Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Max was meticulously carving a heart into the side of the arch when the door from the house to the garage swung open. His heart stopped when he caught sight of his daughter’s face.
“Lanie, wha—” Although he knew it was too late, he threw the cover over the arch in a half-hearted attempt to hide it.
“It’s true, then?” she demanded as she rushed into the room and yanked the sheet away. “You’ve been building this behind my back?”
“H-how’d you find out?”
Instead of answering, she took a deep breath as if to calm herself. “Does it matter? The fact is, I know, and I don’t appreciate you trying to make such a major change to the layout of the ceremony without consulting me.”
Max held his hands up. “Now, hold on. I’m doing something nice for you.” He touched the wood. “It’s a gift.”
“That you decided to create without any forethought into whether it would fit into the church, let alone with the rest of the decor?”
Something about the way she spoke sounded suspiciously like Carissa. He narrowed his eyes. “She told you, didn’t she?”
“Again, it doesn’t matter how I found out, though I would love to know why you told her and not me.” Lanie crossed her arms. “But we’ll deal with that later. Right now, we’re talking about you . What were you thinking?”
“I wanted to do something nice for my daughter,” he retorted. “Though I didn’t realize how ungrateful she would be to receive it.”
“Ungrateful?” Her eyes widened in disbelief. “This isn’t like a table or chair Nate and I could incorporate into the wedding and then use in our future home.” She held up her hands to try to capture the sheer size of the arch. “How are we supposed to fit this in Nate’s house, let alone the church?”
Pain stabbed in his gut at her sharp words. Of all the reactions he’d expected Lanie to have, he’d never expected that one.
When he didn’t say anything else, she let out an exasperated sigh. “Why couldn’t you have at least talked to me before you went to all this trouble? I love what you’ve done with the pieces you recently finished. I would have been happy to have something similar as a wedding gift.”
“But I wanted to be part of your big day,” he blurted out as he spun around. The realization of what he’d said hit him, and he hurried on. “I mean, I wanted it to be part of your day. The arch.”
The flush of anger on her cheeks faded as she bit her lip. “You didn’t need to make anything to be part of the day.” She moved toward him and placed a hand on his arm. “You’re walking me down the aisle and dancing with me at the reception.”
“I know,” he said gruffly, shaking her off. “I wanted to give you something that showed how much I love you.” He glanced at the arch. “I could try to make it smaller?—”
“It won’t work, Dad,” she said sharply. But he must have flinched because her face softened. “I’m sorry to be harsh. This isn’t what I envisioned, and it doesn’t go with the rest of the aesthetic.”
“Fine.” He threw the cover over the arch and stomped out of the garage, calling over his shoulder, “I’ll figure something else out.”
But his attempt to get away from her was thwarted when she followed him. “Why did you tell Carissa and not me?” She grabbed his arm. “Is something going on between you two?”
He froze before slowly turning to meet her gaze. “Why do you ask that?”
She frowned. “Something Rose said at Thanksgiving, that you two would make a cute couple. Then you went for a walk alone at dinner, and you were gone for a while.” She studied his face. “There is something, isn’t there?” Tears sprang to her eyes as the realization fully hit. “You’re dating? After I specifically asked you not to?”
“You wanted me to put myself out there,” he mumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets.
“With anyone but her!” Lanie’s hands balled into fists at her sides. “I can’t believe you did this to me. I thought we were getting closer. I thought?—”
“It doesn’t matter anyway because clearly, she and I aren’t going to work out.” He was unable to keep the bitterness out of his tone, but at least it masked the pain.
“Great.” Lanie put her hands on her hips. “The whole reason I asked you not to date her was to avoid making things awkward at the wedding. So thanks for ruining that plan.”
“Well, you won’t have to worry about that,” Max said, his anger getting the better of him. “Because I’m not going to your wedding!”
The words came out before he could stop them. Lanie’s face crumpled, and without another word, she fled the room. The front door slammed, and a moment later, an engine started.
Max leaned against the counter and buried his head in his hands. The arch was supposed to be symbolic, a way to bridge the divide between him and his daughter.
Congratulations, old man. You just burned that bridge.
An hour later, Max had stewed in his emotions long enough. He grabbed a coat and headed out into the chilly autumn air to confront Carissa.
On the way to her house, he rehearsed what he wanted to say. But the more he recalled her betrayal, the angrier he became. By the time he roared into her driveway, he was practically spitting fire.
He didn’t even make it to the front door before she swung it open and came out. Her hands were lifted, whether in surrender or to fend him off, he couldn’t tell.
