Flipped! (Spinning Hills Romance 1) (18 page)

A bell clanged, and they turned to see Leo and Emily standing in the middle of the room. They instructed everyone to hold hands and Ella came running up to Holly. She held one hand up to her mother and one up to Dan. Surprised, Dan turned to look at Johnny, only to catch him biting back a grin. Dan held Ella’s and Johnny’s hands, closed his eyes, and didn’t hear a word.

When he opened his eyes, he caught Holly staring at his and Ella’s hands, a faraway look clouding her eyes.

How could the feelings of someone he had once so thoroughly dismissed now matter to him?

“Uncle Dan!” A small voice came from across the room. He looked up to see his nephew, Jake, running toward him. With one leap, he catapulted into Dan’s arms, and scowled at Ella. Dan laughed. So, Jake was jealous. For some reason, it warmed his heart. His nephew loved him.

 

The next day, Dan struggled to get Ella’s car seat strapped into his car. She was too short for a booster seat, but the car seat had a five point system he couldn’t make sense of. Holly ended up doing it for him.

Dan had to tamp down the need to laugh, hard, when they were on their way and a song Ella liked came on the radio. Ella only knew three words to the chorus, but she sang them in earnest, as if she were headlining at Madison Square Garden with tens of thousands of fans at her feet. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her little fists bunched up, and her head swung from side to side. He stole a look at Holly, who bit her bottom lip as she watched him. They shared a look.

Three hours, too many girl power songs to count, and a made-up scavenger game later, they were at Imagination Station. He’d had as much fun with Ella and Holly as he had hanging out with his brothers.

As soon as they paid for admission to the interactive science museum, Dan turned to Holly, panicked. “I think I’m the only one here without a kid. I’m going to look like a weirdo walking around alone.”

Holly bit her lip. “You can hang out with us, Dan.”

They went around to the
Sesame Street
“The Body” exhibit first, and Dan had a great time watching Ella and other kids have some good, pure fun as they learned about their insides and their outsides.

Ella lifted her little arms up to Dan when they got to Oscar’s sneeze machine, so she could look inside his nose, and Dan hesitated. Holly noticed, and quickly held her arms out to Ella, but Dan said, “It’s fine. I’ll lift her. You’re not tall enough, shrimp.” He lifted Ella into his arms. A warm, protective feeling shot through him, like the one he got whenever his nephew hugged him.

They ended the trip at a yo-yo-like attraction that propelled a rider thirteen feet into the air. Ella was too short to ride it, but she begged her mom to.

Holly got on and tried to propel herself up the full thirteen feet, but she fell short. Dan and Ella laughed until they were holding their sides. Holly came down, pouting and rubbing her back. “I can’t believe I didn’t make it! And I hurt my back trying.”

Dan wanted to pull her into a hug. But he couldn’t. So he showed her up instead. He propelled himself the full thirteen feet and was rewarded with Holly’s and Ella’s hearty laughter.

 

Holly guided them to the Dodsons’ home by again repeating everything the GPS said. It annoyed Dan, but she couldn’t help it. What if they missed a street or an exit? In her experience, men were at their worst when they were lost.

By the time they pulled up to the address Mrs. Dodson had given her, Ella had fallen asleep. Holly groaned when she bent to get her out of her car seat. Her back still hurt. “I’ll get her,” Dan offered, and she reluctantly stepped aside. Ella was fast asleep, but they couldn’t leave her in the car. Dan carried her as if he knew Ella was precious cargo and Holly softened. He looked even manlier, if that was possible.

They walked up to the front porch and Dan reached out to ring the doorbell, but Holly stopped him. “Mrs. Dodson asked that I knock. Her husband naps at this hour and she doesn’t want anything waking him up.” Whispering, she added, “She went on and on about it, as if she was this great martyr for making sure no one interrupted his naps.”

Holly knocked and, seconds later, a woman who looked to be in her early fifties opened the door. The woman took one look at Dan and gasped.

“Oh my God.” The woman covered her mouth with both hands.

Holly frowned and looked at Dan, who had turned so pale the sides of his mouth were almost blue. It had happened in one instant. The woman stepped out and Dan took a step back, his face tight, his body tense.

“Daniel, is it really you?” The woman looked at Ella. “Is this my grandchild?”

Grandchild? Holly looked from the woman to Dan again, feeling light-headed.

Eyes wide, the woman nodded and reached out to Ella.

Dan became rigid. “She’s not your grandchild, Claire. Even if she were my child, she would not be your grandchild.” With those words, he turned, walked down the steps, opened the car door, and put Ella back into her car seat.

Holly was paralyzed. Dan called to her, “You don’t want to buy anything from her, Holly. Let’s go.” She rushed down the stairs, but almost stumbled. How could Dan be so calm?

Holly reached the car, and Claire Dodson flew down the steps. Tears were flowing, and she looked frightened. “Is that all, son? You won’t even come in to talk?”

Dan shut the door. “Don’t call me son.” His lips disappeared into a thin line, and his eyes looked cold and hard.

“You won’t even yell at me,” Claire Dodson said, wringing her hands.

“To make you feel better? You don’t deserve to feel better. Go take care of that husband of yours. It’s time you took care of somebody.”

Dan was about to open his door to get into the car, but he turned to look at the woman one more time. “Two things. I want to know two things.” Holly’s heart broke a little listening to him. As hard as he’d tried to be strong and leave, the little boy inside had questions. From what she knew of Dan, he’d probably consider it a weakness. “Do I have brothers or sisters I don’t know about?”

“No! I wouldn’t have had it in me to raise a child when I left another behind!” she said, as if she were offended he’d think that. Holly looked at the woman as if she were mad.

Dan shook his head and his jaw worked. His body was so wound up, Holly was afraid to touch him. “Why did you do it?”

