Daddy Lessons

“But still—”

“Have you heard anything more from Naomi?” Hailey didn’t want to talk about her and Dan’s past. She had shed enough tears over Dan’s decisions and Shannon had been witness to most of them. Hailey had her own life now and Dan wasn’t a part of it. “Last I talked to her, the oncologist said Billy had maybe another month?”

Shannon shook her head. “Poor Naomi. When she and Billy got engaged, who could have imagined this would happen?”

“Do you think she’ll be back for Carter and Emma’s wedding?”

“I hope so.” Shannon frowned as she sprinkled nutmeg over the bowl of steaming beans. “Our poor sister has had to deal with so much, it would be good for her to be around family.”

“Hopefully Garret will be done with that engineering job in Dubai by then.”

“I hope so too. I’m looking forward to having everyone back for a while.”

“What do you mean, for a while?” Nana Beck’s quiet voice interrupted the sisters’ conversation. She settled herself in the folding chair beside the plastic table that took up one corner of Shannon’s minuscule kitchen.

“You know I have a teaching job in Calgary come September,” Hailey said, laying a drumstick on the plate she was filling up.

“I still don’t believe you can’t find a job closer to home,” Nana complained.

Hailey gave her grandmother a placating smile. “Calgary is only a three-hour drive away. I’ll be back to visit.”

Nana smoothed back her gray hair. “At least I’ve got three of my grandchildren together for now. And Carter seems so happy now that he and Emma are making their wedding plans.”

“Yeah. Lucky Carter.” Hailey felt truly happy for her cousin, but Dan’s return to town reminded her of her own might-have-beens.

“You’ll find someone, don’t worry,” Nana assured her, as if she could read her granddaughter’s mind. “Maybe in Calgary. Or maybe here. Now that Dan Morrow is back. You two were such a sweet couple.”

Hailey caught Shannon’s sympathetic glance at their grandmother’s lack of subtlety. Her sister, more than anyone, knew exactly how much Dan’s desertion had hurt her.

“Lots of other fish in the sea, Nana,” Shannon said. “And sometimes you need to try another sea.”

Nana Beck sighed at that. “Well, I keep praying for all you grandchildren. That you will all make better choices than my daughters did. That you will make the kind of choice your great-great-grandfather August Beck did.”

Shannon walked over to their grandmother and dropped a light kiss on her forehead. “That means a lot to us, Nana.” She gave her grandmother the bowl of beans. “Why don’t you put this on the table in the dining room and when Hailey is finished butchering that chicken, we can eat.”

“I’ve got things under control,” Hailey protested, even as she struggled to cut the breast away from the bone.

Shannon put her hand on Hailey’s shoulder and gave her a knowing look. “I sure hope so, little sister.”

Hailey caught the questioning subtext in her sister’s comment and looked away.

She sure hoped she had things under control. Seeing Dan every day would create a challenge to keeping her heart whole.

But she had to. She just had to keep thinking of leaving Hartley Creek and starting over in a new job in a new city. It was the only way she would get through the next few months.

Hailey shifted her backpack on her shoulder, then took the first steps up the flight of wooden stairs hugging the brick wall at the back of Hartley Creek Hardware Store. A cutting winter wind whistled around her ears and through the open zipper of her down-filled jacket. She wrested the sides of her coat together, as memories emerged with each step up the stairs.

When she and Dan were dating they would take turns doing homework at each other’s place. When her mother was gone, which was frequently, Hailey would come to Dan’s place. They would sit beside each other, papers spread over the table, a plate of fresh-baked cookies in front of them.

Mostly, though, she and Dan would just hold hands under the table and whisper to each other. They would make up scenarios and weave plans.

Dan would become a partner with his father in the store. Hailey would work at the ski hill until the kids came.

Hailey’s steps faltered as she made her way up the stairs, her hand clinging to the wooden rail.

Okay, Lord. I know doing this will bring up many memories, but that’s long over. Done. We were just kids then. We’ve both moved on to different places. We’re both different people. Please help me remember that.

She waited a moment, as if to give the prayer time to wing its way upward, then she followed it up the rest of the stairs. She rapped on the door, then hugged her coat around her, glancing over her shoulder at the mountains surrounding the town.

From here she could barely make out the The Shadow Woman. The contours of her face and body would show up better in the latter part of summer and even more clearly from just the right spot on Carter’s ranch, the old family place.

Melancholy drifted through her. By August, she would be leaving Hartley Creek.

The creak of the door opening made her turn around.

Once again, Dan stood in front of her. She caught the piney scent of his aftershave, the same one he always wore. The kind she had bought him when he’d started shaving.

His hair, still damp from the shower, curled a bit. He wore it shorter than he used to but the look suited his strong features and deep-set eyes.

“Hey,” was all he said, adding a curt nod. “Natasha will be right out. She’s cleaning up her bedroom.”

He stepped aside for Hailey to come in and as she looked around the apartment, she felt the brush of nostalgia. Her eyes flitted over the gray recliner, the overstuffed green couch and love seat, all facing the television perched on a worn wooden stand. Beyond that, through the arched doorway to the dining room, she saw the same heavy wooden table and matching chairs with their padded brocade seats.

The same pictures still hung on the walls, the same knick-knacks filled the bookshelf along one wall of the living room.

“Looks like your parents still live here,” she said, dropping her backpack on the metal table in the front hallway and removing her jacket.

“Mom and Dad wanted a fresh start when they moved out,” Dan said, reaching for her coat. “They took only a few things to the new house.”

As Dan took her coat, their fingers brushed. Just a light touch, inconsequential in any other circumstance, with any other person. Trouble was, Dan wasn’t just any other person.

Just as she had at church yesterday, she jerked her hand back, wrapping it around the other. “You probably want to get back to work.” Thankfully, her voice sounded brisk and businesslike, betraying none of the emotions that arose in his presence.

“Mom and Patricia have been downstairs for half an hour already,” Dan said as he hung her coat up in the cupboard beside the door. “I need to get going.”

Hailey nodded as she picked up her backpack with the assignments Megan had planned for Natasha. “I imagine the dining room is the best place to work.”

“That’s what I thought.” Dan shifted his feet, his hands in the front pockets of his pants, and Hailey wondered if the same memories of their past slipped through his mind. “I just want to tell you I appreciate you coming here. I know it keeps you from helping Megan.”

“I’m sure Natasha will be back at school in no time,” Hailey said with a breeziness she didn’t quite feel. “So Megan won’t be without my help for long.”

“I hope so. I’ll get Natasha.” Dan took a step back and then headed down the long, narrow hallway just off the living room.

She ambled over the worn carpet, then through the arched doorway to the dining room. The table was cleared off and she set her knapsack down on its polished wooden surface. Hailey zipped open the knapsack, glancing around as she pulled out her papers and books. The glass-fronted armoire in the dining room still held the same plates, teacups and serving bowls. Why had Mrs. Morrow left so much behind?

Then Hailey’s eyes fell on the row of school photographs marching along the facing wall.

Pictures of Dan ranged from a pudgy, freckle-faced kindergartner with a gap-toothed grin to the serious senior. Already in grade twelve he showed a hint of the man he had now become, with his deep-set eyes and strong chin.