call the party planner?”
“I didn’t need to. It’s all in place. I don’t want a party.”
“Then what did you plan?” I asked.
“A trip. What I want for my birthday is to take my daughters back home. I want to show you where I was born and raised.”
My mouth fell open. I couldn’t possibly have heard what I thought I did. “To Montana?”
I knew I sounded shocked, and I didn’t put any effort into covering that up. This was the first time he had ever even suggested going on a trip there.
“Yes,” he said. “Why do you sound so surprised?”
“You have never brought us to Montana,” I said. “Never in our lives have you even seemed like you were interested in bringing us there.”
“You’re right and I don’t know why I waited so long,” he said.
“Because it’s Montana,” Cecilia said, her voice lifting higher and getting thinner and higher pitched.
“And we live in California,” I said. “The state you left Montana for more than thirty years ago? Remember?”
“Yes, I remember,” he said. “I left Montana to seek out opportunity and try to make more of myself. Which is exactly what I did. But now it’s time my girls see the land that made me. I want you to see what I did when I was growing up and be able to know more about me and your family.”
My sister and I stared at each other across the table. Her expression looked just as appalled as I felt. He couldn’t be serious. He was turning sixty. Why on Earth would he want to mark the occasion by going out into the middle of nowhere?
“Are you sure, Daddy?” Cecilia asked. “I know you’re probably feeling nostalgic, but is that really what you would want to do for your birthday? There are so many other things we could plan for you. Wouldn’t you rather spend a couple of nights at a five-star hotel receiving the full spa package? You could even invite along a lady friend.”
“Or we could throw a massive house party and invite anyone who’s anyone to come,” I said. “I’m sure if I got on the phone with Bianca right now, she could put together something absolutely incredible for you.”
I had the party planner as one of my top contacts in my phone. Whenever there was a celebration or get-together for my family, even small ones, she was who I turned to. I snagged her when she was still new to the industry, and even though she had become one of the most hotly sought-after event planners in the area, she remained loyal to us.
If I called her and let her know it was a five-alarm sixtieth-birthday emergency, she would pull through. And that was exactly what I felt this situation had become. But my hope for my father changing his mind and letting us put together a more appropriate celebration for him here faded quickly. He shook his head.
“No, I don’t want to do either one of those,” he said. “Everything is already in place. We are going to Montana. Like you said, I left home for California more than thirty years ago. Since then, I’ve put absolutely everything into working and making the most out of myself. Then after your mother died, I devoted myself to you girls.”
“And now you’ve finally decided to retire,” I said. “Doesn’t that mean you want to relax and enjoy yourself?”
“Exactly,” he said. “I spent all that time and energy working, and now I’ve finally retired. I’m committed to enjoying the life I built. What’s the point of having all this money if I’m not going to do something with it?”
“I could argue that there were plenty of other things you could do with it that don’t involve being in the middle of nowhere for a couple of days,” I said.
“We aren’t going to be in the middle of nowhere,” he said.
“Well, that’s a relief,” Cecilia said.
“We’re going to be on a ranch,” he said when the words were barely even out of her mouth.
My heart sank. “A what?”
“A ranch,” he said. “And it’s not for a couple of days. We’re going for a week. I appreciate you girls wanting to go to all the trouble of planning something for me, but you don’t need to. Everything is done. The tickets have been purchased. The tour is booked.”
“Tour?” I asked. “What tour?”
“That’s the best part,” Dad said, right on the brink of gushing. “That’s why we’re going. There is a ranch out near the