Late afternoon – Day 4

Morgan was sitting in the shade near Frozen Wishes late in the afternoon, noting passing thoughts into his journal, when Paige’s dad plopped down at his table.

“This seat taken?”

“Hey, Mr. Mitchell. Go right ahead.” Morgan shut his journal and grinned. “I’ll take the company.”

“Thanks, Morg. Call me Steve,” he added. “You’ve been too formal for too long.”

Morgan smiled even wider. He wished his own mother could share that viewpoint. She made a face when any of The Gang got casual enough to call her ‘Mrs. C.’. “What flavor did you go for?”

“Rocky road.” Mr. Mitchell – Steve – leaned in and added, “Garland never should have told me about this place. This is my third cone this afternoon.”

“Any word on when Paige and Mrs. Mitchell are getting back?”

“Sandy,” Steve corrected. “Yeah, should be in about thirty minutes or so, I just got off the phone. Figured I’d get in one more ice cream for the road.” He took a big bite out of his cone and gestured to Morgan’s journal. The front was plastered with a sticker that said ‘Save The Trees – Kill A Beaver’. “Writing some brilliant novel to support my daughter with?” he joked.

Morgan chuckled. “Nah, not today. The novel’s back at my house on the old computer.”

“The one Paige was telling me about, I suppose? With the soldier in Germany? It sounds interesting.” Steve laughed at Morgan’s expression. “Don’t look so surprised, I listen when my daughter talks.”

His eyes were so blue. Morgan wondered why he’d never realized how much Paige shared her father’s eyes. “I guess I’m more surprised that she listens when I talk,” Morgan confessed. “I usually don’t have anything that interesting to say.”

“None of us do,” Steve replied. “God love those women for putting up with us.”

An admiring smile spread across Morgan’s face. “God’s got to love her at least as much as I do,” he said. Then Morgan blushed and turned away from Steve’s gaze quickly. “Sorry,” he muttered.

Steve patted Morgan good-naturedly on the back. “Don’t apologize. You’re a good kid, Morgan. I’m glad Paige has a guy like you. If she’s got to be dating, that is.” He rolled his eyes heavenward. “Worst curse of having a beautiful daughter is knowing that there’s guys out there who want to take her away. That guy she was dating a couple years ago – I wanted to kick his ass so bad.”

“T.J.?” asked Morgan. He couldn't help but be pleased with Steve's assessment.

“That’s the one.”

“Yeah, he was a douchebag.” Then Morgan caught himself and blushed again. He cleared his throat. “I mean, I didn’t care for him much either. Sir.”

“Trust me, I think you were the only one who hated him as much as I did,” Steve said grimly. He winked at Morgan and added, “I kept wondering when you were going to open your mouth.”

Morgan blinked. “How did you know I liked her?”

“C'mon. A father watches how everyone on the planet looks at their children.” Steve took a noisy crunch out of his ice cream cone and said, “I knew that if you guys ever ended up together I wouldn’t have anything to worry about. I was rooting for ya. It’s a damn shame that parents can’t make all their kids decisions for them.”

The back of Morgan’s mind throbbed with guilt from Steve’s compliments. He’d be singing a different tune if he knew about the incident with the condom in the wallet. “I don’t know what to say,” Morgan replied softly. “I hope I can meet up to your expectations.” He paused and added, “I make her mad sometimes. I say stupid things.”

“Eh. Don’t beat yourself up for being human. Paige knows you love her.” Steve polished off the last bite of his cone and licked his fingers.

For one mystified moment, Morgan found himself thinking that if Paige’s dad were a teenager right now, he’d probably be just another one of The Gang. They were, for a brief second, the exact same age. Morgan also saw that for as many years as The Gang had hung around the Mitchells’ house, he had been seriously underestimating just how cool Paige’s parents could be.

Then he shook his head back and swiveled reality again. Morgan found himself saying something before thinking it – and wasn’t that what always did him in? “I think I want to marry your daughter one day, Steve.” His heart was racing the second it was past his lips.

Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Chonce stared at each other for one second – a moment that seemed to freeze and stretch. The man and teen who had just been teen and teen were suddenly man and man.

Then everything fell back into the normal time and space, and Steve smiled. He looked proud, but a little sad – because Morgan wasn’t just a kid with a bold dream, Steve could see that he meant his statement with his whole heart. It reminded him of a time, almost twenty years in the past –

(Was it really that long ago???)

- when he’d laid almost the same sentence on his own girlfriend’s dad.

Morgan swallowed. It almost hurt to look at that smile. There was a lot of responsibility in that look, a lot more weight than Morgan had been ready to see. He was too far in this to turn back now, though. “I don’t mean right now, of course,” Morgan said in a voice that seemed rushed. “When we’re out of school and I have a way to take care of us.”

Steve nodded. “That’s a couple years off,” he reminded Morgan.

“Yes, sir.”

“And you think you guys will still be together?” This came with a different smile, a playful look that already knew Morgan’s answer.

“Of course we’ll still be together.” Morgan’s voice was steady as steel.

Steve looked at his watch. Probably he better get back to the hotel. Sandy and Paige were going to be back soon and he needed a second to be alone before meeting up with those two. Had to get his bearings. He rose from the table and Morgan rose with him automatically.

Morgan’s stomach was fluttering. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure what had just transpired, but he had the weirdest feeling that his life was permanently changed.

“See you at dinner,” Steve said. He grinned and stuck out his hand. Morgan shook it, and Steve winked again. “I’ve got to go cry now. A manly weeping, of course.”

Morgan laughed. He felt like he’d passed a test of sorts. He also felt deliriously weak in the knees. Morgan planted his fists in his pockets, secretly believing that it would steady him. “Any words of advice?” he asked. “You know…for the maybe future son-in-law?”

Steve hung his head, a grin on his face. Part of him wanted to tell Morgan he was pushing it, but really, Steve loved the dumb kid too much to do that anyway. The truth was, he kind of thought of Morgan as his son-in-law already and had for some time now. “Put the seat down when you’re done,” he answered. “Tell her she’s the best-looking girl in the room, all the time, even when she already knows it.” He started to walk away, then turned back and added, “Also, don’t tell Paige.”

Morgan furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t tell Paige that you think you want to marry her. Don’t tell her until you’re sure. Don’t ever give her the impression that any future she’s got, with you or anybody else, is a hopeful shot in the dark and not a sure thing.” Steve licked his lips because his mouth was getting dry, and because it gave him a second’s distraction. He hadn’t been kidding when he told Morgan that he was going to cry, but Steve didn’t want to do it in front of him. When his eyes shed tears, it was going to be the wet eyes of a dad that knew his daughter was more grown up than he wanted her to be. Heaven help him if he made Morgan think that it because of him. “Paige is the kind of person who needs to know that the people she trusts are committed to their words – she likes words like ‘definitely’, not ‘probably’. So don’t tell her that you want to marry her until you’re actually one hundred percent sure.” Then he grinned and a couple tears really did fall out of his eyes – damn them, damn them all – and Steve added, “And whatever you do, never tell her that we had this conversation. She’d kill me.”

Morgan’s eyes welled up a little too as Mr. Mitchell walked off towards the hotel. He felt most definitely un-macho. Walking away from him was the exact kind of man that Morgan wanted to grow up to be - and the only type of man that deserved to have Paige in his care. Morgan also felt a greater security with Paige than he’d ever felt before.

He gathered up his journal and hurried back towards the hotel himself – because he suddenly couldn’t wait a second longer to see Paige again, and to tell her that she was the most beautiful girl in the room.