Waiting for Savannah to emerge from the little upper bedroom, he folded a blanket, tossed it on the couch, and put the TV remote back in the little caddy mounted on the wall. Austin liked things neat, though he knew Savannah had to clean up after him just as he was cleaning up after her now.
“Savannah!” he called out, checking his watch again.
She popped her head out from around the upstairs corner of the fifth-wheel, a hair dryer still in her hand. “What?”
“I have to get going.”
She shrugged as she wrapped the cord around her dryer. “I told you, I don’t need a ride. Leave already.”
“I’ll be back within an hour or so. Where are you going exactly?” he asked. She’d told him she was going to the creamery for ice cream with the girl who lived on a nearby farm; somehow, he couldn’t believe it was that simple. He wanted to, but he’d seen the way she’d ogled that boy they’d run into in town—and the way they’d leaned in to each other to talk. He remembered being young and carefree. Yeah, it had been a long time ago, before life and the world had given him a much more jaded view of things, but he remembered. And Savannah was too pretty for him to forget what he’d been like as a teenage boy.
“Dad, I already told you. We’re going to get ice cream,” she groaned, adjusting her hair in a hand mirror. “Me and Cassie.”
Out with it, Austin. “Are you going to see that boy?” he asked.
She glanced over to meet his eyes and then gave him that maddening teenage shrug again. “He might be there,” she replied.
Right. He might be there. Austin kept eyeing her, trying to decide whether or not to trust her—not that he had much choice, but still. She looked so much like his late wife that it hurt sometimes. Her long, light brown hair had been brushed to a high shine and left loose around her shoulders. She’d only asked him to buy her lip gloss and mascara thus far. He dreaded the day she wanted to go full face-paint. He preferred the clean, youthful look that befitted her fourteen years over the girls her age who he’d seen with more makeup than a supermodel wore.
And he had to admit, she didn’t give him as much stress as he knew many fourteen-year-olds dealt their parents. Even with tonight being a warm early summer night, she wore something he couldn’t quite object to. For tonight’s ice cream trip, she’d donned the black flowy shirt with the shoulder cut-outs that she’d begged him to buy her on their last mall visit. And it wasn’t truly revealing, so he couldn’t complain. It just made her look far more mature than he liked, reminding him that he had to accept that she was growing up.
“I want you home by ten,” he reminded her. “Not at the farmer’s house with your friend down the street, either. Home.”
Finally starting to move down toward the door where he stood, she quirked her lips in a frown. “Dad, it doesn’t even get dark until like nine-thirty,” she argued.
“Ten, or don’t go at all. You don’t need to be walking around after dark. There are wild animals out here,” he lectured her.
“I have my phone,” she said, brandishing it as if the expensive gadget were a gun. He wished it were, the way she looked.
“And the service out here sucks,” he told her, “as you remind me all the time. Animals aren’t going to wait for you to call for help, either.”
The look she gave him told him she was mentally slapping her hand to her forehead, even if she was smart enough not to actually do it in front of him. “My phone has a flashlight and Cassie knows this area. We’ll be fine, Dad.”
“Don’t take rides from strangers, and remember what I told you if anyone tries to grab you.”
She got to within a foot of him and leaned back on the couch in obedient daughter mode. “I remember: palm to the nose, fingers in the eyes, and knee to the crotch,” she recited robotically.
“Upward palm,” he corrected her.
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. I got it. Maybe you should just have me carry mace or something,” she suggested.
Austin grinned, gesturing her toward the door to get her moving. “That’s a good idea. I’ll pick up some bear spray tomorrow when we go into town for groceries,” he commented, only half joking. He had to hide a grin when she gasped in a breath like they were in a horror movie.
“Dad! No! I can’t be the only girl carrying bear spray around!”
“Sure, you can. If you want to wander around by yourself, Savannah, you’ll do exactly that.”
She looked in the mirror on the wall, doing one last primp of her hair as Austin forced himself to remain patient. “You are so overreacting. We’re in the middle of the country,” she grumbled. “The nearest town has a population of like two hundred people,” she finished, exaggerating the low population by a few thousand.
He shrugged back at her, now holding the door open as a heavy hint that he wanted them both out if she was going. “Small towns have bad guys, too. And plenty of teen boys who don’t always know when to keep their hands to themselves,” he added.
She shook her head in disgust. “I’m old enough to date, Dad, and Malachi isn’t like other teen boys.”
So, she was planning on seeing him. Damn. He just curbed himself from telling her she had to stay home, knowing he couldn’t watch her all the time. But he wouldn’t consent to dating. Not yet. He caught her eyes with his before he emphasized, “No, Savannah. Not yet.”
“Da-a-a-d.” She dragged out the word.
This wasn’t a conversation he was going to have again tonight. She was growing up too fast. His wife had made him promise to take care of her, and that’s
