Doctor's Secret - K.C. Crowne
Annie
I loved Dad to death, but at that moment I kind of wanted to kick his butt.
“Come on, kiddo,” he said, almost pleading. “I just want to help.”
“And I get that,” I replied, my iPhone cradled against my ear as I paced back and forth through the one room of my studio apartment. “But I don’t need help. That’s the thing.”
“Yes, you do. How long have you been living in White Pines?”
“Two months.”
“Right. You’ve been there for two months and you still haven’t found a job. Not trying to make you feel bad about it, but you have to be running low on money by this point.”
OK – he was right about that. Depressingly right.
“How much money do you have left?” he asked.
“That’s not important.”
“Are you saying it’s not important because you don’t want to tell me the amount or because you haven’t checked and don’t know?”
“That’s not important either.” I cut my eyes to the side even though I knew he couldn’t see me.
“Kiddo,” he murmured, and I could picture him shaking his head.
“Don’t kiddo me, please.” It was the nickname he used when he didn’t see me as an adult, like I was nothing but a silly little girl adorably failing to make her way in the world.
“Sorry, sorry,” he backtracked. “But Annie, I know you’re in a tough spot right now. All I want is to give you a helping hand while you get yourself settled in your new home.”
“I appreciate that, Dad, I really do. But I’ve got this,” I promised. “The job situation’s a little dicey right now, but I’ll figure it out. I always do.”
A pause followed, meaning Dad was thinking. “How about this – you get on your computer and pull up your account. If you’re going to turn down my help, I at least want you to have a realistic idea of where you’re at.”
I sighed. “And after that you promise to stop offering to help?”
“Promise.”
My gut tightened. But I knew this was just Dad’s way of getting me to do what I needed to do. “Fine, fine.”
I sat down at my tiny desk and with a deep, steadying breath opened my laptop. A few keystrokes later and I was at the webpage for the credit union I’d started an account with when I’d moved to White Pines.
“Well?” he asked when I didn’t speak for several moments.
“It’s…fine.”
It wasn’t fine. The bank had done the oh-so-convenient thing of delaying charges and letting them hit me all at once. I had a few hundred less than I’d thought. Not good.
“It doesn’t sound fine.”
“It’s not the best situation in the world,” I admitted, though I refused to concede. “But I can handle it.”
Dad sighed, clearly frustrated that his stubborn daughter wouldn’t simply suck up her pride and let him help out. “You know,” he said. “If you were still with Andrew you wouldn’t have to deal with stuff like this.”
I shut my laptop with a sharp click. “Do not start up with that ‘if you were still with Andrew’ stuff. That’s the last thing I want to hear right now.”
“I’m just saying,” he said. “You could’ve, I don’t know, stuck around and tried to make it work.”
“You don’t think I tried?” I asked, letting my impatience with the subject color my tone. “Dad, I supported him through law school, was there for him every chance I had when we were living together.”
“Correction,” Dad piped in. “I supported him through law school.”
He had me there. During my relationship with Andrew, there’d been more than a few occasions when money was tight. And Dad, being the stand-up guy he was, always helped us out.
“I know, I know. And I appreciate it like crazy. But I guess me being the best girlfriend I could be and you always being there to help wasn’t enough.”
“I still don’t understand what happened between you two. Years together and he decides, what, that it wasn’t enough? That work was more important?”
“Spending ninety hours a week at a law firm doesn’t leave you much time for anything else.” Sadness crept into my tone, and some anger.
“It’s a damn shame. Couples are supposed to be there for each other – no matter what.”
“That’s what I thought, too. Guess he didn’t feel the same way.”
“That’s all in the past, I suppose.” His tone suggested he really wished it wasn’t. “And if picking up your life in Denver and quitting your good job is what you needed to move past it, that was your decision to make.”
“It