“Who is he?” she asked, happy to learn her daughter hadn’t been his only companion. Given all the stress in his life, he could use a buddy.
“Not a guy . . . Ava. We’re not really friends. Not yet anyway. She’s in eleventh grade. Sometimes she says hi when I see her between classes. She’s always nice when she sees me.”
The explanation seemed to test the limits of Quinn’s ability to discuss the issue, and he blushed to his hairline. From the looks of it, he had a serious crush on a girl at school. It was such a sweetly normal dilemma that Rae nearly laughed out loud.
Connor looked equally pleased. “You like Ava?” he asked bluntly.
Quinn’s Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. He managed to nod.
“What are you waiting for? Ask her out!”
“Oh, I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
Rae swatted her father. “Dad, what is it with you today?” Encouraging her to try a dating site, and now badgering their clearly embarrassed houseguest about asking out a girl at school—maybe Connor was the one who needed to kick-start his romantic life. A notion that did make her laugh out loud as she added, “He didn’t ask your advice on how to handle the situation. And Quinn, if she’s greeting you in the hallways, that constitutes friendship in my book. Do you ever stop when you see Ava, just to share small talk? I’m sure she’d enjoy talking to you.”
“It’s too hard, at school. You know . . . finding a way to strike up a conversation. There’s not much time between classes.”
“What about at the coffee shop on Chardon Square?” After school, the place was usually filled with teenagers—especially the older kids. College students too. “If you see Ava hanging out there, it might be easier to chat. Less pressure, and you don’t have to worry about running late for your next class.”
He brightened. “That’s what I’ve been thinking. Maybe I’ll run into her at the coffee shop, and it’ll make everything simpler.”
Connor rolled his eyes. “Don’t overthink your strategy, Quinn. It’ll just make you more nervous when you do talk to her. Trust me on this. When I was your age, I was just as bashful. Seeing a pretty girl . . . why, my first impulse was to run in the opposite direction.”
The disclosure spilled relief across his features. “Tell me about it!” He studied Connor with interest. “You were bashful once? Man, I never would’ve guessed.”
“I grew out of it. Meeting Rae’s mother helped. Having the right woman at my side was more good fortune than I deserved. Hester was the love of my life.”
For a fleeting moment, sadness flickered in her father’s gaze. Rae understood the parts he was leaving out: Connor hadn’t fully come into his own until after her mother’s death, when Lark was born. When he’d needed to take control of his depression and help Rae manage their lives. The worst of times break some people; her father, however, found his inner strength. He went on medication to ease the darkest periods of depression and threw himself wholeheartedly into helping raise his granddaughter.
Letting the subject go, Connor sniffed the air. “Winter is wrapping up. I doubt we’ll have more snow.”
“How can you tell?” Quinn asked.
“Experience, son.”
“Then we can get started on the lights. It’ll be fun.”
“Forget about fun,” Rae put in. “I’d love to see the lights finished too, but I can’t have my father climbing a ladder in the middle of winter. Or any other time, for that matter.”
“But he said that spring’s coming. It’s almost March first. It’s practically spring already.”
As if the date mattered. “Quinn, this is northeast Ohio. Five more feet of snow might fall before Julius Caesar gets a warning on March fifteenth.”
“Who’s he?”
Connor palmed his forehead. “She’s referring to one of Shakespeare’s plays,” he explained. He planted his frosty regard on Rae. “FYI, it’s none of your business if I climb a ladder, or take up rock climbing, if it tickles my fancy. Get the pecking order straight—I’m your father. You want to push someone around, pick on Quinn. I’ll do whatever I want.”
“Dad, I have two words for you: hip replacement.” She challenged his frosty regard with narrowing eyes. “There are some activities one avoids after a certain age. Can you even remember the last time you climbed a ladder?”