“But your dad must have been lonely,” Dan said. “Your mom was gone, and he was on his own with you kids.”
She took the frame back from him and looked down at the faces for a moment. “You’re a single dad now, too...”
“And I can appreciate how hard that is,” Dan admitted. “Being a dad—it’s amazing, but it’s lonely. I’d never undo Luke. He’s the best thing in my life, but parenthood can be isolating. You child doesn’t take the place of a partner.”
“I guess I’ll find that out soon enough,” she said.
“Yeah. It’ll be the best ride of your life, hands down.”
“You say your child doesn’t take the place of a partner,” she said. “So you must date, then.” A blush rose in her cheeks. She must have realized how it sounded, and he shot her a teasing grin.
“We’ve done that once, Beth. Probably best if we don’t do it again.”
“I’m not interested in dating you,” she retorted. “I’m asking because I’ll be a single mom very soon, and I can’t imagine trying to juggle dating and a baby.”
“It’s not easy,” he admitted. “And no, I don’t really date. I’m busy with Luke, I’m careful about who he meets, and that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for a relationship.” Her eyebrows went up, and he shot her a grin. “Didn’t expect that, did you?”
“I’m not used to seeing you as a dad.”
“Ditto.” He smiled faintly, and she looked down at her belly.
“Oh...well, yes. I suppose we’re even there, aren’t we?”
Dan regarded her thoughtfully. He was curious about Rick and Linda—all of North Fork was. They were one of those established couples that everyone expected to bicker good-naturedly until they died. Rick was the quieter one, with his laptop set up on the store counter, and Linda was the go-getter. It had shocked everyone when they announced their intention to separate.
“So what happened between your dad and Linda?” Dan asked. “From the outside, there weren’t any cracks.”
“She left him,” Beth said.
“Really.” Dan sighed. “That’s rough. How come? Another guy?”
“Not that we know of,” Beth replied. “But Linda was always a little frustrated by Dad. She wanted him to be the alpha male, but she didn’t like being countered, either. So no matter what he did, she wasn’t happy.”
“Hmm.” Dan nodded. “She decided to leave and your dad just went along with it?”
That was the weird part. Rick hadn’t gotten soppy or angry—at least not in public. He’d just been the supportive guy he’d always been, as if they were announcing Linda was taking a job, or something. But it had been the end of their marriage.
“Dad was tired,” she replied. “And I don’t know...I mean, I was in the city. Whatever their relationship morphed into, I have no idea. But I do know that when Linda said she was leaving him, he was both sad and kind of relieved. I think he was just...tired.”
“After so many years together,” Dan said. He’d always been curious, at the very least. Not that Rick and Linda had ever been nice to him.
Beth met his gaze. “I’m not going to argue that they should have stayed married.”
Neither would he. “I know Linda was hard on you.”
“Kids need love, Dan. She was big on structure and manners but pretty low on affection. And while I might have been a hard kid to love, I still needed more than she gave.”
Hard to love. Was that how she’d seen herself? And she might have been—he hadn’t known her then, but the thought of her feeling unlovable as fragile preteen who’d just lost her mom was heartbreaking.
“You were a kid, Beth,” he said. “You couldn’t have been that hard to love...”
Beth turned her attention back to the drawer. “Pass me the garbage.”
Dan did as she asked, and she dumped the rest of the contents of the drawer into the trash can, then replaced the drawer.
“Dad never did stand up to her,” Beth went on. “He could have told her that she needed to be kinder. He could have told her to back off and let him have some time alone with me. But Linda was always there, guarding her turf as if I was competition for my dad’s love.”
“I agree there,” Dan said quietly. “He should have stood up for you. You were his daughter, and you were the child. You needed your dad to be your champion.”
Beth smiled. “Thank you. It’s nice to be agreed with on that.”
Dan was the kind of dad who would do just that—stick up for his son. Like Beth said, kids needed love, and if he was ever put into a position to choose between his son and a woman, his son would win. In fact, looking back on it, Beth had done him a favor by walking away. Because even if their wedding had been earlier, Luke would have still ended up on his doorstep, and Dan was glad that he’d never been put into the position to choose between his child and his wife. How had she put it? Danny, asking me to marry you and asking me to be a stepmother to your child are two different proposals! I can’t do this!
He might not have been mature enough back then to make the right choice often enough.
THAT EVENING AT HOME, Beth stood in the living room, looking at the place in front of the big window where they normally put up the tree. The room was bare of Christmas cheer. She’d been home for several days now, and they still hadn’t gotten around to decorating.
“We need to put the tree up, Dad.”
“I’m not real festive this year, kiddo,” he said.
“All the more reason for us to do it,” Beth replied. “I don’t feel like it, either, but I think we need this.”
“I don’t know...” Her father sighed.
“For me.” Beth caught his eye. “I could use some Christmas cheer.”
He pushed himself up from the couch. “If I drag the tree out, then you’ll have to decorate. Deal?”
Rick pulled the artificial tree out of the basement, and Granny joyfully helped add the family ornaments to it. Rick was quiet, but he put a few baubles on the tree, pausing to look at the more meaningful ones like Baby’s First Christmas or one of the few surviving school craft ornaments Beth or Michael had made years ago.
“Do you remember this one?” He held up a Popsicle-stick Christmas tree.
“Not really. I must have been pretty small,” Beth said with a short laugh.
“Well, I remember it.” He put it on one of the branches. “You came home from kindergarten with globs of glue in your hair, but you’d produced this. It was your masterpiece.”
He’d have to remember for the both of them, but his retelling of the story made Beth smile. Over the years, as the glue broke apart and those school-made ornaments crumbled, Linda would toss them in the trash without a twinge of emotion.
“Linda bought this one,” he said, holding up a custom ornament of a book with the cover of her father’s first release. “I know she was difficult sometimes, Beth, but that woman understood me.”
“Your writing, you mean,” Beth clarified.
“She read every book I wrote about three times each,” he said. “She could quote from them. And she knew what I needed to be productive...”