Page 77 of Dreams and Reptiles

“Come on, Dad, I’m hungry.”

He held up a hand and climbed into the back seat as I turned and smiled at⁠—

“Wow, you really are young. Hi, I’m Shay.”

She held out her hand, her eyes a little wide. Her smile was just like Kendall’s.

“Francis.” I shook her hand. “And you’re really observant. And beautiful. Nice to meet you.” I turned to grin at Kendall. “You look great, by the way.”

She tucked her hair behind her ear and laughed. “See, Dad? Aren’t you glad I dressed you tonight?”

“Listen, Shay. I fell for your dad when he was wearing cargo shorts and flip-flops, so I think we can establish that his wardrobe is not a factor.”

She looked between us, sighed, and said, “Once we’ve ordered food, you’d better start from the beginning.”

So that’s what we did. She sat beside Kendall in the booth, I sat across from them, and the two of us gave a sanitized version of our dating history. She asked a few questions, but mostly she looked between us with a pensive expression.

“Well, good for you two. The world could sure use a little more love.”

We all held up our glasses of water to toast, and then the conversation shifted. She asked me about college, and how I’d ended up starting an artists’ retreat with an MBA. Kendall shot me a look to let me know I didn’t need to talk about my ordeal if I was uncomfortable, but I was getting better at it.

“The short version is that life decided for me that finance wasn’t my future. I had an opportunity to make a change, and I decided that I wanted to help other people achieve their dreams.” I shrugged and smiled at Kendall. “Worked out pretty good for me, too.”

“It must be nice to know what you want to do.” Shay busied herself playing with a piece of pizza crust on her plate.

Kendall and I exchanged a look. “What’s going on, sweetheart?” he asked, leaning in close and bumping her with his shoulder.

She gazed up at him with tears in her blue eyes. “I quit school, Dad. I can’t do it anymore.”

My stomach clenched, and I had this weightless, helpless feeling, like I was about to witness a deer being hit by a car, or maybe a cute little puppy dog. I had this urge to throw my arms around her and protect her⁠—

“Come here.” Kendall pulled her into his side, kissing her forehead and holding her as she cried.

And then I started bawling too.

Kendall didn’t have a long enough arm to hold me too, so he stared at me wide-eyed.

“You guys get too many onions on your pie? Shit. I’m sorry, Kenny.”

Arnie stood there with a tray full of empty glasses, gazing between us. He quickly set the tray on the table next to ours, dashed up to the counter and grabbed a napkin dispenser. He rushed back to the table and set it between us.

“Thank you,” I said to him, grabbing a few napkins. I handed some to Shay first, and then I took some for myself.

“What happened, dude?”

“Arnie, this is my daughter, Shay. Shay, Arnie’s on my team at the fire department. We were just discussing how you figure out what you want to do with your life.”

Arnie leaned forward and planted his hands on the table. “That can be a quandary. I got lucky. My best friend wanted to join the fire department, and I wanted to be with him. Boom!”

Shay wiped at her eyes and gazed at Arnie with those blues that were so like her father’s.

“I don’t think ‘I wanted to be with my boyfriend’ is the answer for everyone, Arnie.”

Shay and I both looked at Kendall, and he held up his hands.

“What? Okay, sure, it worked for you two.”

“Yeah. It did. We both like helping people, we needed a job where we were always doing something because we get bored easily, and we both kinda needed some structure.”