“What if he’s not the problem? What if I’m blaming Cord for a lot of things that are my fault? I never stood up to him. Sometimes I even anticipated what he wanted and did it. I don’t want to be like that again. I won’t be.”
“Hmm, so rather than take the chance, you walk away? If you’re not with him, you can’t make a mistake.”
“I’m not walking away.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“I have no idea.”
Her aunt smiled. “They say admitting you have a problem is the first step. Now you just have to figure out the rest of them.”
“Easier said than done.”
“I know, and isn’t that what keeps life interesting?”
* * *
Harlow found it surprisingly simple to avoid her father. She went running early with Mason. Given the choice, Cord slept in. He generally came downstairs for breakfast, but so did everyone else, preventing private conversation.
After breakfast, she helped her mom inventory the house or went sailing with Austin and Mason. Now that Kip had arrived, she had yet another excuse to avoid her father, even though she knew at some point she was going to have to talk to him. The problem was, she didn’t know what to say.
Late in the afternoon, while Kip and Austin played video games, she picked blueberries in the garden for a pie. The morning fog had burned off, leaving the day glorious. There was something magical about the color of the sky and the palm trees and the wildness of the Pacific Ocean. That body of water had a lot more attitude than the generally tame Gulf of Mexico.
A ridiculous train of thought, but one that was easier than the constant refrain in her head telling her she had decisions to make. Big ones.
A couple of hours ago, Lillian had told her the money had been transferred into her account. Sure enough, when Harlow had checked, her balance had increased by two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. She couldn’t begin to absorb that reality and felt both excited and shocked she was sitting on that much cash.
She still wanted to talk to Enid about helping her with medical school, but wasn’t sure what to do with the rest of it. Open an investment account with some, she supposed. Put some in savings. Use a bit to help pay for the wedding.
What about Kip’s debt?
A voice had been whispering the question in her head for a couple of days now. Helping him pay down his debt was the right thing to do. It would allow them to get serious about a budget and give them a chance to be on the same footing financially. Only...
She hadn’t told him about the inheritance. She knew she should and she would...eventually. Keeping that kind of secret from the man she wanted to marry would be bad and wrong. She’d been telling him they had to be honest with each other, and here she was, keeping something really huge from him.
She continued dropping berries into her basket.
Just as bad, she thought, fighting yet more guilt, she’d gone online to find out if her inheritance would become a marital asset after they were married. According to what she’d read, as long as she kept the money separate, then it was hers alone and wouldn’t be a marital asset even after the wedding.
She sank onto the grass and covered her face with her hands. She was a horrible person for not telling him about the money, and even worse, she hadn’t told him about the potential job in Key West. She had a Zoom interview in two days, so at some point she was going to have to—
“There you are.”
She sat up as her father walked into the garden.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Cord said. “What are you doing?”
“Picking blueberries. Mom and I are going to make pies later.”
Her father frowned. “When did you learn to make pie?”
“As a teenager.”
“To make pie?” He sounded baffled by the concept. “Why?”
“I like to bake.”
He sat next to her on the grass and grabbed a couple of blueberries from her basket. After popping them in his mouth, he said, “These are really good.”
“Yes, they are. If you want to eat some, pick your own.”
He grabbed a handful from the basket. “They taste better when someone else does the work.”
He stretched out on the grass and nibbled on berries. “I haven’t heard from Zafina in two days. I don’t know what that means.”
Harlow really didn’t want to have this conversation but didn’t know how to get out of it. “How did you leave things?”
“I don’t remember. We had a fight.”
She resumed picking berries, wondering if her father had always been such a jerk in his relationships.
“Your girlfriend told you she was pregnant and you don’t remember what you talked about?”
“I was in shock. It was the last thing I expected to hear.” He pointed at her. “I was dealing with a lot. With you gone, I’m a captain short. When are you getting your butt back to work? You have responsibilities, Harlow. You can’t go running off on vacation anytime you want.”
“Why not? I’m just your overpaid kid, Dad.”
“Hey, what does that mean?”
She looked at him. “It’s what you said. I understand that you didn’t want to buy the kayak business, but you let me believe you did. You treated me like a six-year-old whose dog died. You told me Fluffy had gone to live on a farm. I’m twenty-two. I could have understood your reasons, but you didn’t even try to explain it to me. You let me act like a fool, and then you mocked me for what you’d told me to believe.”
He sat up. “That’s not what happened.”
“Yes, it is. Lie to everyone else if you want, but don’t lie to me.”
They stared at each other. She watched the shifting emotions on his face and knew the exact moment he accepted that he’d been caught in whatever strange game he’d been playing.
“I didn’t know what to say,” he admitted with a sigh. “You were so excited, and I didn’t want to disappoint you.”
“Plus, Zafina,” she said flatly. “You were busy with her.”
“Hey, I get to have a life.”
“So do we. I don’t understand, Dad. You always talked like you wanted me to come work for you, but then you treated me the way you did. You did the same with Austin. He tried to talk to you a half dozen times. He made appointments with you, but you always blew him off.”
Her father looked past her. “Yeah, well, I didn’t get that it was important. He talked to me yesterday. I guess he’s going to college and joining the navy. Damned fool decision if you ask me. Who wants to be in the military?”