Happily This Christmas (Happily Inc #6) - Susan Mallery Page 0,48
spend her day making snowmen for a wedding.
“It’s all about the money,” she reminded herself, walking into the family room where she’d set up a card table with her supplies. In the corner was a growing stack of boxes filled with paper snowmen.
She got out everything she would need and prepared to work. Before she started, she sent a quick text to her friend Holly, mentioning Joni, Yolanda and Enya had stopped by, not that she expected a reply anytime soon. It was a Saturday morning. Holly and Rex would probably be doing something together. But eventually Holly would answer and be sympathetic. She’d never much liked Joylyn’s college friends.
She ignored the shrieks from the backyard. In some ways ignoring the noise reminded her of how it had been back when she’d lived with her mom. Her brothers were insanely loud and always getting into something. It was much easier being at her dad’s, she thought. There was always food in the refrigerator and the house was quiet. Plus they were getting along better now. He didn’t act like he resented having her around. Sometimes he even made her feel he was glad she was here. So why hadn’t he been like that before?
As if he’d sensed she was thinking about him, her dad walked into the family room.
“What are you doing?” he asked, coming to a stop when he saw her. “Your friends are out by the pool.”
She wrinkled her nose. “They’re drunk and talking about people I don’t know and places I haven’t been.”
He pulled up a chair. “You’re just in different places right now. You’re pregnant and married and they’re—” He hesitated.
“Swimming topless in your pool?” she offered.
He winced. “Tell me that’s not true.”
“Sorry, but it is.”
“Damn, and I was going to go sit outside and enjoy the day.”
“You don’t want to see their boobs?”
Her dad grimaced. “They belong to your friends, so no.”
“But other random twentysomething boobs would be okay?”
He chuckled. “Sure. As long as they’re random.”
“Da-ad.”
“I’m a guy. Many of us like boobs. It’s a thing.” He picked up one of the snowmen. “You’re making progress.”
“I know. Hunter made about ten, then decided he didn’t need the money that much. I don’t mind the work. I text Natalie every couple of days and update her on my count.”
“I’m sure she appreciates that.”
A loud burst of laughter had them both turning toward the back of the house.
“How long are they staying?” he asked.
“I don’t know. They’ll want to go out soon enough. When that happens, I’ll tell them not to come back.”
Garrick looked concerned. “You don’t have to do that, Joylyn. They can stick around if you want.”
“It’s not fun for me. I wish I’d stayed on base.”
“You could go visit those friends.”
“It’s too long a drive.”
“What if I took you?” he asked. “You could stretch out in the back of the SUV. We’d stop every hour for you to walk around.”
“Thanks, but no.”
“Then let’s decorate the house later. It’s the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so we need to put up wreaths and stuff.”
He sounded sincere, like he would really do that with her, she thought. This was the father she remembered—the one who took care of her.
She put down the half-finished snowman. “Dad, why did you stop seeing me? Before, I mean. When I was a teenager.”
He stared at her, his confusion almost comical. “We’ve talked about this, honey. I didn’t stop seeing you. You’re the one who told me to go away. You said our weekends were boring and that you had better things to do. You refused to see me for weeks and weeks.”
He was right, she thought reluctantly. That was what had happened. She’d been angry and she’d lashed out. Her mother had talked about forcing her to see her dad, but she never had. Joylyn had been left to make the choice herself, and once she’d turned her back on him, she hadn’t known how to change things.
“You should have tried harder,” she whispered, staring at the table. “You should have made me.”
“Is that what you wanted?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” She looked at him. “Then you were gone. I talked to mom about calling you, but you were just gone. You abandoned me.”
“Joylyn, you weren’t abandoned. I was working.”
“Doing what? Why would you disappear for months?”
“The first time was only a few weeks, and I was on assignment.” He hesitated. “I was in a joint task force with the DEA.”
She stared at him, not sure what to think. DEA? As in Drug