Read Online The Best Week of My Life by Suzanne D. Williams - Free Book Online

landing. “For air,” he said.
    Carter trailed after him, the weight of Daphne’s eyes pressing on his back. He waited to speak until the door was tightly closed. “Mr. Merrill? Can I ask you a question?”
    Howard Merrill looked at him beneath thick brows. “Absolutely.”
    “It’s about me and Daphne.”
    This changed her dad’s expression to a mix of curiosity and fearfulness. “Go ahead.”
    Carter inhaled. “I … I like her … a lot. In fact, enough I want to date her, but I’m feeling a little … overwhelmed, I guess is the word. How do I be all the things she expects me to be?”
    Howard Merrill chuckled, his eyes growing soft. “You won’t, Son, so don’t set that standard for yourself.”
    Deflated, Carter stared at his feet.
    “Now, don’t go there either,” her dad continued. “I know Daphne, so I know what you’re feeling. Her mother’s the same way. But, you know, much of what we struggled with in our youth we’ve worked through. However, it took time. There simply isn’t any easy, quick answer.”
    Standing taller, he crossed his arms over his chest. “But that shouldn’t discourage you. It’s like taking a trip. You have to enjoy all the preparation and the travel as much as getting there. Really the arrival is a small and insignificant period of time in the grand scope of things, especially when so much happens between point A and point B.”
    He laid a hand on Carter’s shoulder. “In so many ways, you remind me of myself. Martha was headstrong and apt to leap into things when we met, and yes, like Daphne, always somehow making mistakes, but that was what I fell in love with. Truth be told, that was what I needed. And it’s never been boring or given me any regrets.”
    Carter swallowed nervously, his mouth dry, and curled his hands into fists. “One more thing,” he said. One thing huge to say, this being her dad. One thing he wanted more than anything to come true. But what if it didn’t what then?
    “What if I don’t fall in love with her?” he asked. “Does it make a difference that I want to?”
    A wide smile spread on her dad’s lips. “I think you already know the answer to that. I see it in your face when you look at her and in hers when she looks at you. Relax and give yourself time to realize it.”
    “Carter?” The door swung open and Daphne’s head popped out. “You left.”
    He turned around and took her outstretched hand. “I’m right here. Just talking to your dad.”
    She stepped out the door and cold air gushed through the crack. “About what?”
    “Oh, nothing. Guy stuff,” he said.
     
    ***
     
    The darkness descended so thick it hid the horizon and everything along the beachfront but the steps immediately in front of me. The waves made their constant swish-swish, flooding outward and receding, such a soothing sound that every time we came to the beach I missed back at home.
    I held Carter’s hand, his fingers enfolded in mine, his palm warm, and swung it back and forth in an effort to get him to lighten up. He was excessively gloomy, and after his happiness earlier, I didn’t understand why. So I thought I’d bring him out of it with more useless trivia.
    “My favorite color is blue,” I said. “But not sky blue, more turquoise. You have a favorite?”
    “Blue’s good,” he said.
    Well, that had failed, so I tried another angle.
    “But you can’t just pick my color. You have to pick your own. So if you like blue, that’s good, but what shade of blue?”
    “The sky color’s nice.”
    I formed a frown, something he couldn’t see in the darkness, and switched gears again. “You said you didn’t like cabbage. What else?”
    He was silent a second. “Broccoli.”
    I understood that. I could eat broccoli, but it wasn’t my favorite.
    “Brussels sprouts,” he added.
    “Me too,” I said. Brussels sprouts seemed like something only adults would eat. My mom and dad loved them. “What’s your favorite food?” I continued.