Just during my teenage years.” Erin’s expression closed. She definitely wasn’t one to talk about herself. “So what are you going to do with her now that she’s here? Will you have to return home sooner than planned?”
“No.” He knew that much from discussions with her counselor in the past. It didn’t help the situation to adjust his life to suit her, even though families healing from grief sometimes did just that in an effort to insure their kids never experienced any other obstacles.
“I’m fortunate to have maintained my job despite long absences after Liv’s death. I can’t shortchange the show now.”
It was true enough, and it spared him from having to discuss the show’s loss of ratings and the need to bolster it to keep it afloat.
“At the risk of having you accuse me of overstepping, was your daughter having problems at school? Is that why she drove all this way to see you?” Erin reached into an overhead cabinet and pulled out two mismatched mugs and a sugar container.
“No. Actually, I don’t know. She’s been asking me not to travel as much, but I thought that was because she liked being at our place instead of staying with an older couple when I leave town.
” Did he really know what had been going on at school lately?
Maybe he had just figured no news was good news.
“But now she says she doesn’t care about college and she wants to go into television so it makes sense to watch me work firsthand.
She does have spring breaking coming up, so… ”
“Are you sure you don't want some coffee?” Erin asked, pouring a cup for herself before the whole pot finished brewing.
“No, thanks. I should settle Sarah back into her own room at the bed-and-breakfast, I guess. I had checked out this morning, thinking I’d find a place on the road closer to my next stop, but maybe now that she’s here, it’ll be easier to make this my home base for a few more days.
I can’t take her with me everywhere.” It wasn’t feasible. Sarah should understand that.
“Heartache makes a nice home base.” Erin added sugar to her cup.
Damn, but parenting was difficult.
“I know I overreacted when you were trying to help before—”
Erin narrowed her eyes. “Just because I don’t have kids doesn’t mean I’m clueless in the ways of teenagers.”
“Right.” He told himself not to get defensive.
She hadn’t said his parenting sucked. Just that she wanted to help.
“So now I’m asking for your opinion.” He needed to make nice with her, for one thing.
And for another…he really was curious. “Do you really think her driving all the way up here means something’s wrong at school?
I know you don’t know her well. I just wonder about your gut reaction.
Does that sound like a red flag for a teenager? ”
“I don’t know if it means problems at school, but if you want me to be totally honest…”
“Please.” He grabbed the empty coffee mug and poured himself a cup, after all. He might need the caffeine to get himself through this day.
Erin stepped out of his way, giving him access to the sugar.
“Then honestly, it shouts red flag in my book. If not school issues, there could be friend trouble or boy problems. My niece went through a rough patch last year and I know that stuff causes kids a lot of stress. As we get older, we forget how life-and-death everything is at that age—the emotions, the fears…”
Remy gulped the scalding coffee.
“You’re right.” Damn it, he needed to figure out what was going on with his daughter.
“But I think it’s great she wanted to see you.” Erin sipped her drink out of a stoneware mug that looked like it had been hand painted. “A lot of teenage girls wouldn’t turn to their fathers for help.”
Something about the way she said it suggested she would have never turned to her own father—the father beloved by all of Heartache. What had it been like growing up in such a small town in a well-known family?
He sighed. “Maybe she just knows who the pushover is.” He didn’t appreciate Sarah’s insistence that he “sweet-talk” the teacher. Worse, it bugged him that he’d done exactly that.
“I think it speaks well of your relationship.” Erin’s rings clanked against the mug handle as she set down the cup.
She wore a black dress today with a black vinyl apron that suggested she planned to do a bit of crafting. The short sleeves on her dress exposed a brightly colored tattoo. Vines twisted around one arm and disappeared up into her sleeve.
He must have taken too long to answer because he became aware of her staring at him.
“Is there anything else I can do?” she asked, making him realize he’d stood there too damn long, taking over her store and her office with his personal problems.
It must be the odd thread of attraction he experienced that had his feet rooted to the floor, but it had been nice having someone to talk to about Sarah’s behavior.
Someone who wasn’t a shrink and didn’t connect everything in their lives back to Liv.
A year ago, that thought would have felt disloyal to her memory.
But now, he owned it for what it was—plain and simple truth.
“No.” He set down the cup and straightened. “I’ll wake Sarah and get out of your hair.”
“There’s no rush—”
“I’ve imposed on your goodwill enough in the past few days.” He jammed his hands into his pockets to make sure things didn’t become more personal than they already were. “I’m glad you’re going to do the show, Erin. I’m not going to risk scaring you off now.”
He tested out the smile that worked with other people, but, true to form, it seemed to fall flat on Erin. She frowned.
“Remy, I’m scared off by slick, big-city manners, so please don’t feel you need to pile on the charm for my sake. If we’re going to work together, I’d rather know the real you than the television sham.”
And wasn’t that a wake-up call in his day?
“I’ve got a whole lot more real where this comes from.” He shook his head. “Too much.” He laid a hand on Sarah’s shoulder and squeezed gently. “Come on, Sarah. Time to go.”
His daughter blinked slowly and lifted her head as if it weighed too much.
“If you’re still in town on Friday, Lucky’s Grocer and Restaurant is having the first outdoor dance of the spring.
” Erin flipped through the pile of clothes she’d stacked in one corner while she sipped her coffee.
“The whole town will be there for dinner and dancing on the village square. I can introduce Sarah to my niece and some other kids her age.”
“A dance?” His daughter’s ears perked up.
“We might be able to get a flight out by then. But thanks.” Remy didn’t need the temptation of seeing Erin Finley in her dancing dress, let alone the entanglements of getting to know a small-town community.
There was a reason he’d chosen the anonymity of Miami after Liv’s death.
“Just keep it in mind.” Erin followed them out through the store, Sarah walking in a sleepy daze as she touched a few of the hangers with vintage motorcycle jackets and plaid wool miniskirts.
“Your store is so cute,” she murmured as she shuffled along. “Daddy, I hope we stay for the dance.”
Remy tried not to glare at Erin over his daughter’s head, but why had she brought that up?
“We’ll see,” he muttered, knowing his lame comeback made him sound like the clichéd overwhelmed single father he was.
“Good luck today,” Erin told him as he opened the door for Sarah and then held it for a customer walking in with another armful of clothes.
“After that kind of start, things can only get better.” He stood in the doorway with Erin while Sarah trundled toward her car.
“You can work on my store renovations if you’re feeling stressed.” Erin winked at him in a conspiratorial way. “Nothing gets out frustrated aggression like sledgehammers and air nail guns.”
“Except sex.” The words rolled off his tongue as easily as they might have a couple of decades ago. It surprised the hell out of him.
Thankfully, Erin didn’t take them flirtatiously.
“I’m guessing that’s not a remote possibility for you, any more than it is for me.” Her blue eyes met his for an unguarded moment. “Damn shame.”