“I’m sure he’s not disappointed. He’s probably worried, but never disappointed.”

“I acted like a twelve-year-old having a snit because her daddy gave someone else attention he should’ve been giving her.”

“You were shocked. He’s going to understand that. Don’t you think he’s shocked, too?”

A light tap on the door was followed by her dad’s loud whisper. “Princess?”

Janey choked up at the sound of the familiar nickname. He’d called her that all her life until she turned nineteen and begged him to come up with something else.

“Go ahead, honey,” Joe said as he kissed her forehead. “Go make things right with him.”

Janey nodded, dried her hands and went to the foyer, where her dad was standing with unusual awkwardness, as if trying to gauge whether or not he was welcome here.

Her menagerie of special-needs dogs and cats surrounded her father, who gave each of them one of the treats he kept in his truck for them. Then Joe whistled and opened the back door, which had them all scurrying toward the fenced-in yard.

Janey walked straight into her father’s outstretched arms, where the familiar scent of the aftershave he’d worn all her life nearly broke her. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I shouldn’t have left, and I should’ve called and… I’m sorry.”

“Shhh. No apologies necessary.”

“I acted like a jerk.”

“No, you didn’t. I sprang something extremely unexpected on you, and you weren’t prepared to deal with it in that moment. Doesn’t mean you never will be.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to share you with another daughter. That might be too much to ask of me.”

“Janey, sweetheart… There’ll never be another daughter for me like the daughter I’ve had for the last thirty years. Through no fault of Mallory’s or mine, I was never able to hold her as a baby or feed her or change her diapers or brush her hair into pigtails or take her to dance class or watch her grow up and graduate from high school and college and walk her down the aisle or see her become an incredible wife and mother. I’ll never get to do all of that with any other daughter but you.”

“You’re going to make me cry if you don’t stop it.”

“I’ll never stop it. You know how I am.”

Janey laughed even though a huge lump settled in her throat. “I acted badly today. I should’ve been more supportive of you.”

“Today’s a memory. You’ll have other opportunities to meet Mallory, and I know she’d love to meet you. Your brothers seemed to like her well enough. Truly, there’s nothing not to like about her. She’s a nice person.”