After I made her a mug of decaf, I joined her at the table with my second cup of regular. “I should make it back by the time your game starts on Tuesday night. If for some reason I’m late, Marina’s mom is going to text me the score updates.”
She shrugged. “I’m starting. But it’s not a big deal if you can’t make it.”
“Are you kidding? This is a huge deal. When was the last time a sophmore started on a varsity basketball team at Beacon?”
She tried to play it off like she didn’t care, but I saw it in her eyes. “Never.”
“Well, I can’t wait to watch you not only start as a sophmore, but kick butt.”
She ate her breakfast in relative quiet after that. When I was unloading the dishwasher, she surprised me by starting a conversation. For two years now, almost every conversation had been started by me.
“Are you going alone to California?”
“Of course. Who else would I go with?”
She looked away. “That guy you went out with last week.”
I stopped unloading to give her my full attention. “No. That was just a date. And I don’t think I’ll be going out with him a second time.”
Her voiced pepped up. “Because of Dad?”
“No, honey, not because of your dad. My dating choices have nothing to do with your father. Brad and I just didn’t connect.”
“He was ugly.”
I’d recently forced myself to start dating again. I didn’t have time to do it often, but when I did, I made sure not to bring them around for Izzy to meet.
My brows furrowed. “How do you know what he looked like?”
“You left your Mac open to Match.com when I borrowed it.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“He didn’t look like your type.”
Translation. He looked nothing like your father. “I’m trying to date outside my type.”
“Why would you do that?”
The truth was, I was attempting to avoid gorgeous men who swept me off my feet and out of my senses. But Izzy was smart enough to understand what I meant if I said that. And I’d vowed not to put her father down when speaking to her, no matter how tempting it often could be. Every little girl should be allowed to idolize her father and make her own decisions as she grew up. Someday Izzy might see Garrett for who he was, but I wouldn’t be the one to open her eyes.
“To be honest, I think I was too closed-minded when I was younger,” I told her. “If a boy wasn’t cool enough or good looking enough, I really didn’t give him a chance. I judged a book by its cover, so to speak. Since I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that by doing that, you miss out on some pretty amazing people. So I’ve been trying not to focus on the silly stuff I used to.”
Izzy was quiet for a moment. “My friends make fun of this boy Yakshit…well, because his name is Yak-shit, and his nose is sort of big. He moved here from India last year. He’s in my science research class, and he plays on the boy’s basketball team. But he’s nice and makes me laugh.”
Wow. I was momentarily taken aback by Izzy’s sharing of…well, anything. “Yeah. Kids can be cruel. Let’s face it, adults can be cruel, too. I’m glad you’re friends with Yakshit.”
Her eyes dropped, and I realized she was telling me more.
“Izzy, you like this boy...as a boyfriend?”
The tiny bit she’d opened up to stick her neck out slammed shut as she recoiled into her shell. “I didn’t say that.”
“It’s okay if you do. You’re almost sixteen. I liked boys at your age.”
She chanced a glance up at me. “Dad says I can’t go out with boys until I’m twenty-one.”
I reached over and squeezed her hand to catch her attention again. “I’m never going to tell you to ignore something your father says. He’s your father, and any advice he gives you is worth consideration. However, what goes on day-to-day here in our home, so long as we’re open and honest about it with each other, is between you and me. We need to trust each other with these things. Just like I told you about my date with Brad. We’re in this together, Izzy.”
She looked away, but nodded.
It was more than she normally allowed me to have from her.
“I’m going to go finish packing for Nanna’s.”
I smiled. “Okay. We’ll leave in about a half hour, and I’ll drop you on the way to the airport.”
My planned thirty-minute departure turned into an hour. Since I was running late, I said goodbye to Izzy at the door of Garrett’s mother’s house. “Be good. I’ll only be gone a few days.”