A Walk Along the Beach(70)

Dad found a good parking spot and we walked together, side by side, toward the bank of elevators. My steps were sluggish, but if Dad noticed, he didn’t comment.

“Dad,” I said, stopping him just before he pushed the button to call for the elevator. “I need to warn you…Harper is very sick.”

His eyes dimmed and he reached for my hand, taking it in his own and squeezing. “I know. Lucas has been giving me regular updates.”

That was all well and good, but hearing and seeing were two entirely different things.

“Don’t worry about me,” he said, giving my hand another squeeze. “I’m stronger than I look.”

I hoped he was right. It wasn’t like I could keep him away, not that I would want that. Protecting him as I had in the past had done more harm than good. As Harper had so often told me: I was such a mother.

    Before we entered the hospital, I texted John and told him we were on our way to Harper’s room. He met us in the hallway outside her room, his expression revealing nothing about what had transpired in the time I’d been away.

I asked Dad if he remembered John.

“Of course,” Dad replied. “You’re the handsome doctor who escorted Harper down the aisle at the wedding.” He offered his hand. “Good to see you again, Doctor.”

“You, too.” They exchanged handshakes.

“You ready, Dad?” I wrapped my arm around his elbow, unsure who would need the support more: him or me.

“Ready,” he said.

I pushed open the door to find my sister curled up on her side. Apparently, she no longer needed the oxygen mask, because it was gone. I looked upon this as a good sign. When she saw it was me and Dad, she smiled. How pale she looked. So sick and so determined to be brave.

“Baby girl,” Dad said, as he pulled the chair up alongside her bed.

Harper extended her arm to him and Dad gripped hold of her hand, raising it to his lips and kissing her fingers. For a long time, he said nothing. Then he pressed his forehead against her hand. When he straightened, he looked to me.

“I’m grateful you’re here, Willa. I have something to say and you both need to hear it.”

“Of course, Dad.”

“You know how deeply I loved your mother.” His eyes filled with tears, which he managed to hold at bay.

Seeing how he grieved, we knew Mom had been his soulmate. He’d floundered badly without her.

    “We met when I was in the Army, stationed at Fort Lewis, and she worked as a waitress at Denny’s, putting aside her tip money to take college classes. The minute I saw her it was like I got struck by lightning. Knew right then this was the girl I’d marry.”

He stopped, rubbed the side of his face, and chuckled. “Thing was, it took some time to convince her we were meant to be together. She was determined to graduate college and teach English. Oh my, how that woman loved to read. She could rip through a book in a day, swallowing up all them words like it was nothing.”

Harper’s eyes found mine and we grinned at each other. That was the perfect description of Mom. She’d read to us from the time we were infants. One of my first memories was Mom giving me a book. I could remember sitting in her lap as she read to all of us each night. Books were her world.

“When we first met, Claire wasn’t interested in dating anyone in the military,” Dad continued. “?‘Here today, gone tomorrow’ is what she said. I ate at that Denny’s every night for a month before she’d agree to go to dinner with me.”

“Don’t tell me you took her to dinner at Denny’s,” I said, joking with him. I loved hearing the details of Mom and Dad’s courtship. We all knew our father had been in the military and that he’d met Mom while stationed at Fort Lewis, but not how they’d met or how long it’d taken him to convince her to date him.

“No, I took her to a little seafood place by the ocean.”

“Oceanside?”

He nodded. “Seeing how much she enjoyed being on that beach, I said if she’d agree to marry me, I’d move us here.”

“Dad, you mean to say you proposed on your first date?”

He chuckled. “Yup. That woman had my heart wrapped around her little finger. If she’d wanted to move to the moon, I’d have found a way.”

“How long did it take for you to convince her to marry you?”

He grinned as if proud of himself. “In less than six months she had my engagement ring on her finger. We waited until I was released from the Army and she got that degree she wanted so badly, and then we married. I found work in Oceanside and she taught at the junior high until Lucas was born.”

    He grew serious then, his eyes sad. “I always thought we’d grow old together. I assumed I’d be the one to die first; it generally happens that way, me being five years older and all.”

“One never knows,” Harper whispered, her breath wispy.

“It was always my job to provide for the family. Your mother wanted to be at home with you children. I encouraged it. Oh, how she loved you; she took such pride in each one of you. When she died”—he stopped for a moment, but was able to continue—“I felt that I’d somehow failed her. It was my job to care for her. To see to her needs, to be her protector. That’s what a loving husband does. It was why I found solace in a bottle after we buried her. I’d failed her, failed all of you. Countless nights I sat, wondering if there was something I’d missed, something I should have seen before that aneurysm.”