Page 45 of A Dream for Daphne

She smiled. “Don’t be that way. I can’t say I’ve got a nice relationship with my parents. The last conversation I had was a week ago. Aster got engaged and he texted them. My mother made a few snide remarks I won’t repeat and then turned it around and said that I’ve got to be making so much money now and having no bills and they could use some help. They areunder contract to sell their house and need some things fixed on the inspection or something. Not positive. I stopped listening after she asked me for money yet again.”

His jaw dropped. His parents would never ever ask him for money.

His mother didn’t even want him to buy the house and he refused to not do it.

His mother had worked for the business for years and she still did the books at a higher level for him at the end of each month. She got a salary and would always continue to whether she did work or not.

And the day his mother said she didn’t want to do anymore, he wasn’t going to say a word about it, but he’d make sure she was set without her even asking. He’d just send it to her if he had to.

“I can’t imagine how upsetting that is,” he said. “Unless they need it?”

“No,” she said. “They have decent jobs. I told you, they waste their money on partying. They were fine for years without me paying for half the mortgage. Then when I started to, they could have put that money away or put it on the mortgage, but they chose to use it as disposable income. Not my problem.”

“They probably didn’t claim it either.”

She stopped talking and stared at him then grinned. “And that was a serious comment and not a joke, huh?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I run a business. The last thing I ever want is the IRS to come knocking on my door.”

“I’m positive my parents didn’t claim it. They don’t do much by the books,” she said. “Anyway, I think it’s nice you had that great of a relationship with your parents. You don’t have to talk about this, but I bet you still mourn your father terribly.”

“I do,” he said quietly. “It was hard to lose him so suddenly.”

“Can I ask what happened?”

“A brain aneurysm,” he said. “It was quick and sudden. Doctors said he might have had it most of his life. Some people do and nothing ever happens to them. It’s hard to say.”

“That’s a scary thought,” she said.

“It is. My mother made me get a CT scan after. As scared as I was, I couldn’t tell her no. Everything is good up here,” he said, knocking on his head.

“I’m glad,” she said. “But I’m sure on top of it being so hard to lose your father, you then had to run his business and people knew him in this area. They’d make comments and it’d be a chore at times to put a smile on your face for them.”

He reached for her, pulled her into his arms, and just held her in the middle of the trail.

“You don’t know how perfect you are knowing that. Or how it makes me feel that you understand, especially coming from the background you did.”

Her arms held him tight.

“I don’t know about perfect, but it’s nice that you think it.”

He’d work on her confidence some more because, in that moment, he knew he couldn’t let her go.

16

SURGES OF ENERGY

“Now I’m hot and sweaty and probably stink too,” Daphne said two hours later.

They’d walked the whole trail, which took about ninety minutes, then Abe surprised her with a sailboat tour that included lunch. Now she knew why he said not to worry about it when she offered to make it and have a picnic.

It was about eighty-five out and the boat was just returning to the docks. The breeze had been nice and cooled her off. She’d even enjoyed the spray of the water.

But now that the air was stale and the sun was beating on her, there was sweat trickling down her back.

Abe leaned in close. “You smell like flowers.”

“Lotion,” she said. “I’m surprised you didn’t say it was flowers and coconut. You smell like sunscreen and Irish Spring soap. My grandfather used to use that.”

---