The Hazards of a One Night Stand (24 page)

We stayed that way for close to twenty minutes when common sense dawned on me. “We probably need to get that ice cream.”

“Ten more minutes won’t hurt anyone.” Colt’s lips returned to mine, and I never wanted them to leave.

The rest of the weekend in Gasden went well enough. My friends seemed to really enjoy my town, and it was fun to be back home with Colton. He was in such a great mood the whole time, it’s like being home brought out the kid in him again. I didn’t run into Jack again, and Colt told me he left. He assured me everything was ok between them, and based on his good mood, I knew he was telling the truth. Reed and Aaron were a hoot, and they made the bonfire and obligatory social occasions more fun than I expected.

A bunch of big sociology papers and econ exams kept me busy during the weeks after Fall Fest, but I still managed to find time for Colt and my friends. It was much easier to do when I wasn’t hiding the truth from everyone. Before I knew it, Thanksgiving was only a few weeks away.

I spent the end of November leaving secret gifts and decorating Jade’s dorm room. One of the best parts of being a sophomore was becoming a sorority big sister. Jade guessed it was me right off, but that just made it better. We stayed out super late the night of the reveal, and I knew I’d pay for it the next morning. It was worth it though. Jade was an awesome little sister, and I knew we’d become really close friends.

My alarm sounded louder than usual. I rolled over, trying to hold on to the last few minutes of sleep.

I hit snooze on my alarm clock again. Until that semester, I hadn’t even known how to use that button. Normally, I’d have already been to the gym and back by eight a.m. but it felt like the middle of the night that morning.

“Could you stop doing that?” Juliet asked sleepily. Like me, she’d been up late. My roommates had even stayed at the house to celebrate the big sister/little sister reveal.

“What? Hitting snooze?”

“Yeah. Either get up or turn off the alarm.”

“I’ll get up.” I pushed back my covers, lying there for a moment before I could get my legs to move me to sitting.

I reluctantly left my bed and rummaged through my closet for something to wear. I settled on a pair of jeans and a light weight v-neck sweater. It was my usual fall attire.

Just as my hand closed on the knob, the door was thrown open. “Mallory, hey.” Jana stood there in her running clothes. Although we’d never talked about the whole party incident, things were back to normal with us.

“Hey.”

“Your dad’s here.”

“What?” I stepped out into the hall, pulling the door closed behind me. “Why?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. He seems really nice though. He’s waiting on the porch, so I wouldn’t make him wait too long.”

She had to mean Rob. There was no chance my dad would come to my school. He hadn’t even called me since I visited him in the hospital.

I took the stairs slowly, in no rush to face whoever it was waiting for me.

My father turned to look at me when I stepped onto the porch. “Hi, Mallory.”

“Dad? What are you doing here?” He looked good. I’d have never imagined he’d just had a heart attack a few months before.

“I thought it was a good time for a visit.” He was dressed casually for him, in a button down cotton shirt and khaki slacks. His loafers were what I used to call his weekend shoes.

I eyed him skeptically. “You never visited me once last year.”

“This isn’t last year. It’s this year. Why worry about the past?”

“Because the present is built on the past.”

“You sound like your mother.”

I crossed my arms. “Good.”

“Let’s get some breakfast.” He demanded it. There was no question in his words.

“I have class.”

“Have you missed any this semester?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Good. Let’s go.” He started down the porch.

I wanted to defy him, I wanted to refuse, but I couldn’t. The little girl in me was too happy that my dad was even gracing me with his presence. I couldn’t give up on the chance to spend time with him, even if the visit probably wasn’t for a good reason.

He walked around and held open the door to his Audi. It was a different car from what he was driving the last time I’d visited him. He waited until I was seated and buckled before walking around to his side.

“Where do you want to go to eat?” I leaned back against the leather.

“Eli’s Table. I’ve heard it’s good.”

“It is.” My opinion on the locale wouldn’t matter, so I didn’t bother to make any suggestions.

