I stopped writing a year ago. Most of the comments and emails I received were very positive, but I found that I wasn't very thick-skinned when it came to the negative feedback.
My self-confidence suffered, and I just couldn't write.
But lots of kind people have continued to reach out to me, and I really appreciate it.
Why just in the past month, six people have picked me as a favorite author, and I haven't even posted a chapter in a year.
So, seeing as how it's Valentine's Day, I'm going to put up a couple of chapters.
*****
Chapter 19
By the time the trio had returned to the hotel, Randi and I were clean, fed and back in separate rooms.
The next day, we headed back home with Carrie in the front passenger seat so that Randi could chat with Paige and Ricky about their evening out. It also seemed like a good idea to keep Randi away from my side, or one of us would surely give our secret away.
Carrie never said a whole lot to any guy, and that included her coach. But that was alright with me as I had other thoughts on my mind, reliving some of the great moments from the day before - and not just the mind-blowing sex.
Then Monday came all too soon, and work picked up. The furniture companies were gearing up for the High Point Market by sending out floods of press releases to yours truly. I was neck deep in small samples of wood veneers and copyrighted designs and CDs full of prototype photos. I even received a custom drawer knob from one company that was introducing a licensed collection with the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond.
In two weeks, I would be getting a three-day sneak peak inside dozens of key showrooms, then three weeks later would be market week itself.
While I was drowning in paperwork, Paige, Ricky and Anna Doyle were on the phone, talking about UNC-Asheville. This was one college where Ricky hadn't thought to send an application, but the athletic director assured them that there was still time to consider Ricky, especially since he was one of the best students in school.
One evening I took a break from my heavy workload to check in on the girls upstairs. The five seniors from the basketball team were all jabbering away.
"Pardon me for interrupting the boy talk," I said.
"We aren't talking boys, Dad. We're talking colleges," said Paige.
"Oh," I said, stepping from the doorway into the room. "Do tell."
"Well, it looks like Anna and I are seriously considering UNC-Asheville. Tessa has already been accepted to Appalachian State, and Lori might be headed to Lenoir-Rhyne."
I looked at Tessa, "You've already been accepted?"
"Yeah, but not on a scholarship. I've always wanted to be a coach myself. And a schoolteacher," she added. "App State is pretty well known for its education program."
"That's true. They used to be known as App State Teachers' College years ago," I pointed out.
"And there are some good scholarships out there for future teachers, and I'm in the running for a couple," she added. "Maybe I'll get to walk on with the basketball team."
Looking at my daughter, I asked, "How far is Boone from Asheville?"
"I just checked the map on my iPad," she answered, raising up her tablet. "It's not that far, but the roads are all curvy so it could take more than an hour and a half to get there. But Lenoir's not too far away."
"Yep, it's only 45 miles south," added Lori.
"Why Lenoir-Rhyne? I don't really know anything about it."
"It's a small, private college, but that's where my mom went to school, so I was a shoo-in," she said.
Lori's mom. That thought caught me off-guard.
It's impossible for me to forget that Paige lost her mother, but sometimes I forget that I'm not the only widower around. I lost my Beth to illness. Charles lost his wife to a car accident.
But Lori had a couple more years with her mom — and a lot more good memories as Beth was sick for so long even before she died.
I asked a few more questions to satisfy my curiosity before finally getting back to what drove me out of my office.
"So, anybody willing to make a food run? How about Chinese?"
Easing back down the stairs with a back made stiff from sitting, I thought about the girls spread around the room.
Lori appeared much more at ease than she did right after the bathing suit incident, but not quite back to her old self. Her playful, huggy nature, and calling me Dad were gone, and I missed that. Autumn and Kim were smiling, and I still wasn't quite sure what to make of them.
A year ago, Autumn was as shy and tentative around boys as Lori and Paige, but she had really come out of her shell over the course of the basketball season. She was more open and flirty - and then there was the flashing she gave me on the road trip. That was impossible to forget. I had felt hypnotized and wanted to reach out to her naked body so badly. I was lucky her mom came along when she did.
But was that it? Did Autumn simply need to settle some score for having seen me naked by accident? Or was she scheming up something new?
I didn't have the brainpower left to process all these young women (or Autumn's mom Gina). Too much work and not enough rest this week, and I still had another month before all the market hoopla quieted down.
Despite all the confusing dynamics at play, I still enjoyed hearing the voices and footsteps around the house. Because of practice and games, there had been less traffic during basketball season. Now that basketball was over, it was back to business as usual.
As I walked through the house, stretching my stiff back, I saw my guitar on its stand. What did all of these renewed visitors mean for our guitar lessons? And our, ahem, "guitar lessons"?
Randi and I might not get to see a lot of each other, even when I finally get through the furniture market rush. There would only be a month and a half from the end of market until graduation. What would happen then?
I sure wished I had some of the answers to these questions.
With my workweek jumping from 40 hours a week to 55 or 60 hours, I spent little time keeping up with my daughter's life. I always felt guilty about this time every market, but it was worse this year because she would be graduating soon.
After enjoying my time hearing about their college plans, I decided to make room in my evenings for keeping up with the girls.
I soon learned that the junior/senior prom was atop their list of concerns at the moment.
