Oh geez, not again. This little on-again, off-again thing Mom and Dad had going on was really trying. First, they’d been separated for centuries. Then Mom found out Dad had cancer, and they reconciled. Things had been good until the shock of having cancer wore off and Dad became Dad again and Mom couldn’t take it any better than she ever had before he got cancer. And of course they had a huge fight about Robin, just like the good old days of high school, at which point Mom had walked out for what she swore was the last time. Only Dad always had to have the last word. “I haven’t talked to her,” Rebecca said.
“What do you mean you haven’t talked to her? Seems like none of you girls ever talk to your mother anymore,” he groused. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was trying to avoid me.”
News flash—Mom is trying to avoid you. “So Dad, how are you feeling?”
“I’m fine! I wish everyone would quit asking me that. Where’s Grayson?”
“He’s still in school.”
“I really wish you’d bring him down to see his grandpa,” Dad grumbled. “You know that boy needs some familiar ground. Maybe you don’t see it, but it’s not like he’s had an easy time of it with the divorce and changing schools and moving,” he continued, always happy to dispense unsolicited advice. Her father also liked to remind her that he thought she was a less than perfect parent, too, what with moving and taking Grayson away from Dallas.
“And he was way too dependent on that nanny, if you ask me. But it’s all water under the bridge now,” he said with a heavy sigh, wrapping up today’s free advice segment.
“Dad, listen, I need to you ask you something.”
“Do you need money?”
“Dad!” Rebecca cried indignantly. “I wouldn’t call for money—”
“I’m not talking a lot. Just enough so Grayson won’t want for anything—”
“He doesn’t!”
“You could have gotten a lot more if you would have listened to that high-dollar attorney. Anyway, I think you ought to come out here to the ranch and stay with me for a while.”
That was so not going to happen. “I can’t come to Blue Cross right now. But you could really help me out in another way,” she quickly continued, before he could begin the full litany of her faults when it came to his grandson. “I need a favor,” she said, wincing. “Just a small one.”
“What kind of favor?” he asked suspiciously.
Rebecca took a deep breath, blindly fixed her gaze on the bench across from her. “You know people in Austin, right?” she asked. “Could you maybe just call a friend and see if they might have something I could do? I mean, as in a job? Just something that would help me get my foot in the door somewhere, that’s all. If you could do that, I’d take it from there. I’m not after anything fancy, just a place to start.”
Her request was met with a long moment of silence, then a terse, “No.”
Augh! He had to be the most exasperating man on the planet.
“Now, before you get all upset, you know how I feel. If you’re really determined to try and enter the workforce, I don’t think you should do it until Grayson is in elementary school. And besides, I want you to make your way and stand on your own without my help.”
“Stand on my—you just offered me money.”
“For Grayson. Now look, I’ve said this until I’m blue in the face, but I’ll keep saying it until it sinks in with you girls. I am dying. Who knows how long I have? I’m not gonna be here for much longer and I won’t be able to make calls for you then, will I?”
“You’re not dying, Dad. You’re in remission, remember?”
“You want to work?” he went on, ignoring her, but what else was new? “Then you need to figure out how to do it. But I’m gonna remind you once more that you got a pretty good settlement, enough for you to sit back and relax and take care of Grayson instead of leaving him in some nasty day care where the Lord knows what goes on.”
She could really despise her father at times, like now, and considered just hanging up on him. But dammit, she was too polite to do it.
“That’s the one thing I regret the most, you know, not being there for you girls.”
“This really isn’t about you, Dad,” she snapped. “I’m just asking for a leg up. It’s not like I’m going to start some company and be away all the time. I’m just looking for something to do. For me. Is that so hard for you to understand?”
“I understand. And whether you recognize it or not, I am helping you out by making you learn to find your own way. You’ve had a hard row here, there’s no denying it, but the answer is not to fall back on me.”
Why, oh why, had she ever talked herself into calling him?
“Now come on, tell me when you’re coming out to the ranch. You’re just a stone’s throw now.”
How does a cold day in hell sound? “We’re really busy now. Oh, look at the time. I really need to run.”
“Listen—stop worrying about this job thing. Good things are going to happen for you, sweetheart. When the time and place are right, good things will happen.”