Discovering (Lily Dale #4)(61)

“That would be nice,”she says, and means it.

“Good-bye, Mr. Delaney. It was good to see you again.”

“You too, son.”

Calla watches Dad and Kevin shake hands.

Everything happens for a reason.

She’s here today not because she needed to see the campus in order to rule it out, but because she needed closure with Kevin. She needed to realize that there might be a place for him in her life after all. Not as a boyfriend— or even as an ex-boyfriend—but as a friend.

Now she needs closure with her father.

“Calla, pull the map out of the glove compartment, will you?”he says as they climb into the car. “I want to see which way to go to get to Hamilton.”

“Dad—about that . . .”

He looks at her. “You don’t want to go, do you?”

“To Hamilton? No, Dad. I don’t. Not today, and not for college. And I don’t want to go here to Cornell, either, even though I know how much Mom was hoping for Ivy League for me. Or to Penn State.”

Her father nods, seeming to absorb all that.

“Are you mad?”

“Mad? No! I just don’t know how to help you figure out what you want to do, Calla. Your mother was so good at this sort of thing. I know I’m the one who’s an academic, but I just don’t know what to tell you.”

“You don’t have to tell me anything, Dad. I already know what I want to do. I want to live in Lily Dale, and go to Fredonia State.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

He seems to be thinking it over.

“It’s a good school,”he says at last. “I like the idea of having you close by.”

“Close by? You mean . . . you’re thinking of staying in Lily Dale, too?”

He nods. “Not in Ramona’s guest room, though.”

“But you’re . . . getting along with her. Right?”

“Right!”he says enthusiastically. “We’re getting along great!”

She can’t help but smile. “I noticed.”

“You’re sure you don’t mind, Calla? Because you’ve been awfully quiet lately.”

Yes. But not because of her father’s new relationship.

“Why would I mind, Dad?”

“Maybe it’s too soon for you to see me spending so much time with a woman who’s not your mother. But, Calla, your mother and I . . . we were living separate lives toward the end. If it weren’t for you . . . I don’t know that we’d have still been together.”

“But . . . that’s so sad.”

“Your mother and I loved each other very much. But we were never a perfect match. It took me a long time to realize that. When we met, got engaged, got married—it was a whirlwind. Maybe a little too much of a whirlwind. You know your mother. She always liked to have a plan.”

“You mean getting married was her idea?”

“It was our idea, but I remember being dazed that this beautiful, successful, amazing woman wanted a guy like me. It was too good to be true. Now, looking back, I think she wanted me because I was safe, you know— after all she’d been through.”

“I know she loved you, Dad.”

“And I loved her. But I think we both eventually realized that we didn’t have a whole lot in common other than being your parents.”

“Dad . . .”She hesitates, then voices the question that’s been on her mind all weekend. “Did Gammy tell you about . . . Mom and Darrin? I mean . . . about this past spring?”

“Yes. She did. Look, Calla . . . I don’t know what was going on between the two of them, but whatever happened, I have to forgive your mother. And so do you.”

“I’m trying.”

“I hope you’ll try to forgive me, too.”

“Forgive you? For what?”

“Nothing is ever all one person’s fault, Calla. If the marriage was failing . . . we were both responsible. The other thing is, I shouldn’t have gone off to California in August and left you to deal with everything on your own, in a strange place— and I mean that in the most literal sense.”

But not in a bad way, she realizes, seeing the affectionate smile on his face.

“I wasn’t on my own, Dad. I had Gammy.”

“Yes, and she’s been great. And I guess I was just so devastated by what happened that I couldn’t think clearly. But now that the fog has lifted, I know that you and I belong together.”

“In Lily Dale.”

“For now, yes. For a while, at least. But I can’t stay with the Taggarts forever. I figured I could look for a place to rent, and see if I can get a teaching position.”

“What if you don’t? I mean, right away?”

“I won’t have to worry,”he levels a look at her, “if I sell the house. But I don’t know how you feel about that.”

“Sell it, Dad.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

It will mean cutting their last real tie to Tampa.

But that, Calla realizes, will be a relief.

It’s time to move on.

“All right, then. I’ll get the ball rolling on that. I was worried about how you were going to take it.”