Page 77 of Summer on Lilac Island

Rebecca was arranging pumpkins on the front steps to decorate the house for a harvest-themed dinner party with the neighbors

when her phone rang. She set down the pumpkins and checked who was calling.

It was her dad. She’d recently changed him in her phone from Dad to Gus to try to lessen the emotional attachment.

“Hello?” she said, as if she didn’t have caller ID.

“Rebecca.” It sounded strange to hear him call her by her full name. He always used to shorten it to Bec or Becca Bean. “It’s

your old man.”

“Oh,” she said. “Hi, Dad.”

She counted to three on her inhale and six on her exhale to calm her nervous system.

“I heard about the baby,” Gus said. “Gigi told me.”

Rebecca had told Gigi she was able to share the news.

“And Gigi says she picked out the name Jenkins?”

It felt like an intimate piece of information for him to know. “We’re leaning toward that, yes.”

“So Jenkins isn’t dying off, even though I didn’t have any boys to carry it on.”

Rebecca didn’t think he meant it as a dig that she and Gigi were daughters, but she couldn’t be sure.

“Girls can carry names on too,” Rebecca said. “Like Gigi is with her mayoral campaign.”

“She says you’re the one making those videos. All my biker buds have seen them. They say I must be one proud dad.”

“Gigi is something,” Rebecca said.

“Both of you are. I’m glad you got your mother’s brains. Hopefully I don’t pass down any of my traits to my grandkid.” He

said it lightly, but Rebecca could feel his own type of hurt.

“I hope they have a few of your genes,” she said, finding that she still wanted to make her dad feel better.

Rebecca could hear his smile as he said, “So when can I come see this kid?”

“The due date isn’t until March 28.” Rebecca prepared herself for him to say he would be busy then, that he had some trip

he couldn’t miss or that he would play it by ear.

But without missing a beat, he said, “Great. I’ll plan to come for a couple weeks to help out.” Then he added, more tentatively,

“If you want me.”

Rebecca thought about saying no. She thought about saying he hadn’t yet earned the right to be back in her life. But this

was him trying to be there for her as much as he was capable of. Rebecca could accept him as he was or keep wishing for a

version of her dad that didn’t exist. The boundaries could stay, but the locks could loosen.

“That would be very nice,” Rebecca said.

Having a relationship with him felt especially important in light of losing Clyde. Gus was Rebecca’s father. And she wasn’t

even guaranteed to always have him. Life was fragile. She felt that truth more tenderly than ever in pregnancy.

“Great.” He sounded excited. “I’ll start scouting flights now.”

Rebecca knew there was a decent chance he would bail. She knew his plans and promises still couldn’t be trusted. But she felt secure enough in her life right now—with Tom, with her mother and sister, with a baby of her own—that she knew she could hold up even if he let her down.

And she wasn’t going to assume that he would. She was going to try to have no assumptions at all. Easier in theory than in

practice, but she would do her best. Her baby deserved that.

“And, Becca Bean?” Gus said.

Rebecca felt the coziness of the old nickname.

“I hope you weren’t offended I didn’t get you a horse too. I didn’t want you feeling any more pressure to come back to Mackinac.

I figure you get enough of that from your mom.”

“That’s okay,” Rebecca said, treasuring the apology even as she winced at the dig. “I wasn’t offended.”

After the call, Rebecca sat down on the front steps to let herself process it. She held her belly with both hands. A dandelion

was growing up through the cracks in the concrete. Rebecca blew on the seeds and watched them scatter. She didn’t wish on

anything today, not because she was scared it wouldn’t come true, but because she knew it already had.