“I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I ran into Lanie at the church, and I couldn’t lie to her about why I was there.”
“Why not?” he demanded. “There are a million reasons you might be at that church that had nothing to do with her. Why couldn’t you have said you were there for another bride? Or you needed to check in with the reverend about something?” He glared at her. “You promised me you wouldn’t tell her.”
Instead of cowering under his berating questions, she lifted her chin. “Lanie is my client. She is paying me to assist her with her wedding. It’s one thing to ask me not to say anything to her, but it’s quite another to insist I lie when directly questioned.”
“So it’s okay to lie to me, then?”
Carissa’s eyes flashed. “I didn’t lie to you. I did everything in my power to keep your secret.” She crossed her arms. “But it was a fool’s errand to expect Lanie wouldn’t find out about the arch. You live with her for goodness’ sake. You don’t think at some point she might have grown curious about what you were working on in the garage?”
Warmth rushed to his cheeks, but Max shook his head. “She hasn’t yet, and I’ve been working on the arch for over a month now.”
“And we’ve still got about a month until the wedding. A lot can happen even in that short amount of time.”
“Well, count me out.”
Her mouth fell open. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“I’m done with it.” At Carissa’s bewildered expression, he continued, “All of it. If my work isn’t good enough for her wedding, then clearly, neither am I.”
Carissa pursed her lips. “Did Lanie say she didn’t want you in her wedding?”
“She might as well have.” Max ignored the heaviness in his stomach. It wouldn’t surprise him in the least if Lanie decided not to have him at her wedding after the way he’d behaved. But Carissa didn’t need to know that part.
“Give her time,” Carissa said. “I’m sure you both said some things you didn’t mean and?—”
“Don’t lecture me about how to handle my daughter.”
Her mouth turned down. “I’m not.” She gestured behind her. “Look, why don’t you come in, and we can talk about?—”
“No, thank you.” Max straightened his spine. “As you said, Lanie is your client, and it wouldn’t be appropriate.” He headed to his car.
“Max, wait!”
But he didn’t stop. As he drove away, he tried to hold on to his anger to counteract the pain.
When he returned home, he wasn’t surprised to find Lanie wasn’t there. She would probably stay the night with Rose and Steven. Guilt needled his belly, though he tried to ignore it.
His phone vibrated. At the sight of Carissa’s name, he almost turned it off, but the beginning of the text message caught his attention.
FYI, the arch won’t fit in the church. Not sure it matters at this point, but here are the measurements.
When he tapped the message, he saw that the arch was about two feet too wide. He sighed and leaned his head back against the seat. She was right. It didn’t matter now.
For a moment, he considered burning the arch. Then he imagined chopping it into smaller pieces and using it for firewood. He climbed out of his truck and went into the house as visions of destruction danced in his head.
Though it was nearing dinnertime, he wasn’t hungry. And he’d had more than his fair share of cooking for one after his divorce. He headed into the garage and leaned against the wall, allowing his eyes to move from the arch to the desk and back again.
The desk likely didn’t need half as much work as it would take for him to remove two feet of wood from the arch. But even if he hadn’t blown up two relationships in one afternoon, he couldn’t quite bring himself to work on the desk. While Lanie was right in that the desk would be useful beyond the wedding, it didn’t feel big enough for what he wanted to do.
A car door slammed on the other side of the garage door, and Max rushed into the house with his heart in his throat. The crushing disappointment was only slightly buoyed by the sight of his son.
“Steven,” he said. “What a nice surprise.”
A muscle feathered in Steven’s jaw as he entered the house. “I’m afraid it’s not a social call.”
Max’s smile faded, and he gestured for Steven to go ahead of him into the living room. “I assume Lanie visited you.”
“Well, she came to talk to Rose,” Steven corrected. “But I closed the office for Black Friday, so I was home.” With a sigh, he sank onto the couch. “Dad, what were you thinking?”
Crossing his arms, Max prepared to dig in his heels once more. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“I’m not talking about the arch, though I’ll get to that in a minute.” Steven leaned forward. “I mean telling your only daughter you don’t want to be at her wedding. She’s already struggling with the fact that one parent can’t be there, and now the other parent is choosing not to be.”
A lump formed in his throat. In all his righteous anger, Max hadn’t once considered how hard planning a wedding must be for Lanie without her mother. Melody had had such grand plans for her children’s weddings, including a dance with both of them.
“I didn’t mean it,” he said. “Her reaction upset me, and I spoke without thinking.”
