Christmas at Fireside Cabins - Jenny Hale Page 0,85
could be, and how important it was never to let things go unsaid. “You might be surprised.” She held out his phone. “Call him. I’ll be right here beside you.”
Theo took his phone and held it in the palm of his hand, staring at the empty screen. Then, to Lila’s total surprise, he pulled up the number and hit call.
When someone answered, he said, “Hey, Dad. It’s Theo.”
Lila sat next to Theo on the sofa with both hands folded tensely in her lap.
“I thought I’d call…”
She’d never seen him look like that before. His shoulders were tight, his jaw rigid, his back stiff. Even when she thought she’d pushed him to the limit in the first days she’d known him, he hadn’t had that intense reaction.
“Yeah, I’m still in Pinewood Hills. I’m at the cabins. How did you— Okay.” He looked over at Lila. “See you soon.” Theo hung up the phone.
“What did he say?” Lila asked. That call had been so much shorter than she’d thought it would be.
“He’ll be here tonight at around seven.”
“Oh my gosh!” Lila clasped a hand over her gaping mouth. This was the moment when their Christmas could either be really great or completely spiral out of control. And she had no idea which way it would go.
“We have the whole day ahead of us,” Theo said, his hands folded as he leaned on his elbows over his empty plate.
“Thank you for breakfast,” she said. “You’ve been holding out on everyone in the coffee shop. With skills like that, you should be making a lot more food than the few pastries you offer.”
Lila had been amazed by his culinary skills, having never tasted a breakfast pizza as good as that scrumptious explosion of flavors on the buttery dough.
“Thanks,” he said. His smile seemed a little nervous, and she wondered if his father’s visit was weighing on him.
“You know what we should do?” Lila asked.
“What’s that?” Theo replied.
“We should get your dad a Christmas present!”
He laughed disbelievingly. “This man steals from his own son, kicks me out of his life, and causes me to lose everything I’ve worked for, and you want to buy him a Christmas present?”
“Do you have any good childhood memories of you and him?” she asked, curious.
“Before my mom walked out of our lives, we were inseparable. He took me fishing, taught me how to change the oil in a car and how to ride a bike… But when Mom left, everything fell apart. I always used to think the reason she ran off was because I was so much like my dad, and she didn’t love him, so she must not love me. I spent my whole life trying to be different from him after that. I got so muddled trying not to be him that I lost who I was. It took me a long time to figure out who I was meant to be. And I’m still learning.
“My dad changed after she left too. He was withdrawn and sad all the time. I spent most of my teenage life with nannies. Between trying to be the exact opposite of him and rarely seeing him, we slowly drifted further apart until, I remember, when I was eighteen, I sat with him at the dinner table and the two of us ate in silence, neither of us having anything to say.”
“That’s… tragic,” Lila said, her heart breaking for Theo. She knew what it was like to live without her father, but she couldn’t imagine losing him yet knowing he was still right there within her reach.
“It got better, though. The nanny was training to be a counselor—her name was Janie Simpson. I still remember like it was yesterday. She spent loads of time with me, talking, asking questions, and getting me to think. It was with her that I faced the fact that my mother leaving wasn’t my fault. It probably had nothing at all to do with me. Looking back on it now, I wonder how stable she was… If she ever thinks about how she left us, if it keeps her up at night.” He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “But after I got it all out in our little therapy sessions, I didn’t let my mother’s actions impact me anymore. And when I came to my dad with the idea for Winding Alley Music, he and I found common ground for a while.”