“Don’t give me that. You have an incredible voice, but when I asked you to sing with me, you told me you couldn’t. Didn’t you think I’d be interested?”

“I’m still me,” she muttered.

“What do you mean?”

“Just because I can sing doesn’t make me anybody different.”

“I don’t understand what you mean.” He tossed the nail toward the scrap pile. “Riley, I don’t get it. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“Nothing.”

“I’m your father. I love you. You can talk to me.”

Unvarnished skepticism clouded those eyes that looked so much like his own. Words weren’t going to convince her of how he felt. Holding the guitar close, she jumped up. The shorts April had bought her dropped down on her hips. “I’ve got to go feed Puffy.”

As she scampered off, he leaned against the porch foundation. She didn’t believe he loved her. And why should she?

A few minutes later, April came jogging out of the woods in a crimson sports bra top and body-shaping black workout shorts. She was only comfortable with him if other people were around, and the rhythm of her steps faltered. He thought she might keep going, but she slowed and came toward him. The strength of her body, the way her bare midriff gleamed, made his blood rush.

“I didn’t expect you until later,” she said, trying to get her breath back.

One of his knees cracked as he came to his feet. “You used to say exercise was for losers who didn’t have more creative ways to waste time.”

“I used to say a lot of crap.”

He dragged his eyes from the trickle of perspiration sliding into the valley between her breasts. “Don’t let me interrupt your run.”

“I was getting ready to cool down.”

“I’ll walk with you.”

He set off at her side. She inquired about the tour. In the old days, she’d have wanted to know which women would be traveling with the band and where they’d be staying. Now she asked a businesswoman’s questions about overhead and advance ticket sales. They wandered toward the newly painted white wooden fence surrounding the mowed pasture. “I heard Dean talk to Riley about buying some horses next spring.”

“He’s always loved them,” she said.

He braced his foot on the bottom rail. “Did you know Riley could sing?”

“You’re just finding out, aren’t you?”

He was getting sick of everyone pointing out all his failures when he was more than aware of them himself. “What do you think?”

April took a pass on going for his jugular. “I heard her last week for the first time.” She propped her arms on the fence. “Riley was hiding behind the grape arbor. I got chills.”

“Did you talk to her about it?”