We sat in silence for the first part of the drive. While we were sitting at a red light, he glanced over at me. “You look good. I forgot to mention that at the hospital.”

“Thanks. It was understandable considering where we were.”

“I mean it. You’re keeping in shape. The college years are when most women lose their figures.”

“Right.” Because that wasn’t an awkward conversation to have with your dad.

“It’s usually from a lack of exercise and high amounts of alcohol consumption.”

“If you’re talking about the freshman fifteen, I had the freshman five last year and lost them over the summer.”

“Good for you.”

“Glad you care so much about my physical well-being.”

“I care about everything involving you.”

“You’re not great at showing it.” That was putting it mildly.

He exhaled loudly. “Are you angry at me, Mallory? I thought we aired all that.”

“We did. I’m just surprised you’re here.”

“Your visit made me realize how much I missed you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Why are you really here?”

“Can’t I just want to visit my daughter?” He parallel parked.

“Sure, but that’s not why you’re here.”

“Let’s get something to eat.” He came around to open my door, but I was already out. We walked inside and were seated at a window table.

I looked over the menu, quickly making up my mind.

He scanned the menu. “You already know what you want?”

“I always get the same thing.”

“Just like your mom.” He needed to stop comparing me to my mom. It was getting old.

“You say it like it’s a bad thing.” Dad never talked disparagingly about Mom directly, but he also didn’t pretend to love everything about her.

“It’s not. It’s safe. I like safe for you.”

I rolled my eyes again. He made me do that a lot. “An omelet isn’t something that can be safe.”

“Sure it can.” He spread his napkin out on his lap. “It’s safe because you already know you’ll like it.”

“Fine. I’ll order something else.”

He touched the hand that I had resting on the table. “No. That’s not what I’m saying. There’s nothing wrong with knowing what you want. It’s low risk. Those investments can pay off.”

“I’m not an investment or a transaction or whatever.”

“I know.” He smiled lightly. “You’d be much simpler to deal with if you were.”

The waiter came over to take our order.

“I’ll have the breakfast stir fry, please.”

“No. She’ll have an egg white omelet with cheddar and spinach. I’ll have two eggs over easy with a side of sausage. Also coffee for both of us.”

The waiter just nodded and walked away.

I stared at him with my mouth hanging open.

“What? That is what you were going to order, wasn’t it?” There was a challenge in his face, like he was just asking me to deny what we both knew was true.

“What was that for?” He’d correctly assumed that I shared the same omelet taste with my mom.

“There’s no point getting something you won’t like.”

The waiter returned with our coffees.

“Why are you here?” There had to be something motivating the visit.

“For several reasons.”

“Which are?” I poured some milk into my coffee.

“One was to see you, but I’ve already told you that.” He sipped his coffee, leaving it black.

“And the others?”

“The next is to invite you to spend a week with me over your winter break.”

“A week?”

“With me.” His hair had more gray in it than I remembered.

“And what makes you think I’d want to do that?”

“I’m your father. And it means less time in Gasden.” He said Gasden with the distaste I knew he felt. For the first time, spending time back home didn’t sound bad. A few weeks of free time with Colt sounded fantastic.

“Do you really want me to? Don’t do this out of guilt.” I couldn’t deny some excitement over spending time with him. Maybe this was it. My chance to really get to know him. To show him I was more than the little girl he’d left behind.

“When’s your last final? Maybe you can come up before Christmas?”

“I never said I was coming.”

“You’re going to say yes.” He was right, but he shouldn’t have presumed it.

“Dad—”

“There’s no reason to argue about it. Besides, I already talked to your mom.”

“What?”

“She said it’s fine.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Because your mother understands that a girl needs a relationship with her father.”

“What’s the catch?”

“Catch? What do you mean?”

“There has to be one. Why are you inviting me? Davie will still be in school.”

“That’s the point. I’m going to have him visit me for his spring break. I’m getting tired of repeating myself.”

“But why now?”

“Because I almost died. I realized I wasted ten years. I want to know my children.”

