Page 45 of It Started with a Sunset
Brock replied to Valeria’s email with a quick,I’m heading toward you right now, stood up and thanked Deja, then hurried out of the building.
He had seen Valeria enough times over the past few weeks and from her coming into the Welcome Center countless times over the years to recognize her from quite a distance in the crowd of students walking across campus. Seeing her felt like a lifeline had just been thrown out to him as he was drowning at sea.
He thanked her for meeting with him, but she didn’t waste any time on pleasantries and got straight to business.
“Are you worried that Summer is no longer interested in you?”
He rubbed at the corner of his eyebrow, then nudged his glasses up. “Yeah.”
“Lo siento,I was worried that’s what was going to happen! Okay, listen up. She hasn’t backed off because of a lack of interest.”
It felt like a giant weight was lifted from his chest and he could suddenly breathe easier.
“It’s because of an overabundance of fear.”
“Fear?”
“You know...” Valeria waved her hand. “Fear of commitment. Of whether or not you’ll always love her and be there for her. Which, given her background, I think we can agree is understandable. And given all that I know ofyou, which I’ve got to say, is considerable—our girl really likes to talk about you—you are going to know what to do with that information.”
“I think I do.” His whole body felt so much lighter than it had before. “I don’t know how I can ever thank you enough.”
Valeria shrugged. “I find that homemade guacamole is an excellent way to say thank you.”
“You’ve got it,” Brock said, already turning back toward the Student Center. “I’ve got to go!” And then he took off running.
Chapter Twenty-One
Summer
If Summer had to go back and choose all over again, she would still choose to move to a neighboring state to go to college, and she would still choose to stay living there after graduation. She needed that distance for a lot of reasons. And maybe one of the biggest reasons was that instead of having expectations of her dad being around and then being let down, she got to fully appreciate and enjoy every single visit she got with him.
Because she wassoglad to see her dad. She had needed his calming presence so badly. He had taken her to the campus ice cream shop, where they served the one and only Aquamoose Tracks—the flavor he got no matter what. It was the first place they always went whenever he visited, and she felt the comfort in that routine.
As they ate their ice cream (lemon cheesecake for her, as usual), they chatted about random things. What her mom was up to (just got back from volunteering at a turtle conservation in Sri Lanka), how work was going for her (the second Aquamoose Tracks of the year was in a few days), how work was going for him (busy as ever, but not too busy to fly to see her), and how beautiful the fall leaves were. It was nice to get her mind on other more normal things. For a minute, she even managed to forget about her roiling stomach and swirling head and the hurt in her heart.
But the pain and the knowledge and the fear were always waiting for the slightest opportunity to come back out.
They had both finished their ice cream a while ago. Her dad pushed his empty bowl aside and folded his arms, leaning on the table. “So are you going to talk about what’s really bothering you?”
She glanced around at the reason she hadn’t already brought it up—all the people that were close enough that they might catch the conversation. Even if they couldn’t hear, they’d still be close enough to see the distress on her face.
Her dad nodded. “What do you say we get out of here? Where do you want to go?”
“How about the lake? I have some camp chairs in my trunk.”
He chuckled. “I don’t doubt that. I think if there was a catastrophic natural disaster in the area, the Red Cross would come to you first because you might just have everything anyone needed right in your trunk.”
“Hey, you never know when you might need a half a dozen decks of cards or a picnic blanket or a couple of Gatorades. Come on—I’ll drive.”
Once she parked her car, they each slung a camp chair over a shoulder and headed down to the lake. Outside of campus, the lake was her favorite place to be. It was a place of friends and fun and people supporting each other. A place of gathering and excitement and games and love and music and nature all in one place. Even when, like now, the place was virtually empty, she still felt its presence.
“Do you want to walk barefoot in the water?”
Summer pulled her jacket a little tighter. “Dad, the water is probably freezing.”
“But you still want to?”
She wasn’t about to ask her dad to take off his shoes and socks and get his feet in the lake at this time of year, even though it was her favorite thing.
