Page 104 of The Fast Lane
“Are you okay?” But then I gasped when I felt the gentle scrape of teeth on my neck and goosebumps exploded on my skin. “Did you just bite me?”
He nodded again.
“Did you not get enough to eat at dinner?”
With a low laugh, he lifted his head. “I wanted to hug you, okay? Nothing wrong with that.”
I bit my bottom lip. “Just…hug?”
His smile was slow. “What else did you have in mind?”
I grabbed a handful of his t-shirt and pulled him down just enough to give him a peck on his mouth. “Something like that.”
“I don’t know. That wasn’t very exciting.”
“No?” I tapped my lip with a finger. “What would make it more exciting, you think?”
“Maybe this?” His fingers slid into my hair. He leaned down and stopped a heartbeat from my mouth. “Hey, Ali?”
“Yeah?”
“I really, really like you.” He whispered the words against my lips, his eyes watching me intently.
My stomach whooshed in the best way. “I really, really like you, too.”
Then neither of us said another word seeing as how our mouths were otherwise occupied.
When we got back to the table, Abe took one look at me and raised a very suspicious eyebrow. Nervously, I ran my fingers through my hair but there was nothing I could do about the goofy, blissed-out expression on my face. I’d gone back into the bathroom; I’d tried to get myself together. This was the best I could do.
Thankfully, Mack was in the middle of lecturing him about seeing our parents tomorrow, so he didn’t have time to comment. No, I bet he’d save that for tonight in our hotel room.
“You and your father have never been able to see eye to eye,” Mack said. “Both of you, stubborn as rocks. I know he’s made mistakes. And I know you’ve made mistakes. But it’s time to fix it, get over it, do what needs to be done. You’ve wasted eleven years of your life. Don’t waste one more.”
Abe shifted in his seat. “It’s not that easy, Mack. There’s a lot of history there and?—”
Mack slammed his glass down and all of us at the table, even Hallie, jumped. “Damn it all. When Gracie died, I wasn’t sure life would go on for me. She was my best friend. We were married for fifty-seven years. She was my other half, my better half. I miss her every day.” His eyes grew unfocused and misty.
I laid a hand on his arm. “We all miss her, Mack.”
That snapped him out of his memories. He stabbed a finger on the table. “What I mean to say is this: you don’t know how long you have with a person. It could be fifty-seven years, or it could be five months. What would happen if something happened to your father, and you never got the chance to make things right? Any time you have with someone you love is worth it. Don’t waste it being angry.”
“Daddy,” Hallie whispered, her eyes concerned. “Is Mack okay?”
Mack stood and pulled his wallet from his back pocket. He dropped a few bills on the table and then held his hand out to Hallie. “Come on, darling, let’s go see what trouble we can get into.”
Hallie frowned. “I’m not a’pposed to get in trouble though.”
“It’s alright. Stick with me. I’ve been getting into trouble my whole life and look how old I am.”
“I’m four but I’ll be five on my next birthday soon. How old are you?”
“Why don’t you guess?”
Hallie’s face scrunched in concentration. “Twenty-seven?”
Mack grinned. “You got it. Twenty-seven years young. That’s me.” While Hallie climbed out of her chair, he gave Abe a hard look. “All I’m saying is sometimes you have to be the bigger person. Life is already too damn hard; don’t make it harder on yourself if you can help it.”
“Mack, if you can say damn, can I say damn?” Hallie asked as they walked away from the table leaving the rest of us in a stunned silence.