Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 89303 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89303 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
“You could always use the cabin.”
I nodded slowly. “There’s an idea. That way, we can bring Riley.”
“Or we could watch Ryan and keep Riley since they’re inseparable.”
My eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Sly…real sly.”
“What?” he asked innocently.
“You’re just trying to take Riley.”
“No, I’d like to spend time with my grandson too.”
“Uh-huh, sure.”
He rolled his eyes and took a drink. “The weather is getting really nice. It’d be great to take her out to the cabin when it’s not covered in snow. I’m sure she’d love it.”
She’d be too busy tied up to the bed to enjoy it. “Yeah, I’ll run the idea by her.”
“You think she’d like to go fishing?”
“I don’t know, actually. But I’ll definitely teach Ryan when he’s a little older.”
“Gonna start a family right away?”
“Yep. I’m gonna start the second she gives me the green light.”
He chuckled. “The best years of your life are ahead of you, son.”
“Yeah? I think so too.” I already had a great life, had a lot to be grateful for. I didn’t fully regret my marriage or the time I spent with Catherine, but there was no doubt that being with Sicily was the superior choice. She and I fit like two pieces of a puzzle, like a hand in a glove, like the lungs and the heart. “Thanks for not giving up on me.” My parents had pulled my life together, were still parenting me even when I was about to turn thirty. Without them, I wouldn’t have even met Sicily in the first place. They were everything to me, and I couldn’t even contemplate a time in life when they wouldn’t be around, making the world a better place, showing me and everyone around them what love really was.
Dad reached his hand over to my shoulder and gave me a squeeze. “Always. Knowing you have the right person beside you helps your mother and me sleep at night. Because your lifetime partner is stronger than family, stronger than blood. They’re the one always watching your back when you’re busy watching your front. We know that Sicily will always take care of you, that her love is unconditional, and so is yours.” He gave me another squeeze and dropped his hand, and absent-mindedly, he glanced over and looked at Daisy for a moment before he turned back to his scotch.
“You worry about her?”
He released a sarcastic chuckle as he looked into his glass. “I always worry about her.”
“You just said not thirty minutes ago that she could get married whenever she felt like it.”
“And I meant that. I never want my daughter to settle for someone unworthy just so people will stop asking her about marriage and kids. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want her to find a good man. I love my job as a father, but it’s not a lifetime career. If you’re good at what you do, you’re eventually replaced. I love being the man in her life right now, but she needs to find someone to replace me. And I want him to be better than me. I want him to be smarter than me. I want him to love her more than me. I want to know my little girl has that kind of man when I’m gone.”
“Smarter than you?” I teased. “Uh, I just don’t think that’s likely. And someone who loves her more than you? Dad, that’s just unrealistic. I can’t imagine anyone loving us more than you guys do.”
He gave a slight smile. “Yeah, that probably is unrealistic. I just want Daisy to have a man who’s her equal. She’s so brilliant, and I can’t see her being happy unless she’s with someone who can challenge her every single day.”
“Sicily and Emerson aren’t certified geniuses.”
He released a chuckle. “They’re geniuses in their own ways. I could never do what they do. There are different kinds of intelligence. And the unfortunate reality of life is…your parents love you in a very special way that’s never replicated or replaced. No one will ever love you more than that, and when they’re gone…” Even after all this time, he still grieved the loss of his father, who had been dead long before I was even born, before Derek was born. But time didn’t heal all wounds, apparently. “You’ll never be loved that way ever again. Unless…you find the perfect person to fill that void in your chest, to supplement that unconditional love that you now have to live without. That’s what it means to find a lifetime partner, a spouse, and it’s a very big deal to get it right. I want that for Daisy. I want her to have a man who’s gonna be committed the way I am to your mother, who’s going to be protective the way Derek is over Emerson, to love her the way you love Sicily. I understand that love is rare, so I worry that she won’t find it…that there are just not enough good men out there.”