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Turning his eyes up toward You Know Who, Daddy said, “We’ll both know you’re watching. Though, I’ll frankly miss having my greatest fan right there in church with me.”
“What do you always say, Daddy? Those we love may not be with us in person, but they’re always with us in spirit.” I drew closer and kissed him on the cheek. “And, you’ll be with me the same way.”
“That I will,” he said with a big, warm hug. “And, one of the pleasures of being a father is that now I get to be my daughter’s biggest fan.”
I stayed there in my father’s arms for a good long moment, wishing for all the world that I could packthatup in my suitcase, too.
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Leanna and I went out to our favorite diner that evening for a farewell meal, just between sisters. We ordered the bacon cheeseburgers we both loved so well, and as we ate, she asked me, “Are yousureyou want to do this?”
I chuckled a little. It was at moments like this, when my mind was made up but Leanna thought there might be a chance of talking me out of something, that I could see a little bit of our late mother in her.
“Youngstown isn’t the whole world,” I reminded her. “The rest of the world is out there. And, I need to be out there to experience a little bit of it.”
“Cincinnati isn’t the world, either,” she said. “You can work in customer service here, too; you don’t have to go all the way over there for that.”
“I can do customer service here,” I said, “but the headquarters of one of the biggest information technology companies in the Midwest isn’t here. It’s in Cincinnati, and it’s an opportunity I’m not passing up. I have the internship. I’m going. And…if it doesn’t work out, at least I’ll have tried, and I’ll have some experience to bring back home.”
“And, where does that leave me?” Leanna asked. “My mornings will never be the same now. Daddy will expect to have his morning coffee every day withme,now you’ll be gone.”
“Oh, what a sacrifice!” I teased her. “Coffee with Daddy issucha chore.”
“All I’m saying is that your going away is another change for all of us,” she said. Then, sadly, she added, “As if we need more change in our lives. We’ve had enough change that we weren’t expecting and didn’t want.”
“We’re still a family,” I said. “And, we still both have to be there for Daddy. Losing Mom was hard onallof us. He can call me any time, and if he ever needs me, I’ll be on the next train home; he knows that. But, you have to keep an eye on him now.”
We ate quietly for a moment, Leanna pondering what I just said. I hoped she could see how right I was. The great lesson of my recent life was that change doesn’t necessarily feel good, but there are times when it’s necessary.
My mind went to a place where it had been starting to wander for a while, which I didn’t quite know how to bring up. “Leanna?” I said, tentatively.
“What?”
“Have you thought about how it might be…if Daddy, you know… If he were maybe to meet someone else?”
My sister looked scandalized by the whole idea. “I most certainly havenotthought any such thing! No, absolutely not! Daddy doesnotneedanyoneelse in his life. He has his congregation and he has us, and we are enough. And, we donotneed a stepmother.”
That made me laugh a little more, picturing Leanna and myself with a new mom that our father brought home, and the two of us being justawfulto her. It would be likeCinderellain reverse.
But, nothing like that seemed very likely. Daddy had settled, however sadly, into his life as a widower, and had his sermons and his congregation to keep him occupied in case he ever got too sad or lonely. As much as I might have wanted to stay with him, the best thing for meandfor him was to do just what I was doing now.
Especially, since my leaving would put the entire state of Ohio between Blake and me. The change would do me good in more ways than one.
CHAPTER3
Elijah. Sunday
I had a really great apartment.I could afford to live in the best building in town, and I did. I had everything I needed, right where I lived — and at the moment, I couldn’t stand to stay there.
I was too restless,knowing that soon Kane would be back in town, bringing with him the memory of everything about myself that I’d wanted to get away from. I’d worked hard to reinvent myself, to become Elijah Bennett 2.0. But, I was dead certain that Kane Marcus was still the original model he’d been when we last saw each other. I’d have to contend with him still being who he was and expecting me to be the guy I wasn’t any more.
Which waswhat brought me from my own place to my sister Sarah’s house, where I plopped down, anxious and frustrated, on her living room couch.
Sarah was just about to begin dusting the living room when I arrived. She had a rag in one hand and a can of Pledge in the other. My sister was always good at reading my moods, but just then, she didn’t need to be. She could have been blind and deaf and known that I was stewing over something. Which brought her to the obvious question, “Okay, what is it?”
Before I answered her,I glanced around to make sure my brother-in-law and business partner, Leo, wasn’t within earshot. Wherever she was at a given moment, he was liable to be not far away. Not that I wanted to keep secrets from my partner, but I wanted whatever conversation was about to unspool in their living room to be just between my sister and me.
Satisfyingmyself that Leo wasn’t around, I still leaned forward confidentially out of instinct to answer Sarah. “Kane has been in touch,” I told her gravely. “He says he’s moving back.”