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“But—”
Melvin reached down off-screen, and immediately Evan’s camera and microphone were cut off. “Rest assured, I am hard at work on this pitch. Many sleepless nights. I’ll update you all once the meeting has occurred. Then the real work begins. Be ready.”
He signed off, and I rolled my eyes while taking another sip. Sure,hewas hard at work. Well, lucky for him and all his “sleepless nights,” I was getting close to having a finished product to present.
I closed out of the meeting and had pulled back up the PowerPoint when my phone buzzed.
How’s it coming?Melvin.
I thought for a minute. In the work world, men tended to self-promote, whereas women tended to be humble.This is some of my best work, I texted back.
When can you get it to me?
I wanted to take my time, and the meeting wasn’t for another week, but I understood he would want to look things over.
I should be able to have it to you by tomorrow evening.
Perfect, he texted back.
And if we arrived at the meeting separately (because, you know, I’dalready be there due to practice, ha ha), he wouldn’t be able to say anything when he walked in. He could confront me after I’d given the whole speech and won the account, but by then it wouldn’t matter. My nerves were high, but things were coming together so nicely that this was the only way it could go down: Melvin would love it and love me, and I could come clean and go back to being myself with a newfound respect in my field.
I spent the next few hours rounding out my ideas before it was time to see my dad. I closed the laptop with a click and drained the last of my (second) cold brew. Seeing dad was always the highlight of my week. And he didn’t even know about his great-grandguppies yet.
Aspen Skies was quieter than usual when I pulled into the parking lot. Like always, I marveled at the beauty of the mountains and the sunset. I knew dad liked to hang out in the gardens and read in the afternoons, and today was the perfect day for it. I would have loved to have him live with me, but given the care he needed and how much he valued his independence, we’d done the right thing moving him here. I scanned the yard but didn’t see him.
When I walked inside, Rita was on the phone at the front desk, but she waved at me and gestured toward the common room. I nodded in acknowledgment and headed in that direction. When I got there, I stopped in the doorway, captivated by what I saw.
Dad and that lovely woman Margaret were sitting at a table near the back of the room. They were bent toward each other, and as I watched, Dad reached out and ran his thumb down her cheek. She blushed and looked at her lap before looking back up and smiling shyly at him. Myheart caught in my throat. Dad hadn’t dated after Mom died. He’d put everything into being both a mother and father to me, despite my protests. I’d never witnessed something like the scene in front of me before.
I cleared my throat as I walked over, and the two of them jumped apart awkwardly, just like Jay McGuire and I had when Dad caught us kissing on the porch after senior prom. Dad turned and gave me a huge grin. “Indiana! Please come over and join Margaret and me.”
“You must be the artist,” Margaret said in a rich, low voice, and she smiled warmly at me.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “You mean the pottery?”
She nodded. “It’s very expressive.”
My dad and I shared a look. “That’s very kind,” I told her, “but I already like you. You don’t have to pretend my pottery is good. I just do it for fun.”
“Indiana always liked to play in the mud. Just like her mother.” Dad winked at me.
I leaned over to him but didn’t bother to lower my voice much. “So you got up the nerve to talk to her. I’m so proud of you! Looks like it’s going well?” We both glanced over at Margaret, who averted her eyes.
“Yep,” Dad stage-whispered back. “Told her I thought she was beautiful. Asked if she wanted to get coffee in the garden. She said yes. I’m trying to wait a few days before I ask her if she’ll be my girlfriend. Timing is important.”
Margaret, who had been pretending not to listen, tried to hide her chuckle. “Russell, for goodness’ sake.”
He gave her the softest look, and I thought I might cry right there. “Just trying to be considerate, Maggie.” He turned back to me. “Mags herewas a lawyer before she retired. No kids. Moved in here just a little bit ago. Married twice; they both died, but she says she didn’t do it.”
She leaned in closer to me. “Though I watch so muchDateline, they’ve almost convinced me Iamsomehow responsible.”
I let out a surprised laugh. “Keith Morrison will do that to ya. He’s very compelling.”
She nodded. “But I like the way he leans on things.”
“Like his legs can’t support the weight of his coolness.” I asked, “So you were a lawyer? What was that like?”
“Not as exciting as it sounds,” she said, and I again appreciated the rich, low authority in her voice. “I was in environmental law. Your dad says you’re a technology person? He’s so proud of you, making your way in the working world. He brags on you all the time. I hope it’s easier for you than when I had to do it. When I was in law school, I tutored men who got jobs at better law firms than I did when we graduated. I had to work my way up from the lowest-tier firm. But that was over forty years ago.”
