Page 99 of Free Heart
“Technically, she left them with me.”
“Then you should be the one to get in trouble for exposing them to bad influences.”
I snort, but he’s not wrong. I’m sure I’ll catch hell for it too. Not that Dan and I didn’t talk to the kids extensively about how climbing isn’t something to do alone, and how they should only practice here in the gym with supervision or with their mother or father at a real climbing facility.
“They’re here!” Jeremiah squeals, and falls from a height, nearly landing on his little sister.
Only a moment later, I hear the car wheels on gravel, and we barely manage to get the kids’ coats on, and ours too, before they burst out to race for their parents. Well, Jeremiah races. Sarah Kate runs and falls and runs and falls, until I scoop her up and carry her the rest of the way.
Dan limps along behind me, but he’s making really good progress. Not good enough for Peggy Jo, though. She bounds from the car and jogs over with her arms outstretched. She’s got Dan clutched to her chest before Jeremiah even reaches Leenie, and before my dad has his car door open and hauls himself out.
I hand Sarah Kate off to Martin and round the car. My dad’s arms feel so familiar, and his scent is exactly the same as ever—Old Spice cologne. I’m a child again held tight to his chest, and I squeeze him extra hard.
Eventually, he pulls away and reaches out to touch my hair. “Well, look at you.” He shakes his head. “Never thought I’d see the day.”
“It was a mistake,” I tell him, wrinkling my nose.
“Was it? Alright. Well, it’s reversible, son. Hair grows. Don’t let it get you down.” He slaps my shoulder, and his eyes stray over to where Dan is submitting to Peggy Jo’s hugs and kisses like a confused puppy. Big eyes. Baffled expression. Awkward pats of Peggy Jo’s back.
Hilarious.
I chuckle, and my dad looks over at me. He nods his head. “Good,” he says.
I furrow my brows to show my confusion.
“You’re in love with him. I just thought you better be if you’re gonna put up with his shenanigans.”
“I am,” I murmur, and I lift my hand for him to see the ring. “I’m gonna marry him, Dad.”
“Lawdy me,” he says softly, all the Appalachian sweetness of him rolling off in the words. I feel like I could wrap them over my shoulders like a blanket and be forever warm. “Wish your mama could see that.”
“Me too.”
He clears his throat, breaks free of whatever bubble of intimacy we’ve been standing in for a moment, and calls out to Martin. “Pop the trunk. I’ll get the luggage out.”
I tilt my head. “I thought you were staying in town.”
“I thought I was too, but Peggy Jo here wouldn’t hear of it. She says she has a perfectly good pull-out sofa, and she offered for me to use it.”
“Really? A pull-out sofa…” I blink. “I didn’t know it pulled out.”
“Yeah, and it’s a lot cheaper than a hotel.”
I start to argue, thinking that surely at his age a pullout sofa—which…what? where?—is going to be more uncomfortable than the financial savings are worth.
But just at that moment, Leenie grabs my arm and steers me away toward the house as Martin and Dad start to take Peggy Jo’s and his luggage in.
“Don’t mess this up.”
“Mess what up?”
“This. Between these two.”
“What are you talking about?”
“They had the same connecting flight from Dallas-Fort Worth and spent a long layover there together. I don’t know what the airline attendants put in their water, but Uncle Buck is smitten and Peggy Jo’s a relentless flirt. Who knew?”
I blink as Peggy Jo rushes over and tries to wrangle a bag from my father. He doesn’t concede, saying gallantly that he’ll carry it all, and that a lady shouldn’t take on burdens like that.
