Unexpected Father

She stared at the door at the back of the store leading to her father’s apartment, swallowing a stew of anger and grief at the timing of her father’s news. It didn’t help that this came on the heels of yet another disappointment.

Two months ago her boyfriend of two years, Tyler, had said he needed a break, promising Evangeline they would get back together again. A few days later Evangeline had seen him driving his bright red sports car with a young blonde cozied up at his side, her arms wrapped around him.

Some break.

And now it looked as though her father was backing out on his promise, too.

Then, thankfully, the door bells rang, announcing the presence of a customer as Larissa Beck entered the store. Finally an excuse to get away from this situation for a few minutes. Catch her breath. Center herself.

As Evangeline excused herself, she stifled her disappointment to the blow her father had dealt her yet one more time.

When would she learn?

Evangeline had grown up on the ranch Denny was talking about. The best time of her life, spent with her mother and her father and wide-open spaces. Then, when she’d turned eight, her mother had died and her world shifted and changed. She and her father had stayed at the ranch for a month and then he got a job driving a truck. He’d made arrangements to lease out the ranch and taken Evangeline to the bookstore where her mother’s sister lived. Auntie Josie had agreed to take care of her for a while, and he had promised to be back once the job was done.

And this became his constant refrain each time he blew back into town with the spring thaw and his pockets full of cash. Each time he came back he made Evangeline think he was staying put. But he’d grow restless and his eyes would glaze over whenever she’d made plans for the store. Two or three or sometimes four months later he’d head out again, looking for another adventure, another challenge. Another business to invest in.

Now this...truck driver slash cowboy, a man she didn’t even know, had delivered another blow to her future plans with no more emotion than an announcer delivering the weather forecast.

And her father hadn’t even had the decency to give her the news face-to-face.

“So who’s the rough, tough character by the till?” Larissa asked when Evangeline joined her.

“Friend of my father’s. No one important.”

When Larissa lifted one eyebrow at her dismissive tone, Evangeline felt a nudge of regret. It wasn’t Denny’s fault he had come as her absent father’s mouthpiece.

Didn’t mean she had to like it, though.

* * *

No one important.

Well, that was probably true, Denny thought, dropping his hat onto his head, watching Evangeline as she walked—no, swayed—toward the customer. Though Andy had showed him a picture of his daughter, Denny hadn’t been prepared for her effect in real life.

Tall, willowy, her long dark hair spilling in curly waves over her shoulders. Her tilted smile and the way her green eyes curved up at the corners combined to make her look as if she held some curious secret that would make you laugh if she told you.

“Cute as a button,” her father had described her. His own beautiful little princess tucked away in her own little tower. Andy had told Denny that she lived above the bookstore.

Denny glanced around the building with its old-fashioned high ceilings and heavy-beamed wood trim. The large front windows flanking the door spilled light into a store chock-full of bookshelves weighted with paperbacks, hardcovers, picture books, kids’ books....

He was never much of a reader and it made him nervous to see so many books packed into one place. But he could picture Evangeline here. She looked exactly like the princess Andy always talked about with such fondness.

Evangeline laughed at something her customer said as they walked to the cash register, the customer’s arms full of books.

“You’ll like this book, Larissa,” Evangeline said as she rang up her customer’s purchases. “I’m thinking of suggesting it for book club. You coming?”

“I heard Captain Jeff Deptuck is coming now,” the woman named Larissa said with a teasing tone. “Anything happening there? He is a fireman, after all. Perfect hero material.”

“Oh, please. I’m still getting over Tyler.”

The woman waved that off. “Tyler is an idiot. You and he were a waste of time.”

“Besides, Jeff has his eye on Angie, another new member of the book club,” Evangeline returned.

Denny smiled at the interaction. Though he didn’t have a clue who they were talking about, the tone and subject of the conversation was familiar. How often had he heard his three younger sisters teasing each other about boys they liked or didn’t like? For a moment he missed the three of them, wished they could be back on the home place again. Him, his three goofy sisters, his foster brother and his uncle.

He dismissed that thought as soon as it was formulated. Thanks to his ex-wife and their divorce, that time was behind all of them. He had to look to the future now. Take care of himself.

Find the peace that had eluded him ever since his parents died.

Then the woman left and Evangeline turned back to him, the smile and sparkle in her intriguing eyes disappearing as quickly as storm clouds over the sun.

Again he caught a trace of sorrow deep in her eyes, then the glitter of tears, and he felt as if, somehow, he was partly to blame.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” he said.

Evangeline slipped the paper from the sale into the cash register and shoved the drawer shut. “What are you sorry for?” she muttered. “You didn’t do anything.”

“I dunno,” he said with a shrug. “I learned from my sisters that if they’re crying, it’s because I did something wrong or said something wrong, so it’s easier to apologize.”

“I wasn’t crying,” she said.

Denny pushed down a sigh. Of course she wouldn’t admit to it. He lifted one hand as if surrendering. “Sorry. I should know that, too.”

“What do you mean?”

Denny clamped his mouth shut. When would he learn? Dealing with women was like trying to predict the weather. Just when you thought you had the direction of it, a storm would blow in and everything changed.

“So your dad told me you knew everything about the ranch,” Denny said, trying to return to a more practical discussion. “That you could show me around.”

Evangeline nodded, blinking quickly. She looked as though she was going to cry again.

He restrained a sigh, his practical nature warring with the big brother in him that hated seeing his sisters sad. The part that always made him feel as though he had to fix things.

“You’re not okay, are you?” he asked, resting his hand beside hers on the counter. “You look kinda pale.”

Evangeline snatched her hand back, tucking it under her arm as if the casual contact bothered her.

“I’m fine. Just fine,” she said through lips that had grown tight and hard. “Did you want to see the apartment now?”

Denny’s frown deepened. She didn’t seem fine. “You sure? I can come another time if—”

“You’re here now,” she said. “May as well see where you’ll be living for now.”

Okay. Obviously he had overstepped the invisible boundary. “Sure. Of course.”

Lesson learned.