dreaded things.”
Elle smiled and they sat down at the table and toasted with a bottle of wine she’d brought back from Italy.
“To your health,” she announced, her glass held in the air.
“To my baby girl being home.”
“Cin cin.” With that, they clinked glasses.
To celebrate her return, they were enjoying a huge bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. Her father had insisted on cooking “his specialty.” Elle had to laugh. She couldn’t even begin to count the number of times they’d feasted on this exact meal when she’d been growing up.
Not to mention that she’d lived in Italy for the last six years, plus one year of study abroad in college. She’d been spoiled by the outstanding culinary pleasures of Italy. But watching her father slurp up his spaghetti, with sauce dotting his chin, seeing the pride when he announced that he’d heated up the frozen meatballs and garlic bread, made this the best pasta she’d ever tasted.
As they ate, Elle filled her dad in on her flight and he told her some of the local Bayside gossip. A nice breeze came off the bay and filled the house with the awakening scents of early spring.
“I have a friend in Florence who would go nuts over this,” Elle said, referring to the chocolate éclair her father had bought at the local bakery.
“Speaking of people you know in Italy...”
Oh, jeez. Her dad was anything but subtle.
“What about that nice fellow I met at Christmas when I was visiting?” he asked.
“Marco,” she said.
“Yeah, him. He seemed nice.”
Marco was great. Sexy and sweet. They’d dated for the last year. “I didn’t know how long I would be here and neither of us wanted a long-distance relationship.”
“You don’t have to have one. Why did you come back to Bayside, Ellie?”
His question stung. Did he not want his only child here with him? For you. Because I was worried about you, of course. “I guess I just needed a change of scenery.”
“You guess, huh? Well, I just hope somebody wasn’t worried that their aging dad needed a chaperone...”
Biting back a smile, she shook her head. “Never.”
“Ellie...”
“Elle, Dad. I go by Elle now.”
“Right, sorry.” He patted her cheek. “You know you’ll always be my little Ellie.” The uncharacteristic sentimentality came and went before she could blink. Quickly, her dad returned to his usual pragmatic ex-cop self. “I’m worried. What are you going to do here? There aren’t any galleries or museums in the area.”
She chewed on her lip before rising to close the window. The truth was she had no idea what she would do for work. She’d contacted every museum within an hour’s drive of Bayside—not many—and come up empty-handed. Italy might have the most fantastic jobs for her, but Bayside had her family. A family that she had been desperately worried about.
Financially, she would be okay for a couple months, especially with her father refusing her offer of paying rent. Still, she’d need to find some kind of job.
Returning to her seat, she looked at her father. “I’m working on it. Don’t worry.”
He pinned her with one of his cop stares. “‘Don’t worry.’ When you have a kid someday you’ll realize how stupid that little statement is.”
Elle followed her dad when he rose from the table, taking their plates into the kitchen. “Daddy...”
Dropping a plate, he spun back to face her. “I will always worry about you.”
Sighing, she did the only thing she could think of. She wrapped her arms around her dad until he relented and returned the embrace. “I know you will, and that’s why I love you.”
Finally, he let out a deep sigh. “I guess that will have to be enough for now.”
They finished clearing and cleaning the dishes. Then her dad did something she’d greatly missed while she’d been away. He turned on the radio to an oldies station, the music wafted throughout the house. Happily, she sat down with him in the living room as he perused the daily paper and she pretended to do the crossword puzzle.
“So, Cam Dumont picked me up today.” She surprised herself with the comment, unsure what made Cam spring into her mind. But now that she was thinking about him, there wasn’t any harm in remembering the way his worn jeans had fit him so perfectly. Or how the masculine, dark stubble on his face had produced butterflies in her stomach. How would it feel against her cheeks?
“Cam’s a good guy.”
“Yeah, he seemed...great.” She eyed her dad who wasn’t taking her bait for more info.
“What are your plans for tomorrow?”
Elle sat back considering. She had no idea. With no job and no friends, she didn’t have many options.
As if reading her mind, her dad said, “Why don’t you go check out The Brewside? It’s a coffee shop that opened about two years ago,” he explained. “It’s right in the town square.”
“I could do that. Maybe I could bring my sketch pad, too.”
Before she’d moved over to the administrative side of the art world, she’d dreamed of becoming an artist in her own right. Then she’d become so immersed in her career, not to mention all the other amazing opportunities afforded her living in Italy, that her favorite hobby had been pushed to the back burner.
Energized by the idea of taking time for her own art, she grinned.
“You look more and more beautiful every time I see you.” The compliment, not to mention the change in conversation, took her by surprise, but the soft tone of her dad’s voice almost undid her.
“Oh, Daddy. You saw me three months ago. I haven’t changed since then.”
He picked up a silver-framed picture from the end table. Without seeing it, Elle knew it was a shot of her at fifteen, after she’d climbed a tree. She was wearing cutoff jeans and an unfortunate maroon sweatshirt, her hair in pigtails displaying her makeup-free face, which had been going through an adolescent breakout phase. She’d been so clueless.
Her dad turned the photo around. “You’ve changed a lot since this. The time goes so fast,” he said, more to himself than to her.
“I think it’s time for you to go to bed. A weepy daddy is a tired daddy.”
“You might be right about that. It’s been a long day, but a good one. Welcome home, princess.” He kissed her forehead and made his way toward his bedroom.
Feeling antsy, Elle put down the crossword puzzle, grabbed an afghan from the couch and made her way out onto the deck. The water was calm tonight, and as usual
