Throwing myself in his embrace, I fought back tears. This week had been a lonely one and Creed hadn’t been home most nights. I looked for the lights in his house and rarely saw them on. Seeing a friendly face made my resolve to be tough crack.
“Hey, my Sailor girl,” he said as he held me and kissed the top of my head. “Miss me?”
I nodded my head against his chest and held all my emotions in check, before leaning back and smiling up at him. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“You sent me the text about your new job and I wanted to come check it out and see you. I’ll be in Germany next week for Thanksgiving.”
I couldn’t remember the last time my dad spent a Thanksgiving or Christmas with me. He was always traveling. Then there was the one year he spent Christmas in Australia with his new wife. They’d been divorced by the next year, but he had been in Los Angeles then.
“I’m not sure I will be going to Nashville for Thanksgiving. Mom hasn’t called and said she was planning something. I doubt she’s in town.”
He frowned. “What about Griff’s family? Don’t they do Thanksgiving up big?”
Griff’s family…I had spent Thanksgiving with them the past few years. It was the perfect big event with kids running around and weird drunk uncles and pumpkin pie. I had loved going to this family’s holidays. I’d miss that.
“We, uh, broke up,” I said, not wanting to give dad details.
“Really? I wasn’t expecting that. I thought the boy was smarter than that.”
“It was my decision,” I told him, not wanting him to harbor any ill will toward Griff.
He squeezed my arm gently. “I am sure you had your reasons. Now, what about we go to my penthouse at the Four Seasons in Boston? I’ll have dinner brought in. You can tell me about life here and stay the night. Tomorrow, I fly out early afternoon. We can do brunch before I go.”
Not going home to an empty house and wondering where Creed was sounded perfect. I nodded. “Sounds great. Let me get my coat and purse,” I told him. I wasn’t sure when I’d see my dad again or get to spend time with him. This would be the distraction I needed to get through the weekend.
I hurried and got my things then let Albert know I was leaving and that I’d lock up on my way out. Glancing down at my phone to see if I had any missed messages, I pushed the disappointment aside when I didn’t. My dad was here, and I wasn’t going to let Creed fill my thoughts.
When I stepped outside, a black limo was directly in the front. Dad was already inside and the driver was opening the door for me to follow. I slid in and sat my purse down.
“Here you go,” Dad said, holding out a glass of red wine to me. “You look like you need it. When was the last time you got a good night’s rest?”
I should have figured he wasn’t fooled by my acting. I had never been good at it. Even Albert had been able to tell I was struggling this week. He’d made several comments about life in his odd way. I took a drink of the wine and sighed leaning back on the cream leather seat.
“Thanks. I do need one or five,” I told him. “This has been a busy week. The new exhibit at the museum--”
“Is not what has kept you awake at night,” Dad interrupted me. “What happened with Griff?”
I hadn’t talked about this with anyone. Griff had been my best and only friend. Having my dad to talk to was better than having no one. I didn’t have a tight relationship with my dad, simply because we didn’t see much of each other. We never had. However, when I was around him, I still felt like the little girl who had once so desperately wanted his attention.
“I wasn’t in love with him. I love him, but it wasn’t enough,” I said, hoping that was all Dad pushed me to admit.
Dad took a drink of the whiskey in his glass. “You figure that out on your own or did another guy help you with that knowledge?”
I cut my eyes at my father and he chuckled. “What honey? I’m a man. I write songs about relationships. I know more about this shit than you give me credit for.”
I closed my eyes and rested my head on the back of the seat. “Creed Sullivan. He was Gran’s neighbor all those summers I came to Portsmouth. He had a twin, Cora, and the three of us spent every day together. Then we got older, things changed, I fell in love with Creed, we had some perfect times together,” I paused to take in a deep breath. “Then one day we found Cora dead from a drug overdose. She’d been battling depression and no one knew. She was always so full of life, but the year before, her volleyball coach had raped her. She hadn’t been able to tell anyone. So, she left it in a letter beside her bed then took several bottles of medication from her mother’s bathroom and went to an abandoned barn two streets over.” I stopped again hating the memory and the image of Cora. She’d known we would find her. It had been our place to go…to be alone.