If for Any Reason (Nantucket Love Story #1) - Courtney Walsh Page 0,114
to get her head around it,” Nan said. “Maybe it’s less important to her now.”
Jolie raced toward them, Harper close behind.
“Your girl is killing it out there on the paddleboard,” Harper said as she followed JoJo up the stairs.
“She had an awesome teacher.” Hollis tried to sound lighthearted in spite of the tight ball of dread turning over in his stomach.
“How was rehearsal this morning?” Hollis asked, handing Jolie a towel.
Jolie grinned. “Like you don’t know. I saw you in the wings watching.”
“I’m just proud of ya, kiddo.”
“Kiddo.” She rolled her eyes. “That’s such a babyish thing to call me, Dad.”
His eyes darted to his mom, who watched him with a little too much interest. “Harper, help me with dinner.”
Harper mock-saluted their mother. “Aye, aye. Your grandma is a slave driver, JoJo,” she said. “Don’t let anyone tell you different.”
Jolie plopped down in Nan’s vacated seat and picked up her phone.
“Jolie,” Hollis said. “Can we talk for a minute?”
She didn’t move, but her eyes popped up to his. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” he said. “At least I hope nothing’s wrong.”
She set her phone down on the table and wrapped the towel around herself more tightly. “Is this about Rick? Are you going to let him adopt me?”
Hollis’s fingers turned cold. “What? No. Why? Is that what you want?”
JoJo looked away.
Oh no. Was that what she wanted?
“Jolie?”
She shook her head.
“No?”
She found his eyes again. “No.”
“Okay, good.”
She smiled that crooked smile at him.
His heart leapt. No. Jolie didn’t want Rick to adopt her. She wanted Hollis. Would she still after what he was about to tell her?
Suddenly it seemed like terrible timing, but not telling her meant sneaking around or not seeing Emily, and he didn’t like either of those options.
“So what did you want to talk about?” she asked, picking her phone back up.
“Well, do you remember at the beginning of summer when you first met Emily?”
“Sure,” Jolie said. “I loved that day.”
“Me too,” Hollis said, trying to keep his smile in check. No sense getting all dopey.
“Dad, is this about you and Emily?” She leaned forward, elbows on her knees.
He wanted to look away, but he didn’t. “It is.”
“You love her, huh?”
Hollis sputtered. “What?”
“I heard Uncle Hayes and Aunt Harper talking about it. Uncle Hayes said, ‘He’ll never do anything about it,’ and Aunt Harper said, ‘If he loves her as much as I think he does, he will.’ And I said, ‘Why?’ and Aunt Harper said, ‘Because when you love someone as much as your dad loves Emily, you can’t keep it inside. If you do, you’ll explode.’ Or implode. I think she said ‘implode.’ Is that a word?”
So they’d all been talking about his feelings for Emily. He didn’t know whether to be irritated or thankful because it seemed his siblings had unknowingly broken the ice for him with Jolie.
Hollis sighed.
“It’s okay if you love her, Dad,” Jolie said.
He found her eyes. “It is?”
“Yeah. I think she loves you too.”
“Did Harper tell you that?”
Jolie shook her head. “No, I told myself that.”
“Oh, really?”
“Sometimes I see her looking at you,” Jolie said. “And the way you guys are always out on the beach at night.”
“You know about that?”
“I’m almost a teenager, Dad,” she said incredulously. “I’m not stupid.”
He laughed softly. “Oh, I know you’re not.”
“Good, because if I’m going to live with you in the summers, it’s important that we make that really clear. I don’t want you thinking I’m a little kid anymore. No more of this ‘kiddo’ stuff.”
He watched her as she tapped around on her phone for a long moment. Finally she glanced up at him and smiled.
“You’re going to live with me in the summers?”
Her eyes darted back to her phone. “If you’ll let me?”
He heard the question in her voice, and he wanted to figure out the very best way to reassure her that this was exactly what he’d wanted all along.
“Jolie,” he said, “that would make me the happiest guy in the world.”
“Good. It would’ve been embarrassing if you said no.”
He laughed. “So you’re really okay about Emily?”
“I guess,” Jolie said. “I mean, Aunt Harper said I really shouldn’t be selfish about this and that it had been a long time since you’ve been happy and don’t I want you to be happy? I told her of course I want you to be happy, and she said, ‘Emily makes him happy, JoJo.’ And she does, huh?”