“Why don’t you not call her Mutt. Shit. At least around me. Her name is Hannah.”
I didn’t care if I went too far. I didn’t give a fuck if he was her dad.
I’d hit my limit.
He’d popped the hood and took out the dead battery. I’d expected him to fire back at me, to be offended, but he kept his head down and continued working. A few minutes later he looked up as he pulled it out and set it on the driveway next to the new one.
Then he rose and I was sure he was going to deck me, his breathing heavy.
“Who in the hell do you think you are?” he asked his tone severe. He’d had a right to tell me off for how I’d said what I did, but he didn’t have a leg to stand on when it came to why I’d said it.
“I’m someone who loves your daughter, and I’m tired of everyone in this town treating her like she’s something she isn’t.”
“Well—if you know so much—what is she?”
I was getting even more riled up, instead of cooling down. It was damn time someone stood up for her.
“She’s a woman. A beautiful one. A hard working person who deserves better than what she gets. Her whole life she’s been reminded that she was left. It’s been rubbed in her face. And you know what? She can’t leave you. She can’t stay with me. All because she’s had to carry all of that shit around with her. She’s so damn tough, walking around like it doesn’t matter, because what can she do about it?”
I should have dialed it in, but I was done holding back.
“You think calling her Hannah would change anything?” he retorted.
“It would for her,” I deadpanned, not budging.
He took steps toward me, but I was far from backing down. Not on that. I stood my as he grew near.
His voice raising, he argued, “So then why is she out there by herself?”
He had me there. If I only had a good answer for that.
I deflated some and answered, “I wish I knew. She told me to leave.”
His stance relaxed as he leaned against the radiator and took his hat off. “What did you do to piss her off?”
“I asked her to move in with me.”
His grey eyebrows rose almost like he’d been shocked to hear it.
“Guessin’ she said no,” he said, scratching the stubble on his chin. “Right?”
“She told me she can’t,” I replied, and leaned under the hood next to where he was staring at the engine for no reason that I could tell.
“Don’t you see how she feels so responsible to you? That name just reminds her of it. She’s never going to be my Hannah as long as she’s this town’s Mutt.”
“That’s bullshit. You probably just pissed her off,” he said. Then, like he was in a hurry to get out of there, he picked up the battery and set it in its place.
He quickly hooked it up and told me, “Start it up.”
I hopped in and turned the ignition, the Escalade started on command.
He slammed the hood and picked up the old battery, while I sat in the driver’s side with the door open.
“Want some advice?” he offered as he was passed.
I didn’t know what he could possibly tell me that I didn’t already know, but I was willing to do anything that might work. Might make her change her mind.
“Give her a little while. If she doesn’t come around, just let her be. Might take a day, maybe a month. Wait on her.”
Wait?
How was that going to ever get her back? What if she thought I didn’t want her?
I didn’t want to wait.
“I don’t know.”
“Just trust me,” he’d said before he walked away. “Wait for her.”
So, I did.
A day. A week. No Hannah.
I passed her on the road and she all but ran off the side to avoid me. Her number was dialed up in my phone and ready to go at all times.
By week two, I was losing my mind. I spent a lot of time in the garage. The house didn’t feel like my home without her in it.
I slept on the couch more nights than not, and that’s where I was when I decided I wasn’t going to wait any longer. The next day I was abandoning the wait for it plan and implementing the get her back plan.
I awoke to the sound of someone outside, and as soon as it registered, I kicked off the sleeping bag I’d been using and sprung from the couch.
I didn’t see anyone, but I knew I’d heard something. As I got closer to the window, I saw her truck.
She was there, and I prayed it wasn’t just for her things in the upstairs bathroom. I’d refused to move any of them.
I walked out on the porch, still only wearing my sweatpants.
“Hannah?” I called.
Then I heard her voice coming from near the garage. “I’m over here.”
My feet creaked across the old boards and I walked to the sound of her. My first glimpse of her after not laying eyes on her for the past few days was invigorating.
I hopped the railing and it took me no time to get to her.
Seeing her wasn’t enough. I needed to touch her. To hold her. To convince her that she was where she belonged.
She seemed startled by my rush, but didn’t back away. Her eyes landed on my chest and then my mouth, same as always, her lips parted in my nearness.
I stopped short of her, needing to know first, if this was really what I hoped it was.