* * *
It was a surprisingly warm day, even for mid-March, so Wade had left the garage door rolled up while he worked on his latest carving, a blue heron made from the last piece of driftwood he’d found washed up on shore. He heard a car slow, then stop outside. When he glanced up and saw Sam Castle standing in the doorway, his jaw dropped.
“Hello, sir,” he said, unable to keep a note of caution from his voice. “What brings you by? Gabi didn’t mention you were coming for a visit.”
“She doesn’t know I’m here,” Sam said, walking in without an invitation and wandering through Wade’s studio. After pausing to study several carvings, he stopped beside Wade. “I thought we should talk.”
Wade frowned at his somber tone. “About?”
“Gabriella and this insane notion she’s gotten in her head about making wind chimes. I’ve tried talking sense into her, but she’s not listening. I have a feeling you’re behind that.”
“I think you’re wrong about that,” Wade said. “I haven’t tried to influence her. And you’re not entirely up-to-date. She actually has new plans.”
Sam’s expression brightened. “She’s coming back to Raleigh?”
“No, sir, but you’ll need to ask her to fill you in.”
“But the bottom line is you want her to keep hanging around over here so she’ll be close by, don’t you? I’ve seen the way you look at her.”
“If you’re suggesting I’m attracted to her, then yes. If you’re saying you think I’d try to keep her away from doing anything she wants to do wherever she wants to do it because of that, you’re flat-out wrong. I just want her to be happy. She wasn’t happy when she got here. I don’t think she’d been happy for a long time.”
Sam looked surprised by that. “She loved that job. She excelled at it.”
“And it was killing her,” Wade countered. “You know why? Because she’d worked so hard for so long, all to impress you, and it never worked.”
“But I was proud of her,” Sam said, clearly shaken by Wade’s direct, uncensored words.
“And you told her that frequently? Ever?”
The older man looked chagrined. “No.”
Wade nodded. “That’s what I thought.”
“All of that’s beside the point,” Sam argued. “She’s too good at what she does to be wasting her talent trying to be some kind of artist. Who does that?”
Wade made a pointed survey of his workshop. “Well, I do, for one.”
Sam looked vaguely taken aback. “You make your livelihood from this?”
“This and custom cabinetry,” Wade told him. “Last year I earned more as an artist than I did from the cabinet work.”
“But you haven’t walked away from your nuts-and-bolts job, have you?” Sam asked, his expression triumphant. “That’s all I’m saying. If Gabi wants to do this as a hobby, more power to her. But she shouldn’t walk away from a lucrative career to dabble, especially not now with a baby on the way.”
“Sir, no disrespect, but Gabi has a very good head on her shoulders. You should know that. It’s why she’s made some changes in her plans. I’m sure she’s considered this new goal from every angle. Give her some credit.”
Her father regarded him with frustration. “You’re not going to help me make her see sense?”
“Not if your idea of sense is to go back to the life she was leading before, which was sapping all the energy out of her.”
“I should have known,” Sam said, shaking his head. “You’re living in a dreamworld, the same as she is. My mother’s no better. I’m sure she’s had a hand in persuading Gabriella to stay in Sand Castle Bay. Nothing would please her more than to hand off that albatross of a restaurant to one of the girls.”
“You’re wrong again,” Wade said. “Cora Jane has made it plain that she would love having Gabi and the baby close by, but she hasn’t once tried to influence her. Rather, she’s been supportive of Gabi finding her own way. That’s what I’ve tried to do, as well.”
Sam ran his fingers through his hair. “Gabi was the most ambitious of all my girls, the most like me. I just can’t see how she could make such a radical change without being pressured.”
“Well, I can assure you that she hasn’t been,” Wade told him. “And since you came to me, I feel there’s one thing I’m entitled to say. It seems a little late for you to decide to play the all-knowing daddy. There were a lot of years when she needed that from you and didn’t get it.”
Sam flushed at the harsh words, but rather than lashing back, he merely nodded. “I’m trying to make up for that now,” he said simply.
“Then a word of advice,” Wade said. “Focus on what Gabi wants and needs, not what you think is best for her. That’s all I’ve tried to do. I’ve just encouraged her to explore her options. I haven’t once told her what she ought to do.” He held the older man’s gaze. “Just a thought.”
He wondered, though, if a man with Sam Castle’s success and arrogance was capable of leaving Gabi free to make her own choices and her own mistakes.
“There’s something else we need to talk about,” Sam said.
Something in his tone alerted Wade that this could be an even touchier topic. Only one subject he could think of fell into that category.
“Is this about Jimmy?”
Sam nodded, his expression filled with regret. “He’s not getting the scholarship. He was on the short list and I lobbied for him, but there were just too many candidates with sterling credentials. The committee had to make a tough decision, and Jimmy didn’t make the cut.”
Wade heaved a sigh. Though the news wasn’t entirely unexpected, it was disappointing. “He’s going to be devastated.”
“I know,” Sam said. “I’ve had a couple of conversations with him recently, so I know how much he was counting on this. I tried to keep him from getting his hopes too high, but at that
