“maybe not to you. But it’s the first time I’ll be meeting her, and if you two end up getting married, I don’t want to be the subject of any humorous stories later on.”
Garrett raised his eyebrows. “Who said we’re getting married?”
“No one.”
“Then why did you bring it up?”
“Because,” he said quickly, “I figured one of us had to, and I wasn’t sure you were ever going to get around to it.”
Garrett stared at his father. “So, you think I should marry her?”
Jeb winked as he answered. “It doesn’t matter what I think, it’s what you think that’s important, isn’t it?”
* * *
Later that evening, Garrett opened his front door just as the phone began to ring. After rushing to the phone, he picked it up and heard the voice he expected.
“Garrett?” Theresa asked. “You sound out of breath.”
He smiled. “Oh, hey, Theresa. I just walked in. My father had me over at his house all day getting the place ready—he’s really looking forward to meeting you.”
There was an uncomfortable pause. “About tomorrow . . . ,” she said finally.
He felt his throat tighten. “What about tomorrow?”
It took a moment for her to answer. “I’m really sorry, Garrett . . . I don’t know how to tell you this, but I’m not going to be able to make it down to Wilmington after all.”
“Is something wrong?”
“No, everything’s fine. It’s just that something came up at the last minute—a big conference that I’ve got to go to.”
“what kind of conference?”
“It’s for my job.” She paused again. “I know it sounds terrible, but I wouldn’t go unless it was really important.”
He closed his eyes. “What’s it for?”
“It’s for bigwig editors and media types—they’re meeting in Dallas this weekend. Deanna thinks it would be a good idea if I met some of them.”
“Did you just find out about it?”
“No . . . I mean, yes. Well—I knew there was going to be a meeting, but I wasn’t supposed to go. Usually, columnists aren’t invited, but Deanna pulled some strings and arranged for me to go with her.” She hesitated. “I’m really sorry, Garrett, but like I said, it would be wonderful exposure, and it’s an opportunity of a lifetime.”
He was silent for a moment. Then he said simply, “I understand.”
“You’re angry with me, aren’t you.”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
She knew by his tone that he wasn’t telling the truth, but she didn’t think there was anything she could say that would make him feel any better.
“Will you tell your father that I’m sorry?”
“Yeah, I’ll tell him.”
“Can I call you this weekend?”
“If you want to.”
* * *
The next day he ate dinner with his father, who did his best to play down the whole affair.
“if it’s like she said,” his father explained, “she had a good reason. It’s not like she can put her job on the back burner. She has a son to support, and she’s got to do her best to provide for him. Besides, it’s just one weekend—not much in the grand scheme of things.”
Garrett nodded, listening to his father but still upset about the whole thing. Jeb went on.
“I’m sure you two will be able to work it out. In fact, she’s probably going to do something real special the next time you two are together.”
Garrett said nothing. Jeb took a couple of bites before speaking again.
“You’ve got to understand, Garrett—she’s got responsibilities, just like you do, and sometimes those responsibilities take priority. I’m sure that if something happened in the shop that you had to take care of, you would have done the same thing.”
Garrett leaned back, pushing his half-eaten plate to the side. “I understand all that, Dad. It’s just that I haven’t seen her for a month now, and I was really looking forward to her visit.”
“Don’t you think she wanted to see you, too?”
“She said she did.”
Jeb leaned across the table and pushed Garrett’s plate in front of him again. “Eat your dinner,” he said. “I spent all day cooking, and you’re not going to waste it.”
Garrett looked at his plate. Though he wasn’t hungry anymore, he picked up his fork and took a small bite.
“You know,” his father said as he picked at his own food, “this isn’t the last time this is going to happen, so you shouldn’t get so down about it now.”
“What do you mean?”
“i mean that as long as you two continue to live a thousand miles apart, things like this are going to come up and you won’t see each other as much as either one of you wants.”
“Don’t you think I know that?”
“I’m sure you do. But I don’t know if either one of you has the guts to do something about it.”
Garrett looked at his father, thinking, Gee, Dad, tell me how you really feel. Don’t hold back.
“When I was young,” Jeb continued, oblivious of his son’s sour expression, “things were a lot simpler. If a man loved a woman, he asked her to marry him, and then they lived together. It was as simple as that. But you two—it’s like you don’t know what to do.”
“I’ve told you before—it’s not that easy. . . .”
“Sure it is—if you love her, then find a way to be with her. It’s as simple as that. That way, if something comes up and you don’t see each other one weekend, you don’t end up acting like your life is over.”
Jeb paused before continuing. “It just isn’t natural what you two are trying to do, and in the long run, it isn’t going to work. You know that, don’t you?”
“I know,” Garrett said simply, wishing his father would stop talking about it.
His father cocked his eyebrow, waiting. When Garrett didn’t add anything else, Jeb spoke again.
“ ‘I know’? That’s all you have to say?”
He shrugged. “What else can I say?”
“You can say that the next time you see her, you two are going to figure this out. That’s what you can say.”
“Fine—we’ll try to figure it out.”
jeb put his fork down and glared at his son. “I didn’t say try, Garrett, I said that you two are going to figure this out.”
“Why are you so adamant about it?”
“Because,” he said, “if you two don’t figure it out, you and me are going to keep eating alone for the next twenty years.”
* * *
The following day, Garrett took Happenstance out first thing in the morning and stayed on the water until after the sun went down. Though Theresa had left a message for him with her hotel information in Dallas, he hadn’t called last night, telling himself that it was too late and that she was already asleep. It was a lie and he knew it, but he simply didn’t feel like talking to her yet.
The fact was, he didn’t feel like talking to anyone. He was still angry at what she’d done, and the best place for him to think about it was out on the ocean, where no one could bother him. Most of the morning he found himself wondering if she realized how much this whole thing bothered him. More than likely she didn’t—he convinced himself—otherwise she wouldn’t have done it.
That is, if she cared about him.
By the time the sun rose higher in the sky, however, his anger began to fade. As he thought more clearly about the situation, he decided that his father had been right—as usual. Her reason for not coming didn’t reflect on him as much as it reflected on the differences in their lives. She did have responsibilities she couldn’t ignore, and as long as they continued to live separate lives, things like this were going to keep coming up.
Though he wasn’t happy about it, he wondered if all relationships had moments like these. If truth be told, he didn’t know. The only other real relationship he’d ever had was with catherine, and it wasn’t easy to compare the two. he and Catherine were married and living under the same roof, for one thing. Even more, they’d known each other most of their lives, and because they were younger, they didn’t have the same responsibilities that either Garrett or Theresa had now. They were fresh out of college, they didn’t own a home, and there certainly weren’t any children to care for. No—what they had was completely different from what he and Theresa had now, and it wasn’t fair to try to link them.