seemed like nothing but a blur in his mind right now. Then came the god-awful early teenage years, with hormones running rampant and all that shouting and door slamming, making him feel as if he was doing everything wrong and she’d be rolling her eyes at him for the rest of their lives.
But the older she got, the more things leveled out, until it looked as if the sleepless nights and the constant worry and the occasional heartache were giving way to the kind of warm, comfortable relationship he’d always wanted them to have. And as he looked at his daughter now, skimpy shirt and all, he thought maybe he’d done a pretty damned good job of raising her.
“You’re right,” Marc said as the elevator doors opened on the first floor. “I shouldn’t have embarrassed you. You’re not a kid anymore. I know you can take care of yourself.”
Those words came harder to him than anything else, because he wasn’t sure he believed them. He knew he’d better believe them, though, if he expected to get any sleep for the next four years.
Angela gave him a little shrug. “It’s okay. That guy looked like a jerk, anyway.”
That was Angela. So forgiving. Sometimes a little too forgiving. He wanted to shout at her: Don’t excuse bad behavior from any guy! But if she hadn’t learned that lesson already, was repeating it now going to make any difference?
As they walked to his car, Marc dreaded every step he took more than the one before it. He clicked open his door with the remote, then turned back to Angela.
“Do you want me to stay for a while? Maybe take you and your new roommate to get a bite to eat?”
Angela looked back over her shoulder. “Uh…”
Marc held up his hand. “Never mind. You already have plans.”
“It’s just that Kim and I thought we’d go over to the Texas Union and check things out a little. Just to see what’s going on. You know.”
Silence.
“I don’t like missing harvest this year,” Angela said.
“You hate harvest.”
“Yeah, I know,” she said with a little shrug, folding her arms and staring down at her blue-frosted toenails. “But it’s all hands on deck, you know?”
Marc felt a stab of remembrance. That was what he’d told her from the time she was old enough to pull grapes off of vines. At this vineyard, everybody pulls his weight. And that goes double if your name is Cordero.
“Uncle Daniel is coming back,” Marc said. “He’s going to help. We’ll get it done.”
She nodded, then smiled briefly. “Do you remember the time when I was seven and I ate ninety-two Tempranillo grapes?”
That felt like a hundred years ago. Had it really been only ten? “I was thrilled you could count that high.”
“Purple puke isn’t pretty, is it?”
“Not in the least.”
“Why didn’t you stop me?”
“Because experience is the best teacher.”
Angela looked over her shoulder at the sea of students, then back at Marc. “Then maybe I’d better go experience some stuff, huh?”
This is it. It’s time for you to go, old man. So go.
“Call me if you need anything,” he told Angela.
“I will.”
“Or even if you don’t.”
She nodded. For a few seconds, neither one of them spoke. Then Angela’s face crumpled. She took a step forward and wound her arms around his neck in a desperate hug. Suddenly she was six years old again, with her little hands holding on tightly because of a bad dream or a scraped knee, or sometimes just because he’d been twice as important to her because he was Dad and Mom all rolled into one. As he held her tightly, she whispered, “I love you, Dad,” into his ear, and he whispered that he loved her, too.
Finally she pulled away, sniffing a little. He opened the car door and got inside. She took a few steps back from the curb and wiped tears from her eyes. As Marc started the car, he was pretty sure he was going to cry, too, and he hadn’t done that since he was seven years old.
No. Get yourself together. This is a good thing. For the first time in eighteen years, your life is your own.
He put the car in gear. Angela waved good-bye, and he waved back. As he drove away, he glanced in his rearview mirror to see her turn around and walk away from him and into her new life.
It was time for him to do the same.
By the time he was heading back toward Rainbow Valley, he was