Page 16 of Tart
He shook his head as I swam over and hoisted myself up to sit on the edge of the dock. I would dry in the sunshine while he explained that bombshell. “I was never married to her mother. My daughter is eighteen now and moved to Southern California for college. She plans to come to visit in July.”
“Wait, she’s eighteen? How can you have an adult daughter if you’ve only been teaching eleven years?”
“She was born just before I turned seventeen, that’s how,” he said, shaking his head slightly.
“Oh, wow, I guess that was a shock.”
“Shockingly dumb on my part,” he said on a chuckle. “Her mother and I were counselors at a summer camp and had a fling. We were responsible, but accidents happen when you’re only using condoms and trying not to get caught by the other camp counselors.”
“Not an infrequently told story,” I agreed. “It must have been difficult.”
He leaned back on the palms of his hands and bumped me in the shoulder. “Not as much for me as for her mother. She didn’t live with me, so I didn’t shoulder that responsibility for her, you know?”
I nodded while I squeezed the lake water out of my dress. “That’s usually the case in those situations. Not your fault, just what it was.”
“That’s a refreshing statement.”
“Why?” I asked, confused.
“Usually, when I mention my daughter, women make an instant judgment about the situation. That I was a deadbeat dad or didn’t take responsibility for my actions.”
“I would never assume that, Bishop.”
“I did what I could while I went to college and worked to support her. I took care of her on weekends and took her as many weeknights as I could to give her mom a break. I made bottles, changed diapers, and cleaned up vomit. I was lucky that her grandparents on her mother’s side were godsends and took care of her while her mom and I went to school. My parents weren’t in the picture, and my grandparents raised me. I wasn’t going to ask them to raise their great-grandchild, too.”
“Some kids would have.”
“The difference was, from the moment I knew Athena existed, I wanted her. I wanted to be part of her life. I wasn’t going to be a no-show kind of dad. I might have been a kid myself, but if I was old enough to create her, I was old enough to take care of her.”
“That’s,” I paused and made the mind-blown motion with my hands. “Not too many guys would do that, Bishop. You know that, right?”
He shrugged and stared off over the lake. “Maybe not, but I’ve never been like other guys. I loved pushing a baby in a stroller while I ran around the track. She didn’t ask to be created, so she wasn’t going to suffer because the timing of her birth was inconvenient for us. Her mother and I both agreed on that point.”
“I’m absolutely certain now that not too many guys are like you, Bishop,” I said, trying not to sound as shocked as I felt. “Athena. That’s a beautiful name.”
“The goddess of wisdom. Athena has always been wise. An old soul, my grandmother used to say. The first time I held her in my arms, it just didn’t matter that I was sixteen, still in high school, and didn’t have a clue what I was doing. She was mine, and I would take care of her forever.”
“I would say that makes you a stand-up guy, Bishop Halla.”
“No, it just makes me a dad, which most women don’t want to hear. They don’t want to be weighed down with the idea that I have a teenager and responsibilities.”
“Which is strange because, at our age, we should have responsibilities. We should have a wide enough base of knowledge and understanding to see other people’s pasts as not the end of the world, but as life experiences.”
“And in my case, that life experience will be part of my life in a tangible form forever.”
“I suppose some women might see that as a problem, but I don’t. Those women probably think you aren’t interested in having more kids when you’ve already raised one, or if you do have kids, your allegiance will always be to Athena.”
He nodded while he stared out over the water. His head just kept nodding like he was searching for the right thing to say, but couldn’t come up with anything. Finally, he turned his head to drink me in from top to bottom. “You are something else, Amber Larson. Refreshing. Wise. Understanding. Compassionate. Intuitive.”
“I’ll take those adjectives as a good thing,” I teased.
“You should. I meant them all. I usually don’t bring Athena up on a first date, or second or third for that matter, because it muddies the water.”
“But this isn’t a date, so that rule doesn’t apply.”
He froze and swung his head to stare at me. “Ri—right,” he stuttered. “I just meant that’s why I don’t talk about her with women, even if it’s just while getting to know my neighbor.”
Did he want this to be a date? Was I reading his friendly dinner to make friends outside of school the wrong way? It was starting to feel like I was.
