The door to her dad’s study was ajar, and since they’d had a lifelong code—closed equalling do not disturb, open even slightly meaning he was fine with distractions—Aisha rapped lightly and slipped into the room.
Despite her knock, Charlie was startled to see her and jolted in his leather office chair, which made her laugh. He was always so deeply in his own world. Rolling his head to stretch his neck, he returned from wherever he’d been in his imagination.
“Hey, kiddo. What a nice surprise.” He glanced past Aisha. “No Mo-bean today?”
“She’s working in the garden with Jo and Jase.”
Charlie’s face creased with the half-frown Aisha had grown accustomed to seeing whenever Jase was mentioned. She sighed. “We need to talk.”
“Whoa, sounds serious. Shoot.”
“It is, actually.”
Charlie’s expression sobered and he leaned forward. “Is something wrong?”
Aisha fiddled with a bobblehead Charlie that Sam had gotten him for Christmas. “I don’t know. I hope not. It’s about Jase.”
“What’s he done now?”
“Nothing.” Aisha shook her head. “But that’s what we have to discuss—exactly that. Your bizarre, over the top mistrust and dislike of Jase. I thought time and the things I’ve told you about him would take care of it, that you’d see he’s a great person and get over whatever weird reservations you have, but apparently that’s not happening, so what gives?”
Charlie’s gaze shifted to his laptop and he clicked save, then closed it. He sighed. “My reservations as you call them aren’t weird. They’re perfectly normal parental concerns. You had a baby at seventeen under such unhappy circumstances that even now, four years later, you can hardly talk about it. You’ve rarely gone on so much as a coffee date since—and now you’re . . . what? Tying yourself to some homeless, probable car thief, who has at least one kid out there and maybe a dozen for all we know. Am I supposed to jump for joy about it? What other secrets is he keeping? What happens the next time his feet get itchy? Callum told me in passing—seemed to think it was super cool—that the guy’s lived in more than fifteen different cities and towns in nine years. That he’s been on his own since he was fifteen-years-old!”
“And that should make you admire him! He has accomplished so much, can do so many things, and he’s almost completely self-taught.”
Charlie lifted an unimpressed eyebrow, and Aisha wanted to fly into a rage. For the billionth time since she’d pried the details of what had gone on prior to the truck’s return the night she and Jase borrowed it, Aisha wished Jo had never let that stupid car story slip. It, along with the fact there’d been a girl somehow involved, seemed to have colored Charlie’s opinion of Jase beyond repair, no matter how much evidence he heard to the contrary—or could witness with his own eyes if he’d spend even five minutes with Jase.
“You know he’s not a thief—and we’ve talked about all this before. The stuff about his daughter was, is, complicated!” Her eyes streamed, infuriating her further. Why did her body always betray her? She hated it when she was flooded with fury and indignation—and what came out was wimpy, pathetic tears.
“Please don’t cry.” Charlie looked stricken. “I’m sorry. I just . . . want to protect you. We don’t know anything about this guy, and I don’t want you settling for him just because he’s always around. You’re my kid and you’re amazing. I want the best for you.”
Aisha had always known her dad’s love was a constant. She’d grown up thinking it was a law, like gravity or something—and only understood as she got older that no, she was just really lucky. Not all her friends had a parent who was unflaggingly blind to their faults and who cheered unconditionally for them. She even understood and appreciated his overprotective streak. To point, anyway. Her tears dried.
“So here’s the thing.” She flattened her hands on his leather-topped Mahogany desk. “Saying ‘we’ don’t know anything about Jase is totally false. You know nothing about him because you choose not to. I know everything about him, or everything that’s important anyway. And yes, I’m your kid, but I’m not a kid. Haven’t been for a decade or two, at least.”
That line made him smile grudgingly, though his shoulders were still rigid.
“I know a thing or two about bad guys.”
Charlie flinched.
“And Jase is a really, really good guy. You forget that I’ve had a good example. You. Plus, I’m not—despite all past, present or future evidence to the contrary—an idiot.”
Charlie shook his head ruefully. “You’re definitely not, but as you well know, it’s not only ‘idiots’ who experience hard things or get hurt.”
“So true.” Aisha sighed heavily. “That’s why I know Jase is the one.”
“What do you mean?”
She bit her lip. “I mean if you think you’re worried about me being in a relationship, you should’ve been stuck in my head the last few months.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah—and that’s why I’m so sure about Jase. The only thing that scares me more than how hurt I’ll be if something ever happens to him or to us is the idea of not taking the chance, of living some sad, scared half-life.”
Charlie still looked less than convinced, but Aisha pressed on. “Do you remember when you and Sam first got together, and I was a less than thrilled jerk?”
“A less than thrilled jerk hardly begins to cover it.”
“Yeah, well, takes one to know one.”
Charlie laughed. “Fair point.”
“Anyway, you basically told me to suck it up, though you put in proper Dad speech, of course. You said you really cared for Sam, blah, blah, blah, and while you realized it might make me unhappy or nervous, you were going to pursue a relationship and I’d just have to deal with it in a mature, self-controlled, supportive way. Now it’s your turn to follow your own good advice.”
In the silence that followed, Aisha started tapping the bobblehead again. After a long moment, Charlie put his hand over hers, stilling the motion. “You really love this kid?”
“He’s also not a kid, but yeah.” She smiled self-consciously, feeling the joy of it anew, the way she did every time she said it out loud. “I really do—and you will too as soon as you get over your grouchy avoidance stuff.”
“Okay, you win. I’ll try.”
“Thank you. That makes me really happy.” And it did—so happy, in fact, she couldn’t resist one tiny tease. “I still don’t understand why Jase’s roaming ways were an issue, though. I’ve got plenty of money saved. We’ll see some sights, do some hitchhiking, show Mo the country. . . . The open road appeals to me big time.”
Charlie’s mouth flew open—then closed. “Nope, not biting. Not this time.”
Aisha laughed. “Sam has been good for you, old dad. Now when does it work best for you to extend an olive branch and meet Jase properly?”
“I don’t know. Maybe this weekend?”
“Great, tonight it is. We’ll be here for dinner at six. Sam already invited us.”
“It’s a conspiracy. You guys are ganging up on me,” Charlie grumbled, but he was smiling.
“Absolutely,” Aisha agreed. She was about to pop out of the room and leave Charlie to his work again, when he stopped her.
“I wasn’t intentionally being an ass, you know. It’s just you, him, an official relationship, being a . . . family. It’s a big change.”
Aisha returned to Charlie and hugged him. “It is, and it appears you and I aren’t that great with change, but whatever. We have good reasons. We just have to remember, however, that not all changes are bad. In fact, some are better than we could ever imagine.”
Charlie patted Aisha’s back. “I love you, kiddo.”
“I know. I love you too.”