“Can you keep a secret?”
She desired nothing more than to be trustworthy enough in Dad’s eyes to hear his most confidential confessions. “I can totally keep a secret.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m absolutely sure,” she guaranteed.
He reached his pinky out, still dressed in his black suit from work. His suit jacket had been unbuttoned to show his white dress shirt and black tie.
She tangled pinkies with him to solidify her promise. “My lips are sealed.”
He took a quick peek at her before turning back to the road. “I’d much rather take you out than your mother.”
She continued to tell herself that she wanted a guy like Dad. She’d admitted to Mom that she longed for a man who possessed Dad’s personality and mentality, after all. Everywhere she looked, she saw guys that she wished resembled even half the man her father was, but tonight proved that she would never find such a guy. They simply didn’t exist. Only one person could ever win her heart, and that hunk sat next to her on this Wednesday night.
And more than anything, she adored listening to him rave about how much he loved her.
“We wouldn’t want to make Mom jealous,” she said with a wicked smirk.
“Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure I already do that,” Peter laughed, turning onto the highway entrance. “I’ve apparently driven her nuts over the last two years.”
“Driven her nuts? How?”
“I guess that I constantly talked about how much I missed you when you were off at college,” he said. “What was I supposed to do, though? Pretend that I didn’t hate you being gone? It sucked.”
She gazed lovingly at her father while he stared straight-ahead at the road.
“I returned home to your smiling face for eighteen years, and then one day, you weren’t there,” he went on, reflecting on his life after Stacy graduated high school. “Listen, I know that things can’t stay the same way forever, but part of me really wishes they could.”
She couldn’t believe how similar she felt. Yes, college was fun and unique, but nothing beats living at home. Her house remained the one place where she had no worries, minimal responsibilities, and a guy who she actually loved. College parties and hanging out with her friends was awesome, but it couldn’t compare to watching Dad smile every time he saw her over the course of summer vacation.
“Oh my God, Dad, you need to pull over.”
His attention immediately turned to her troubled voice, where he found her rubbing her left eye with her hand. “What’s wrong, pumpkin?”
“Something got under my contact lens,” she told him, her voice noticeably distraught. “It’s driving me so crazy.”
“Do you have solution in your purse?”
“Yeah, but I need to take it out first,” she said as she continued to rub her closed left eye. “Can you please pull over?”
He exited at the first off-ramp and pulled into a mostly empty fast-food parking lot. His troubles remained after he parked under one of the lights in the back of the lot, however. Even a slight hint of irritation from Stacy’s soft voice concerned him, so he especially didn’t enjoy listening to her sound legitimately uncomfortable.