Author’s Note: I have two projects at the moment, and I shared part from the other earlier, but I figured once I found a nice bit without much spoilers from this one that I’d share it as well.
I happen to love the exchanges between this character and his daughter, and since I was just caught up in the middle of one, I couldn’t resist sharing.
“Dad, if we tell Mom that I have friends here from out of town and want to stay with you to see them while they’re here, do you think she’ll let me?”
“I thought you were too young for a boyfriend.”
She rolled her eyes, taking hold of his hand and wrapping her fingers around his. He thought she’d gotten past that age, but she’d been clingy ever since he got shot, so that shouldn’t surprise him at all. “It’s not about a boyfriend. It’s about not being with Mom and her husband. Ever. I hate that place, and I hate them. Please? Can we at least ask?”
“And if I say I don’t want to do anything with the people from out of town?”
“We don’t actually have to see them. Mom and him don’t have to know that we didn’t actually spend the time with them.”
“Listen to you, you little liar. What is my daughter becoming?”
“Creative?”
He laughed. “You’re terrible, and I shouldn’t be amused by that, but you know… You’re a difficult one to resist, Moonshine. I shudder to think about when you get older. The world is in trouble. It’ll be the end. I swear. It’ll implode or something.”
She glared at him. “Yeah, sure. If the world can survive you, Dad, it can survive me.”
He looked down at her. “You know, if I felt better, I’d have to pick you up and hang you upside down until you begged for mercy for that one. I don’t feel that great, so I suppose when we get home, I’ll have to give you a sock.”
She wrinkled her nose. “You’re using the dirty sock threat too much. It’s losing its ability to scare me like it used to.”
“Remind me to stick my feet on you when we sit on the couch, then.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Deep down, you want to be given a dirty, smelly, old man sock. It’s your secret goal in life, or why would you be such a troublemaker?”
“Because I love you.”
“That logic makes no sense. I’ll blame that on the fact that you’re a girl.”
“Dad!”
No, no. He’s got a point. There’s a great line from a guy somewhere on the interwebs, admitting that women are assuredly more complicated than men. After all, when has a man ever said he was fine and run crying from the room, leaving the woman standing there going, “What I’d say?” :grins:
Love this. It’s cute and has total personality.
Lol. Yeah, women are more complicated. No man would do that. 🙂
Thanks. I really love his exchanges with his daughter. I had a huge part of the story go wrong on me, but I buckled down, cut it, fixed the problem, and moved on all because his first scene with his daughter made them both impossible to let go of.