He sighed. “I wasn’t sure if you’d call back, but I’m glad you did. I want to apologize for putting my hands on you the other night. No man should ever do that. But I want you to understand that I was upset because I care about you and I don’t want you to get hurt.” He took another breath before he continued. “You’re young and inexperienced when it comes to love, Samantha. You think that just because some boy says that he loves you that you all are going to spend the rest of your lives together, and that’s not realistic. I meant what I said about that guy stringing you along. I’m not going to take that back, but maybe I didn’t say it right, and it wasn’t the best time. For that I’m also sorry. I never meant to ruin your birthday.”
It took quite a bit of effort to steady my breathing. “Daddy, I’ve done a lot of thinking these past two days too, and I think I understand how you feel. But you don’t know AJ like I do. He wouldn’t do something like that. He really does love me daddy. I don’t expect for you to understand that, but I’d like to think that you can respect my decision to be with him.”
There was a long moment of silence. He sighed and then responded. “I can’t make you any promises, but I’ll try if you’ll just come back home.”
Tears welled up in my eyes as I realized that he missed me enough to lay down his prejudices and have me back home. It’d been a long time since I felt like my father loved me the way he had when I was still his little princess. “I’ll be home in a little while daddy. I love you.”
“I love you too, baby.”
I hung up the phone and ran to the door to call for AJ and then climbed back in the bed. When he came into the room and sat beside me, I smiled at him and a few more tears rolled down my cheek. His expression was curious, not knowing how to respond to my confusing emotional state. “How did it go?” He asked.
“Better than I expected. He actually wants me to come home. He apologized and agreed to try to accept our relationship.” AJ didn’t seem convinced, so I continued to explain the conversation. “He admitted that he was still a little skeptical about us, but he’s going to keep his opinion to himself and try to let me grow up a little.”
He softened a bit as he responded. “Well, I’m glad that you two are gonna try and work through it.” He lowered his head and smiled weakly. “But it was nice having you here though.”
I pulled him to me and hugged him around his neck. Had I been here with him under any other circumstances I would be able to say with confidence that these were the best two days of my life. There was no other place in the world that I’d rather be than with him. I held on to AJ a few seconds longer before finally releasing him from my embrace. As he backed up his eyes drifted down to my necklace. He picked it up off my chest and fiddled with it. “I can’t wait for the day when you don’t have to leave me anymore.” He spoke with that familiar air of assurance that made me believe every word. It was strange to hear him speak aloud the thought that had drifted through my mind a hundred times. I was comforted to know that he wanted to be with me just as badly as I wanted to be with him.
I had mixed emotions as Angel and I turned into the driveway. Part of me was glad to finally have things patched up between my father and me, but the other part of me missed AJ so much that I was beginning to feel physically sick. I’d made the mistake of letting myself get accustomed to being with him all day, which meant that I’d have to readjust to being without him. Days ago it seemed like it would be nearly impossible to get through to my father, now today he’d actually made the first move and apologized to me. There was the faintest glimmer of hope that one day daddy would learn to even like AJ Maybe.