“Do—do what?” Claire asked, her voice barely audible.

“Leave,” Dan ground out.

Claire dropped her hands from her mouth and stared into the distance. “You kept talking about Sam and Johnny’s new puppy. I went to buy one, but when they started rattling off how to care for it, I—I knew I couldn’t do it. Any of it. I went back after I read about Jacob’s funeral and tried to find you, to explain it to you, but you were gone.” Holly couldn’t help staring. She’d gone back after twenty years and had the nerve to say it as if it counted for something?

Holly didn’t know how Dan managed to get into the car, stiff as he was, but he did. She did the same. His demeanor was controlled, but he began to drive aimlessly around the neighborhood. “Let me drive,” she offered.

He pulled over. She scurried out of the car while he scooted over.

“Let’s go home, Holly.”

“Yes, let’s go home.”

She focused on the road ahead, but her gaze kept flickering to him. Dan sat still, like a statue, but the tension emanating from him made Holly fear he’d explode into pieces. They all would. Nothing could contain that strain and pressure. His knuckles were white and his posture taut.

Half-afraid it was the wrong thing to do, she reached out and put her hand over his left fist. He breathed out, quick and hard.

“Help me. I need to talk or I’ll become even number. I need to talk about it, but I don’t know how.”

Holly swallowed. It felt like this was all her fault, even though she’d had no way of knowing Claire Dodson was Dan’s mother. She wanted to let him know how sorry she was, but that would be selfish. Apologizing was
her
need, and it wouldn’t satisfy his. “Do—do you know
why
she had the stained-glass windows in her possession?” was the only question she could think of.

Still he didn’t move. Not even a shrug. But he spoke, albeit in an emotionless, flat tone. “The woman who took care of me until I was five lived in the Craftsman. She’d been a good friend of my grandmother’s and Claire was close to her, I guess. Claire wouldn’t let my dad see me much at first, but she’d leave me there for days at a time. Dad would visit me there, after he found out about me. He took me there when I was older, told me he’d always be grateful to the lady who owned the house for letting him see me behind Claire’s back and for taking good care of me. She didn’t have a lot of money and the house was always in disrepair, but she loved the house. Dad promised he’d fix it up, but she died before he could.”

Holly was floored. So much made sense now. The day they met came back to her. She’d thought him so selfish . . . but there was so much more to the man sitting next to her than she could ever have imagined. Not even his brothers knew everything that had been going on inside Dan.

She glanced sideways at Dan, knowing she had no right to feel as much pain as she was feeling for him. All of a sudden he looked older and tired. “Can’t think,” he mumbled, dragging a hand through his hair.

Holly swallowed. He’d asked her to talk. What could she say? “Tell me a little bit about your father.”

Dan sighed and looked out the window. “He was a good man.” He paused and remained pensive for a while. When he spoke again, his voice was softer. “He felt any injustice that came his way was his responsibility. I guess that’s where Johnny gets that from. He was set on doing the right thing, but in his own quiet way, like Sam. He loved a good joke, though he didn’t tell any himself. And he enjoyed our antics, always seemed happiest when he, Sam, Johnny, and I were together.” His features relaxed as he spoke, but his posture did not.

“In what ways are you like him?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Johnny says he was loyal and protective, and that he didn’t like people fussing over him or celebrating his accomplishments. That sounds like you.”

A sound from the backseat quieted her, and Holly looked into the rearview mirror. Ella stretched her jean-clad legs, and her eyes were fluttering open.

“Where are we?” she asked when she was more awake.

“We’re on our way home.”

Ella stretched to look toward the trunk. “Where are the windows and stuff?”

“You slept through it, but the lady we went to see didn’t have anything we wanted,” Dan explained.

“Oh. Can we play scavenge again?”

“Scavenger. And, um—” Holly looked over at Dan. He didn’t look as pale, but he was far from normal. He’d leaned back a bit, but his head wasn’t touching the seat. Still, it was clear talking had done him a little good. “Dan wants to play Twenty Questions.”

“How do you play that?”

“Just ask him stuff. Anything.”

Ella looked out the window and asked, “Where does the sky end?”

A twitch of his lips. Not, by any means, a smile. Not even close. More like he was resigned that life moved on. “It doesn’t really end,” he answered.

“Do bees poop?” Ella asked next.

Dan finally moved. He turned to look at Holly. The side of his mouth went up.

“Yes. Bees poop.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve seen them. Their poop is liquidy and yellow.”

“That’s just their honey.”

“Fine. Next time I see something yellow and liquidy coming out of a bee, I’ll smear it on your toast.” Dan turned and smiled at Ella. He didn’t look happy, but he looked relieved.

“Ewww!” Ella wiggled her feet and giggled.

“What else do you want to know?” Dan asked.

An hour later, Dan sat back and gazed out the window. Ella had run out of questions, an event Holly hadn’t thought possible.

Dan’s melancholy enveloped her, but she didn’t know how to reach him. Her grip on the steering wheel tightened. How did a grown man feel when he came face-to-face with the mother who abandoned him?

“I’m hungry,” Ella called from the backseat.

Holly turned to Dan, uncertain. “Would you like to stop somewhere? Or would you prefer a drive-through?”

Dan turned to look at Ella. “Do you need to stretch your legs, Ella? Or do you want to eat in the car?”

“Can I play at McDonald’s?”

“Sure.” Dan punched McDonald’s into the GPS.

Dan carried a sleeping Ella into Holly’s apartment. It was barely four, but Holly said long drives usually tuckered Ella out. She led the way to the little girl’s room, and he set her down. Holly kissed her daughter’s cheek and forehead, and tucked her in.

They walked out into the living room, and Dan didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to leave, didn’t want to be alone. When it came to his mother, he didn’t know how to give his thoughts direction right now.