Page 22 of A Home for Harmony (Blossoms #16)

SOUNDS REASONABLE

“ Y ou’re the best, Dad.”

Micah barely got in the door on Monday after work before Scarlet was rushing him for a hug.

He’d never turn her away and returned it one armed.

“Why am I the best?” he asked. “What do you want?”

“Nothing,” Scarlet said, holding her arm up in the air and dancing around the kitchen.

She had the headband in her hand.

“I see you found it,” he said. “What were you doing in my room?”

He’d left it on his dresser when he got home on Saturday. He’d set it there when he returned and didn’t bother to move it, as he wanted to surprise his daughter with it tomorrow when she came over.

Yet she was here today and cooking dinner.

Not that he was complaining.

“I didn’t have my charger for my phone,” Scarlet said. “I went in there to use yours.”

“Did you return it?” He always charged his phone at night when he went to bed. He lost track of the number of times it wasn’t there because his daughter had stolen it.

She had a horrible habit of letting her phone battery get down to almost nothing before she charged it rather than having a routine of doing it nightly.

“I’ll put it back,” Scarlet said. “I promise. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I mean it. It’s the exact one too. I didn’t expect you to get it for me.”

He snorted. “You brought it up enough.”

“I know,” Scarlet said. “But I do that all the time and you don’t always buy me things.”

He sighed.

He didn’t exactly want to tell his daughter that he’d had no plans to buy it right away. It was more that he was going to make a note of it for the next time she had something come up, like a birthday or holiday, that he’d get it.

He also couldn’t very well tell her he didn’t buy it but it was given to him.

That would raise a lot of questions that he had no intention of answering right yet.

“I don’t,” he said. “But it’s meant for the winter and the next holiday is Easter. You wouldn’t need it or wear by then. You’d probably change your mind about wanting it anyway. This way you’ll get use out of it.”

“You’re so practical,” she said, giving his arm a nudge. “Dinner will be ready in ten minutes if you want to shower and change.”

“Sure,” he said, moving past her.

Micah had to admit he enjoyed coming home and not having to be alone or cook. But if she was staying the night, then it’d be hard for him to talk to Harmony later too.

She’d texted him this morning to say her sister had gotten engaged yesterday and she was so happy for them.

He assumed that meant Erica would move out at some point, which was only a few houses down.

Would Harmony stay in her father’s house alone? She could work from anywhere. Did that mean she might move and what they just started would end?

He wasn’t sure why he was so worried about that.

It’d only been a few weeks.

But a few weeks of a great time he couldn’t remember having with another woman.

Which was sad considering they did little together other than go out for dinner or cook dinner and watch movies or have sex.

He did feel guilty, but it wasn’t like there was a lot happening right now. Work had been nonstop, and then the holidays hit.

Just something else they’d have to talk about.

No reason to rush.

He took his gun off and put it in the safe, then grabbed a pair of jeans and a cotton shirt and went to the bathroom off his room.

It only had a shower in it and one sink. It wasn’t big but suited him just fine, giving the hall bath to his daughter.

He’d never been one that liked sharing a bathroom with someone at the same time anyway.

Yet, he didn’t mind showering with Harmony on Saturday morning before she made him breakfast.

Maybe he would have liked to stay longer, but took his leave after lunch. He had things to do, errands to run, and food to buy for the week.

Boring things to Harmony, he’d said.

But she’d laughed and said they all had to do those things in life and she wasn’t sure why he’d said that.

Because he worried that she’d tire of him being the old responsible father when she might want to go out with her friends and hang out.

Things like watching the ball drop in Times Square.

Nope, he’d take a hard pass there.

When he returned to the kitchen, he set the table.

“It’s done,” Scarlet said. “I made burgers and fries. I didn’t know what you planned on doing with the ground beef.”

“Burgers work.” He normally figured it out the day he was going to use the meat and what he was in the mood for.

Scarlet put the four burgers on a plate, two had cheese on them. The fries were pulled out of the air fryer and put in a bowl and brought over.

Before he could get a drink, she was bringing him a bottle of water.

She was buttering him up and it was overkill.

Rather than ask her what was going on, he quietly made his plate and ate.

“How is it?” his daughter asked.

“Good. It always is when I don’t have to cook.”

“I thought you’d like it,” Scarlet said, grinning and taking a big bite of her burger. She was staring at him. Like she knew he’d ask her first what was going on.

He realized she got that trait from him and he couldn’t be annoyed about it.

And since he didn’t want to spend his entire night here at the table trying to get her to talk, he’d be the adult in the relationship. Like he should be.

“What do you want that your mother isn’t letting you have?”

“Mom said yes,” his daughter said, smiling bright. His shoulders dropped. That meant she knew he’d be the one to say no and she went to the first parent that caved.

“Great. Are you trying to cause a fight between your mother and me?”

“No,” Scarlet said. “Mom caused enough of them when I was younger.”

He sighed. Every once in a while she brought this up.

“I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s on Mom. Dad, I’m not stupid. I was young, but I remember. She’d start yelling at you the minute you walked in the house. Then when you were home, she left. She blamed you and you never blamed her. I remember who started the fights and it wasn’t you.”

“You’re too young to have those memories.” He hated that for her. It was why he threw in the towel. He couldn’t put his daughter through it any longer than he could himself.

“I’m not and we don’t need to go down that road. I don’t think you’ll have a problem with what I want, but I knew she didn’t and I was there this weekend so asked her first. I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to ask you.”

She could have called, but she was smart enough to know doing things in person was better.