Raising one eyebrow, Steven shook his head. “That seems to be your MO lately.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like.” Steven raked a hand through his hair. “You could have talked to me about the surprise you were planning. I would have been happy to steer you in a direction that would have both fit her wedding theme and served a functional purpose in her new life.” He rolled his eyes. “I’ve heard more about floral arrangements and color coordination than I ever expected to in my young life, but it’s all she and Rose talk about.”
“I didn’t want to tell people because I was afraid Lanie would find out,” Max said, feeling like a broken record.
“And I would have kept your secret. You could have even stored it at my house.”
“What if Rose found out and told her?”
Steven’s expression darkened. “First, I don’t appreciate your lack of faith in my wife. And second, I have my hiding places. Rose rarely goes into the basement because she thinks it’s creepy.”
“But my tools are here,” Max protested feebly. It became clearer with each passing moment that he wasn’t going to win the argument.
“All I’m saying is you could have handled this differently.” Steven’s eyes softened. “You and Lanie haven’t always had the best of relationships, and I understand why you wanted to do this for her.” He took a deep breath. “But a true gift shouldn’t be about you and your desire to fix things. It should be about the person receiving the gift.” A quiet chuckle. “Believe me, I learned that the hard way with Rose. I almost worked myself into an early grave trying to give her what I thought she needed rather than letting her tell me about her needs in her own way.”
“It’s a bit late for that now,” Max grumbled.
“It’s never too late to fix a mistake. Take Rose and me. It took her breaking off our engagement for me to see reason, but I did.” Steven smiled. “And now we’re married.”
As much as Max hated to admit it, his son had a point. Still, Steven had had an easier time mending his relationship with Rose. They’d been together only a few years, and the conflict they faced was a recent development. In contrast, Max’s relationship with Lanie had been steadily deteriorating for over a decade.
“And what’s this I hear about you and Carissa?” Steven asked when Max didn’t respond.
Pressing his lips together, Max stared at the floor and refused to answer. But if his son’s groan was any indication, he didn’t need to.
“I’m glad you’re dating again, but I don’t understand why you couldn’t tell me everything.”
With a sigh, Max raised his head and met his son’s stare. “I promised Lanie I wouldn’t date her wedding planner, and honestly, when I made that promise, Carissa was the last person I ever considered dating. But… things happened.”
“Is it safe to assume you blew things with her as well?”
Max crossed his arms. “Only because she broke her promise not to tell Lanie about the arch.”
Steven stared at him with wide eyes. “Are you for real? She’s employed by Lanie. It’s her job to keep the bride up to date about the goings-on of her wedding. You literally asked her not to do what Lanie is paying her for. If she’d lied to Lanie, she would have risked her position over it. Her livelihood.”
“A text message warning me Lanie was on the warpath would have been nice.”
“Perhaps, but you aren’t her client. She’s under no obligation.”
“But we’re in a relationship. Shouldn’t that count for something?” The argument sounded worse out loud than it had in Max’s head.
Steven grimaced. “Well… You were in a relationship.”
That’s enough hard truths for one evening. Max made his way to the kitchen. “Since you’re here, would you like something for dinner?”
“I could eat.”
Grateful to have something to distract him, Max removed some leftover turkey from the fridge and diced it. Once the turkey was cut up, he mixed it with a can of cream of chicken soup and frozen vegetables. After assembling the mini turkey potpies in the muffin pan, he placed the pan in the oven and left it to cook.
While he waited on the potpies, he stepped outside for some fresh air. The little mourning dove was eating at one of the bird feeders. When it saw him, it flew to the railing.
“Hello again.”
She cooed in response and cocked her head as if she understood him. Her gray feathers ruffled in the cool evening breeze.
“I’ve really done it this time.” Lifting his face to the heavens, Max closed his eyes. If Melody were here, she’d know what to do. A soft chuckle bubbled up in his throat, and he opened his eyes. “If Melody were here, she’d probably tan my hide for treating Lanie so poorly.”
The bird cooed as if in agreement, and the chuckle developed into a laugh. Max turned to look at his feathered companion.
“You have the right idea, staying single and true to your love for your lost mate.” He shook his head. “Relationships are more trouble than they’re worth.”
Shaking its wings, the dove suddenly took flight, startling Max. A moment later, another dove joined it. They circled each other before swooping into the nest he’d seen the other day.
“Well, I’ll be,” Max said as the birds nestled down together. “I guess you moved on after all.”
He’d never felt so alone.