He could call Becky later and tell her exactly what he thought of her. Okay, he wouldn’t do that, but he would make it clear she had a responsibility when it came to Lissa. Blowing off her oldest daughter’s birthday was unforgivable.

“I wish I could take the pain and handle it all myself,” he said. “For what it’s worth, I love you so much and I’m grateful to have you here.”

She pushed away from him. “Don’t lie to me.”

“Lissa, you know I love you.”

“For now. But what happens in a year? What happens if I stay past my expiration date? Are you going to throw me out, like spoiled milk?”

Was it him or was she talking crazy? “You’re not making any sense. This is your home.” There was something more, he thought grimly, but God help him, he had no idea what it was.

“And then I graduate and then we have the great college countdown. With any luck I’ll go so far away, I’ll never be able to come back. That’s what you want. I’m surprised you’re not looking at colleges in Australia. Then you’d never have to see me.”

He got it then. Finally. He took in the hurt in her big eyes, her protective stance, the way she never wanted to discuss college, how she’d talked to Ellen about not having any idea about a major. He combined that with her mother’s increasing distance and the real fear many teens had about leaving the relative safety of high school to step out into the unknown.

He reached for her again. She sidestepped him, but he had moves and it took only a second to capture her. Keeping a hold of her, he sat on her bed and pulled her onto his lap, just like he had when she’d been little.

“Stop it!” she demanded, struggling to get away.

“No.” He held her firmly, forcing her head against his chest. “Lissa, you’re the best thing I’ve ever made.”

“That’s disgusting. You ejaculated. Big whoop.”

He knew she was trying to shock him into letting her go, but he continued to hang on tight.

“I love you so much. If you don’t want to go away to college, that’s fine with me. Stay here. Go to community college. Live in your bedroom forever. I don’t want you gone, little girl. I know one day you’ll want to get married and have kids, but we could make this house work. Build an annex or something. It would be fun.”

Some of the tension left her body. This time when she pushed away, he let her go. She slid onto the bed and stared at him.

“You don’t care if I don’t go away to college?”

The wariness in her tone cut him to the heart. “Not if that isn’t what you want. We always talked about it, so I assumed you were still interested. But if you’ve changed your mind, I’m down with that.”