by Gwen Perkins
~~~
I sincerely hoped he didn’t think I was serious about introducing him to anyone. I also hoped that Father’s silence lasted until we got home. I didn’t know how to go about talking him out of this just yet. I just knew the angle I wanted to work from. In fact, it was the only angle I had. Once I used it up, I had nothing else.
I risked a glance at him to see his face. It wasn’t really mad, but it wasn’t happy either. It was like he was pondering something. I hoped that meant he was thinking of calling off this entire thing. Then again, he could have been thinking of a way to tell me that finding my husband-to-be another woman was not the way to encourage his faithfulness. God, I hoped not.
Maybe his silence was a good time for me to think of another angle of getting out of this engagement before I had to use the only one I had. Obviously it had to be something more than ‘Dad, we just can’t stand each other,’ otherwise he would have called it off before dinner was over. With a heavy sigh I settled back in the seat and closed my eyes against the night and the restlessness that came with it.
“I miss your mother so.”
At that I snapped my eyes open again and looked at him then looked away quickly. He hardly ever talked about mother. That was the last thing I was expecting out of him, or so I thought before he let out a soft chuckle.
