Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Thus, Hugger and I walked her to her car. I promised to have her over to dinner sometime soon, gave her a kiss, she gave Hugger a distracted smile and a mumbled, “So lovely to meet you, son, wish it was different circumstances,” got in and started up her car.
“On your cell in half an hour to check up on her,” Hugger ordered as we watched her drive away.
Also incredibly attractive.
I forsook Nordstrom (devastating!) and we went back to my pad so I could give Dad an official tour. This included not only taking him through every nook and cranny of my place, but also taking him around the complex, showing him the pool, the exercise room, and the clubroom.
Hugger and Big Petey gave us time to do it alone, but I suspected they did that because Dutch, Jagger or Roscoe were keeping an eye on the complex.
“This is incredibly impressive,” Dad said when we were walking back to my pad.
What he meant was, this was pretty high-end for a twenty-nine-year-old.
“I placed a massive bet on black thirteen at Talking Stick, and the ball landed on thirteen black.”
Dad stopped dead and stared down at me.
Several expressions battled to take over his face. Surprise (because that was a surprising thing for me to do). Reproach (because that was totally something Dad would strongly advise me not to do). Confusion (because even with those winnings, this was a high-end place, and I hadn’t mentioned Gramps’s contribution).
And then he burst out laughing.
God, it was awesome to see Dad laugh.
And it came to the fore what I’d known all my life.
He was really handsome.
Totes, my dad still had it.
“I’d won most of that on an amazing roll of video poker, so I was feeling sassy, took it to the roulette table and let it ride,” I shared. “I cashed out right away and I’ve never been to another casino again.”
He put his arm around me and guided me through the courtyard toward my elevator bay. “Although I would never advise my daughter, who was working to build her life, or anyone, to lay down big money on a single-digit roulette bet, you certainly invested it well.”
Dang, I felt like preening.
I didn’t think I’d ever preened in my life, but I felt like doing it then.
I fobbed us into the bay, and as we were waiting for the elevator, Dad said, “You handled yourself well with your mom, Buttercup.”
I scrunched my nose.
“She’ll take you back in an instant, you decide to change your mind on your decision to go no contact,” he assured.
The elevator doors opened, we walked in, I fobbed my floor and turned to my father.
“We both know she’ll put me through the wringer, twist it until I’m apologizing to her, and things will go back to the way they were, which isn’t healthy.”
Dad decided not to say anything.
“It’s going to suck and I’m going to miss her, but, Dad, I told her I’d been assaulted. Gram nearly passed out, but Mom had zero reaction except about what was happening to her.”
“Indeed,” he muttered miserably.
Sadly, I couldn’t do anything about his misery; I was too busy dealing with my own. And in the end, we were both going to have to learn to live with it.
We got off the elevator and he took my hand.
I stopped and looked up at him.
“You and I need to talk about that,” he said carefully.
“No we don’t,” I disagreed. “You didn’t handle it well at the time. I made that abundantly clear and held my grudge too long. Honestly, do you think you haven’t made up for it?”
“I hope so.”
“So can we just move on?” I requested.
His fingers tightened around mine. “I’d love that.”
“And it isn’t about the money in the trust, though we should talk about that too.”
This time, his hand squeezed mine. “Diana, you shouldn’t refuse it.”
“I’m proud of what I did.”
“I’m proud of what you did too, sweetheart. But you could drain that trust and remortgage your condominium, and significantly reduce your payments.”
Hmm.
“Or you could let it sit and have a very nice down payment when you decide to move up the property ladder,” Dad went on.
Hmm again.
“Or you could deduct the interest every quarter and do something nice for yourself,” he continued. He squeezed my hand again. “I worked too hard and too many hours when you were growing up. I see that now. But what I want you to see is this is precisely why I did. Your mom told me you managed to get through two degrees without a single loan. But you worked impossibly hard to do it. Now please, allow me to do what I worked so hard to do. When it was time for my daughter to get serious about building her life, give her some financial peace of mind.”