“Hit me with it,” he said, sighing.

“I want to get a job.”

“A part-time job now or over the summer?”

“Now,” Scarlet said. “You shouldn’t have to pay for the gas in my car all the time and I like to have things and Mom doesn’t give me money.”

“I don’t put gas in your car,” he said. “You get an allowance that you earn and that puts gas in your car.”

She cleaned his house and cooked, and he didn’t even ask her half the time.

Trinda bitched that Scarlet didn’t do those things at her house, but he wasn’t getting in the middle of it anymore.

There was more push and pull between his ex-wife and his teenage daughter. Yelling at Scarlet never got things done.

Just one more disagreement he and Trinda had in their marriage and family.

They approached everything from a different side.

“But it’s your money,” he said.

“I’ll still get it if I get a job, right?”

“You’re negotiating with me?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Never,” Scarlet said. “You’re a pro at that.”

“You earn that money and if you continue to do your chores here, you’ll get it. As for a job, school has to come first. Your grades weren’t that great on your last report card. You can do much better.”

“I’m doing my homework now,” Scarlet said. “That’s why. My test scores are fine.”

“Which is the first step, but if you aren’t getting your work done now, how are you going to get it done if you’ve got a job?”

Scarlet’s head went back and forth. “How about during the school year for now, I only work on the weekends and then during breaks and the summer I can work more?”

That was going to be his suggestion.

He was of the firm belief she should have a job at some point, but she’d be working for the next fifty years and didn’t need to bust her ass now.

“That sounds reasonable. Where are you thinking of applying?”

“I was going to go to the shops on Main Street. Most are open on the weekends and close at eight or nine, so not late either. I really want to try Blossoms. Two of the guys that work for you, their wives work there, right? Heather and Ivy?”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m not calling in favors for that,” he said. “Sorry. If you want to apply, go ahead, but whatever you get, you get on your own.”

His daughter pursed her lips. “You’d call in a favor if I got a ticket from the local police.”

“No,” he said firmly. “I wouldn’t. Because you’d probably tell them who I was if they didn’t figure it out themselves by the name on the registration and the sticker in the window that they’d not give it to you anyway. But if they did, that’s on you.”

It would be the only way his daughter would learn. As much as he wanted to shield her from life, he wasn’t doing anyone any favors that way.

“That’s not nice,” Scarlet said, giving him a cheesy grin. Typical teen response.

“This isn’t about being nice,” he said seriously. “It’s about being responsible and you learn that on your own. If you want to apply for a part-time job under those conditions, that is fine with me. Not during the school week and weekends only. You’re not stopping softball, are you?”

“No,” Scarlet said. “I’ll still play softball.”

It was the only sport his daughter stuck with. She’d played soccer for years, but this year said she didn’t want to.

Trinda wanted to force it, but he didn’t feel forcing a kid to play a sport was the way to go. Scarlet wouldn’t put a hundred percent into it and she’d want to quit, which he wouldn’t allow once she joined the team. It was best to hear her reasons she didn’t want to play and he couldn’t fault her.

She wasn’t good enough to be a starter and barely played. She was sitting around more than anything, and it wasn’t enjoyable.

He couldn’t blame her.

“Then it’s settled,” he said. “But I want you to keep me in the loop about what is going on with it.”

“I tell you more than I tell Mom,” his daughter said. “You’ll know before her.”

“How are things with your mother? Are you going back home after dinner or staying here?”

“I’m going home,” Scarlet said. “I told her I’d be back. She thought you’d say no. She was wrong and I want to make sure I tell her that.”

“Don’t rub your mother’s face in it. That causes all your fights.”

“But she shouldn’t try to say she knows how you’re going to respond to things. It’s not like we’ve talked about this before.”

“No,” he said. “We haven’t, but your mother isn’t going to change, so maybe you should.”

“Why do I have to be the one to change all the time?” Scarlet asked. “She’s the adult. She should know better.”

“You’d think. Decide if you always want to be at odds with your mother or not, but you have to be respectful and going home and rubbing her nose in something this meaningless when you got what you wanted serves no purpose other than making you look like a child.”

Scarlet put her head down and blinked her eyes a few times.

The waterworks might come. He saw the shame in her face.

He wasn’t going to take the words back she needed to hear.

Tough love sucked, but he knew he had his daughter’s respect. She valued what he said.

It was a nice feeling knowing he was doing something right in his life.

“I’m sorry,” Scarlet said. “But she annoys me. She’s so mean and I don’t like how she is always saying things about you. Why can’t I stand up for you?”

“Hey,” he said, reaching his hand across the table and tapping it so she looked at him. “I don’t need you to fight my battles with your mother. We are all in a good place. If it makes her feel good to say things about me, then so be it. I know who I am. Do you know who I am?”

“Yes,” Scarlet said. “The best Dad ever.”

Micah snorted. “I’m not so sure about that. But I wasn’t the best husband.”

“Don’t do that,” Scarlet said. “She gets in your head too. Maybe it was simply not meant to be. I’ll even refrain from saying she’s bitchy to Randy too and he said it to her.”

“I guess you didn’t really refrain, did you?”

“Oops,” Scarlet said, grinning.

He would overlook it. “I only care about you and that you understand me.”

“I do,” Scarlet said. “Because you’re the best. I hope you find someone that understands you like I do. Or who can see that under your frown and narrow eyes, you’re a great guy.”

He wasn’t so sure of that.

He’d have to open up more for anything real to happen—but the fear of failing at another relationship might be stronger than the hope of getting it right.