a backup plan. And I knew for a fact that as often as we got on each other’s nerves, even if we had ever gotten over the weirdness to a point we could date, we’d end up driving each other crazy having to be in the same house for more than a week at a time.
Still, without the vague idea that maybe I’d just end up waking up one day suddenly crazy in love with my best friend, I didn’t know what the future held for me. So, I had to just keep going. For that moment, what that meant was hanging out with my brother and setting up for a week of taking greenhorns around the ranch.
Chapter 6
Jane
The car pulled up to the curb in front of the airport and I waited for the driver to come around and open the door for me. I hesitated before climbing out. This was it. As soon as I walked into that airport, I was officially embarking on this trip. There was no turning back.
Not that there was in the first place. I couldn’t remember a time when I saw my father so excited. Not since before my mother died. It wasn’t that he was a dull or melancholy person. For the most part, he was good tempered and friendly. He was one of those people whose disposition was generally happy. Rather than him needing something to put him in a good mood from day to day, he needed something to take him out of it.
Some people said that was a testament to his strength. After our mother died so suddenly when I was little, he was alone to take care of us. But more importantly, he was without my mother. Anyone who knew him knew my mother was his everything. The thought of him going on without her seemed impossible. The fact that he was able to stay happy and enjoy life with us made people say he was so strong.
I had even heard whispers that he had moved on so well. What they didn’t understand was that he hadn’t moved on. And it wasn’t a testament of strength that he was able to smile every day and find happiness. Instead, every day he lived was a tribute to the wife he loved so much. He’d lived for her when she was here. Now that just took on more meaning.
Enjoying every day meant enjoying moments for her. If he let himself be sad or waste even a moment, he felt like he was betraying the life she no longer had the chance to live. When he smiled, he smiled for her. When he laughed, he laughed for her. His enjoyment of life was for both of them, just as it had been from the first day he was able to step out of his grief and rejoin the world.
The people close to him had been encouraging him to find a companion for years. He never showed much interest in finding anybody else. Some good friends. A few dates here and there. But it seemed like there just wasn’t space in his heart for anybody else.
My mother was still there and he wasn’t going to move her aside. I held out hope that one day he might find someone who could make him happy. Definitely not someone to replace the love of his life. But someone he could talk with and enjoy his later years with us. If nothing else, it was what my mother would want for him.
As much as my father loved my mother, she loved him. I couldn’t believe that she would want him to be alone. I can still remember when I was younger, asking why he didn’t marry somebody else. I knew plenty of people who had step-parents. In fact, that seemed more the norm than anything else. He told me she didn’t have the time to have a relationship. His life was devoted to Cecilia and me.
I could understand that, even though I knew even at that age he wasn’t telling the complete truth. But now that we were both adults, I wanted more for him. I truly wanted him to be happy.
Which was what brought me to the sidewalk outside the airport in preparation for the flight to Montana.
“Could I help with your luggage?” a skycap asked, approaching Cecilia and me.
“Maybe if we had any luggage,” Cecilia said under her breath.
We gestured toward the bags the driver had just taken out of the trunk and