“It sure doesn’t feel like a happy occasion,” Gabi said.
“Or maybe your father simply isn’t used to throwing a party. Go offer him a glass of wine. Maybe he’ll loosen up, instead of looking as if he’s about to make some doomsday announcement.”
Gabi poured a glass of her dad’s preferred cabernet sauvignon and took it to him.
He frowned when he saw the glass in her hand. “Should you be drinking?”
“I’m not. This is for you. Grandmother thought you looked as if you could use it.”
He smiled. “Funny. All I remember right now are the years she watched me like a hawk to make sure I wasn’t drinking. As a teenager, I could have sworn that woman had eyes in the back of her head.”
Gabi could imagine it. She and her sisters had also discovered there was very little they could get by Cora Jane. “And you were how old?”
“Sixteen, seventeen,” he admitted with a grin that made him look younger than the late fifties he was now. “She was very wise to keep a close eye on me.”
“I think you’re safely past the age when she’s worried about you on that front,” Gabi told him. “So, what’s the big announcement, Dad? Why did you want Grandmother to have people over tonight?”
He smiled at her impatience. “You always did want to be the first to know everything.”
“It’s a trait that’s come in handy doing PR,” she told him. “The more you know ahead of time, the better you can spin the story.”
“But I gather you have no intention of doing that any longer,” he said, then gave her a sly survey. “Or do you?”
She regarded him curiously. “Did someone mention my plans to you?”
“Wade alluded to something, but he said the details needed to come from you.”
His response unnerved her. “When did you speak to Wade?”
“Earlier today. I had a couple of things I wanted to discuss with him. Your young man has a good head on his shoulders.”
Though Gabi considered that high praise from her father, who’d never had an approving word to say about any of the men in his daughters’ lives, she felt compelled to say, “Wade is not my young man.”
Her father smiled. “I suspect he’d disagree.”
Gabi didn’t know what to make of her father and Wade suddenly becoming chums. He’d never taken the time to get to know any of the boys she, Samantha or Emily had dated. It had been up to their mother or grandmother to vet them. The thought of him and Wade sharing confidences sent a chill through her.
“Was I one of those topics the two of you discussed?” she asked.
“Yes, but you’ll probably be very happy to know he put me firmly in my place and then referred me to you for additional information on your future plans.”
Gabi couldn’t help smiling. “Good for Wade,” she said, thinking his attitude must have come as quite a shock to her father, who was used to being in command of all situations.
“So, what’s ahead for you, Gabriella?” he asked. “I gather the obsession with wind chimes has worn off.”
“Not worn off exactly,” she told him, then acknowledged ruefully, “It seems I have virtually no talent.”
She braced herself for an I-told-you-so, but he merely asked, “Then what are your plans? I know you must have something all mapped out. You’ve never left your future up for grabs.”
To her surprise, he sounded genuinely interested. She described the business she intended to start. “It will combine my appreciation for local art with my professional skills,” she concluded excitedly. “Wade and I are both looking for exactly the right space, and I already have firm commitments from a few artists for the first two years. I need more, but it’s a good start.”
His surprise—and maybe even a hint of approval—shone in his eyes. “You sound happy,” he said.
Though he smiled, Gabi could see a lingering trace of sorrow in his eyes, as well, as if he regretted the dramatic shift in direction her life was taking...away from his world.
“I’m really excited,” she confirmed. “I know you’d hoped I’d change my mind and come back to Raleigh, but this feels right, Dad. It really does.”
“And where does Wade fit in?”
“We’re still working that out,” she said.
“But you care for him?”
She nodded. “I do.”
“Then you’re making the right choice, sweetie. I wish you’d made a different one, but your happiness is what matters. And this is not a bad place to raise a child.”
“Summers here were certainly some of the happiest times of my life,” Gabi told him. “I want that for my daughter.”
Just then the back door opened, interrupting the rare moment of accord between them, and Wade came in with Jimmy. Seeing the teenager, Gabi suddenly gathered what this evening was all about. She looked up at her father.
“He got the scholarship?” she whispered.
The slight shake of her father’s head dismayed her, but something in his expression told her that wasn’t the end of the story. For once she was going to have to exercise some of that patience that had always been in short supply.
Jimmy crossed the kitchen, his expression eager, but his steps halting, as if he couldn’t quite decide between anticipation and dejection. Apparently Sam’s carefully neutral expression was giving him no clues.
Gabi glanced at Wade and knew at once that he knew, but he, too, was giving nothing away.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Cora Jane said impatiently. “Don’t keep us in suspense, Sam. Is this about the scholarship?”
“Is it?” Jimmy asked, real fear in his eyes now.
“I’m afraid so,” Sam said, putting his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You were a finalist, but you didn’t make the cut, son.”
Jimmy’s shoulders slumped and he fought to blink back tears. “I figured,” he said, his voice trembling. He turned away from Sam, from all of them, then took a step back. “I gotta take a walk or something,