Our food arrived, but I had no desire to eat it. I should have been thrilled that he’d invited me to visit, but I couldn’t shake the suspicion that there was more.

He finished eating, seemingly unaware that I hadn’t touched my food. I wasn’t sure what to think.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” he finally asked.

“I’m not hungry.”

“Please, Mallory. You’re not four anymore.”

“And age has to do with having an appetite?”

“No. But you’re grown up and have to make grown up decisions. You’re still looking to play around.”

“Excuse me?” I knew it. There was more.

“With all the men at Harrison, you decided to date Cole? I thought you had better judgment.”

“Cole? His name is Colt, Dad.”

“It doesn’t matter. I just think you should start thinking about your future. I’m more than happy to do it for you now, but I won’t be around forever.”

“Oh, yeah, because you’re always looking out for me.”

“I always am, even if you don’t know it.” He looked away, but then back at me. His face softened. “Maybe you’re right. I haven’t been the most attentive father, and for that, I’m sorry.”

I nodded.

“So, why not come to spend time with me? We can get to know each other again.”

“Okay. I’ll think about it.” I didn’t give him an answer, but I’d already made up my mind. I wasn’t sure if I was making the right decision, but I refused to give up the chance. I’d waited years for Dad to recognize me, and he finally was.

I don’t know why it was so hard for me to tell Colt about the offer to visit Dad. Maybe it was because I knew how little Dad approved of us dating. I doubted Colt would have cared, but it wouldn’t be a good feeling. I’d have hated to know that Colt’s parents didn’t approve of me. For all I knew, they didn’t. Could they really be that cool with me having dated two of their sons?

I finally dropped the news on our way home for Thanksgiving. Having the same hometown came in handy for occasions like that. “Hey, can I talk to you about something?”

Colt took his eyes off the road to look at me. He was driving my truck. “Of course.”

“I’m going to be spending the first week of winter break in Charlotte with my dad.”

“Really? Is that what you guys discussed when he visited?”

“Yeah. He invited me, and I finally gave him an answer.”

Colt looked pensive for a minute. “It’s a good thing. You need to make peace with him. You’re never going to be happy if you don’t.”

How could my dad have a problem with me dating someone so incredibly thoughtful?

I ran my fingers up his arm. “Thanks for understanding.”

“But since I’m losing a week of break with you, that means you’re spending almost all of this weekend with me.”

I smiled. “I was already planning on it.”

The last few weeks of the semester flew by. Before I knew it, it was finals week. Thanks to Colt’s insistence that we do extra credit, we were able to opt out of the standard anthro exam. Instead, we worked on a project discussing how aliens were viewed by ancient civilizations. Cains assigned the topic. I knew the guy was weird.

“I’m going to miss this class.” Colt closed up his laptop. We’d finished a final read through of the paper.

“Really?” I looked at him skeptically. We were seated on his bed. I’d fully gotten over my issues with hanging out in his room.

“Yeah. I mean when else will I get the opportunity to write about aliens?”

I laughed. “And I thought you were going to say you’d miss working on projects with me.”

He leaned over. “We’ll still get to work on other things together.” He grinned. “Besides, we can take classes together again.”

“Maybe. Although you might not copy my schedule every semester.”

He brushed his lips against mine. “Maybe next time you’ll copy mine.”

“Maybe.”

A few days later, I kissed Colton goodbye in front of his house and started the drive to Charlotte. My stomach churned with nerves the whole drive up.

I checked the address one more time. I knew Dad had a new house, but this one was three times the size of his last one. I wasn’t sure why someone would need or want a place so big if they lived alone. I took a deep breath before pulling into the wraparound driveway.

Unlike when I’d gone home to Gasden, no one came outside to greet me. I pulled out my own bags and headed to the front porch. Dad would probably tell me I should have waited, but I wasn’t going to show any weakness in front of him, physical or otherwise.

I rang the bell, smoothing out the non-existent wrinkles in my sweater dress.

No one answered. I rang again. Still nothing. With another deep breath, I tried the knob, and it easily turned under my hand.