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Dave laughed. “I don’t think anyone at home knows my dad except my mom.”

A hint of animosity and disappointment tinged Dave’s voice. His observation was honest and accurate. Jake Maguire spent little time in Whiskey Springs. When he was home, he and Andi rarely went out. She’d met him, of course. She’d sipped a few beers with him at Murphy’s Law and saw him at special occasions like one of the boys’ birthdays or Andi’s annual Christmas Eve gathering. She didn’t interact with him often. Hestayed close to Andi when he was home, which always made Fallon bristle a little. She didn’t dislike Jake. He didn’t badger or abuse Andi, and Andi never spoke ill of him. But his absences caused both Andi and the kids pain, and Fallon knew better than most how much his infidelity had hurt Andi.

“You don’t like him, do you?” Dave asked.

“I told you. I don’t know him that well.”

“Yeah. I just—I don’t know, Fallon. I always wanted to impress him. I think I thought if I could do that, maybe he’d stick around.”

Fallon felt her heart rise in her throat. Dave had never confided in her about his father—how he felt or what he thought of him.

“I think your father was just focused on providing as much for all of you as he could.”

Dave laughed. “You mean money.”

“Well…”

“Yeah, you do.”

“I think your dad wanted you to have everything possible,” Fallon said.

Dave sighed.

“Dave?”

“I don’t want to be him.”

“Be him?” Fallon asked.

“Yeah. I don’t want to be that guy—not for Becky or my kids,” Dave said. “I mean, I want to take care of them. ButIwant to take care of them. I don’t want Becky to have to deal with all the shit Mom did.”

“I know your dad’s…”

“I don’t mean his cheating. And face it, that was fucked up.”

Fallon chuckled softly. It was fucked up.

“It’s like our lives just stopped when he was home. Everything we wanted to do was put on hold for him. Mom’slife. The stuff me and Jacob liked to do—it stopped until he left again.”

“I’m sure he just wanted to spend time with you when he could.”

Dave shook his head. “Yeah. I get that. But he neveraskedwhat we wanted to do. It’s like he had everything planned, and we were all expected to be happy about it.”

Fallon needed to be cautious while wading into these waters. Over the years, Jacob had shared many of his frustrations with his father with Fallon. She’d always believed Dave enjoyed a closer relationship with Jake Maguire. He’d clearly given his father’s parenting some thought.

“You went a lot of places,” Fallon observed.

“You mean like vacations?”

Fallon nodded.

“Yeah. That was great. But even when we went away, he had a schedule.”

The picture was starting to come into sharper focus for Fallon. Andi had expectations of her boys. She provided structure while also allowing them to lead when it came to their interests, friends, and activities. Fallon suspected that Jake tried to direct the boys’ interests and activities more than Andi did.

“He was probably trying to make up for the time he was away,” Fallon said.

“Maybe. He never asked us what we thought. It’s like the time we went to California. It’s not like we were little. Jacob was a senior. I wanted to surf. Jacob wanted to go to a gallery. Mom suggested that we just split up for the day. You know? She didn’t care where she went. She could take Jacob, or she’d go to the beach with me. My dad got so pissed! Jacob and I went down to the hotel's pool. We didn’t doanythingthat day until dinner. My mom barely spoke.” Dave shook his head. “My dad can be cool. He’s also kind of an asshole sometimes. If I had told MomI didn’t want to go to college—Well, she wouldn’t have liked it. I know she wouldn’t. But she would’ve listened to me, and if I still told her Ireallywanted to work at one of the mountains, she would’ve stood up for me with Dad. I didn’t want to do that to her again.”