Not one.
Maybe I’d made the wrong choice. Maybe these images only magnified what would soon be his loss. Finally, Dad backed away from the screen, held me close, and simply whispered, “Good work,” into my hair. When we drew apart, Dad smiled the same proud smile that had been the hallmark of every one of our photo safaris from the start. “Very good work.”
I blushed under his broad grin, which could hold up the earth, and Mom’s, which could give birth to any dream, the crazier, the better.
When Dad insisted on watching the slide show again, sitting close to the screen so that he wouldn’t miss a single pixel, no one protested.
“Well, well, well. I think dessert just arrived,” Ginny told me, eyes gleaming with mischief. I followed her gaze to the door, where I expected to see Reb but instead found Quattro bearing down on me in the kitchen, not with a dozen apology roses but with a pink pastry box. Just like that, my eyes teared up.
A few feet away, he said, “Bacon maple bar?”
“You’re here.”
“You invited us.”
I flushed, only now noticing Christopher and a young girl with the same up-tilted hazel eyes as his and Quattro’s. I flew over to give Christopher a hug, introduce myself to Kylie, and then finally sink into Quattro’s arms.
“Technically, I invited your dad,” I sniffled, my words muffled in his shoulder.
“Sooo,” said Ginny, scrutinizing Quattro when we finally pulled away from each other. She was literally eyeing him up and down. “You’re—”
Worried about what she would say, I cut in, “The one anthropologists should study. And the CIA. You don’t exist online.”
“But he’s here right now,” Ginny said smoothly, blinking at me expectantly for an introduction.
“Quattro,” he introduced himself.
“Oh, yes, you are,” Ginny said.
In spite of myself, my pulse quickened when Dad spied Quattro in the kitchen. I hadn’t realized how worried I was about his reaction to Quattro. While he didn’t throw his arms around Quattro, he didn’t frown either. Instead, he held out his hand in what must have been a man’s-man acceptance, then drew Christopher to the fridge for a cold beer and said, “So I hear we might be neighbors.”
Standing awkwardly in the corner, Kylie played with the edge of her slouchy gold sweater.
“That is so blog worthy,” I told her.
Her grin glowed brighter than the sweater. “You think so? I thought maybe I should have gone with brown wedges.”
My eyes dropped to her white jeans. “Not even. Those Japanese sneakers are inspired.”
“Winter meets spring,” she said shyly before ducking her head.
My mind whirled. Had I just possibly found a managing editor to take over TurnStyle? Before I could even broach it with Kylie, Ginny asked if she wanted to check out my closet to get a sneak peek at what would be hot a year from now.
“Are you kidding?” Kylie squealed, and the two of them dashed upstairs.
That left me alone with Quattro in the kitchen. I placed my weight on one crutch and swiveled around to face him. “What are you doing here? I mean, really, why?”
“You’ve got a right to be annoyed at me.”
“Try hurt. And mad.” It went counter to every single snag-a-guy self-help book Ginny devoured on a regular basis, but I let my emotions loose: “Why didn’t you call me? I was worried about you. And weren’t you worried about me?”
“More than you know. We called Stesha almost every day.”
“You called her?”
“I didn’t think you’d want to talk to me.” He raised his hand, palm out. “I know. Lame. But I wasn’t sure if I had totally messed up with you. And anyway, I wanted to tell you in person.”
“What?”
“We were able to scatter Mom’s ashes over Machu Picchu after all.”
That revelation was a lightning bolt strike to the long three weeks of silence, a direct hit that burned my hurt clean. I forgot the pain of being ignored and let go of all my fretting that I had blown it with him by messing up his plans. A few of Dad’s employees spilled into the kitchen, so I grabbed my jacket hanging on a hook in the mudroom and led Quattro out to our tiny backyard patio.
“How?” I asked him as I leaned my crutches against the bench before maneuvering to take a seat. I noticed that Quattro stood nearby until I was safely sitting.