Silence. “Everything okay?”
“Yes, but can we talk?”
“Have you come to your senses?”
I smiled. “Yeah. And I could use some advice on how to make a girl fall in love with me, even though I’m not good enough for her. I figure you’re an expert in that.”
He laughed. “Come by the house. I’ve got some experience there.”
My dad was waiting for me at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. My mother was there too. “Hi, honey,” she said, her expression concerned. “Are you okay? You look terrible.”
“I haven’t been sleeping well.”
“Would you like some coffee?” she asked.
“That sounds good, thanks.” I pulled out the chair across from my dad and sat down while my mom went over to the coffee maker. “So I dropped out of the show.”
His brows went up. “You did?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you were right. I was making the wrong choice. You guys raised me to put my family first, not my career. And even though this isn’t what I had planned, I’m realizing that it could turn out to be what I want.”
“Or what you need,” my mom said, setting a cup of black coffee in front of me.
“What changed your mind?” my dad asked.
“Honestly, I was never fully convinced doing the show was right for me. And once I found out about the baby, I was even less convinced. But there was one thing that pushed me over the edge.” I pulled out my phone and brought up the video of the ultrasound. “This.”
They both leaned forward and watched, astonishment on their faces. “Oh.” My mom’s eyes welled with tears, and she put a hand over her heart. “That sound brings back so many memories.”
The video ended, and my dad cleared his throat. “Play it again.”
Smiling, I played it again for them, enjoying their reaction—my dad’s slow, amazed grin, my mom’s emotional tears, the look they exchanged.
“Can you send that to me?” my mom asked.
“Me too,” said my dad.
“Sure.” I messaged it to both of them, set my phone down, and picked up my coffee. “Now tell me how to win over this baby’s mom.”
My dad sipped his coffee too. “Have you told her you’re not doing the show?”
“Not yet,” I said. “She’s going to be mad. She doesn’t want me to stay here.”
“Because she thinks you don’t want to stay here,” my mom said. “She doesn’t want to be the reason you don’t get to do what you want, and she thinks by insisting that you go, she’s doing you a favor.”
“It shows she cares,” my dad said with a shrug. “She’s just going about it the wrong way.”
“Like someone else I know.” My mom elbowed my dad. “Anything about this seem familiar to you?”
My dad’s face turned a little red. “Uh. Maybe.”
“Is there something I’m missing here?” I asked.
My mother sighed. “Back in college I had an opportunity to go to Paris for a year like my mother and grandmother had done. It was a family tradition.”
“And she wasn’t going to go, because of me,” my dad said. “So I did what I thought was best so she wouldn’t throw away the opportunity and hate me for it later.”
“You convinced her to go?” I asked.
“I broke up with her so she’d go. But it was a mistake.” My dad took my mom’s hand and kissed the back of it. “And it took me years to win her back.”
“Years?” I gaped at them. “I don’t have years to win Ellie.”
“It won’t take years,” my mother assured me. “I think Ellie wants you to stay, but she’s too afraid to admit it.”
“I think so too,” my dad said. “Because I saw the way she looked at you that day you guys told us. She might not trust you, but she definitely has feelings for you.”
“If that were true,” I said, thinking about what Winnie had told me, “what could I do to change her mind? To make her trust me?”
“Why doesn’t she trust you?” my mother asked.
My dad and I exchanged a look, and I knew right away he hadn’t told her what I’d done at the motel. I felt a rush of gratitude for him—he was the kind of dad I’d be someday.
“I haven’t always played fair with Ellie’s feelings,” I confessed. “There’s some history I’m not proud of—nothing terrible, but if I could go back, I’d do things differently. But mostly I think she’s scared because of something I said to her.”