Prologue

“I think I’m going to love it here,” Laine Connors said to her father when she got out of the van at Cornell University. She’d be here for the next several years studying Fine Arts and she couldn’t wait for this journey to begin.

Ithaca, New York, was five and a half hours from Providence, Rhode Island, where she grew up.

The Northeast was in her blood and she wanted to stay in that region. She wanted to see the changing of the seasons and feel and breathe in the fresh clear air for inspiration and creativity.

Not to mention it made her father proud to go to an Ivy League school. Yale and Harvard were too big in terms of city living for her. Nope, this was where she wanted to be even if it was further away.

“You love it anywhere you are,” her father said.

Her gaze dropped from the campus she was looking around at and the rolling hills in the distance to her father sitting in his wheelchair. She was going to miss him the most.

Though she split her time with both of her parents, there was that Daddy-Daughter bond that had a stronghold on her heart. She often wished it wasn’t so strong because it almost felt one-sided at times. 

“I do,” she said. “Life is about living it, not wishing, hoping or looking off somewhere else. Didn’t you teach me that?”

“I did,” her father said. “Looks like your mother and Stewart found a parking spot.”

She turned to see her mother and stepfather making their way closer. They’d have to get a dolly to move her luggage in. The mini fridge she had with her TV too. 

“There is my little girl,” Madelyn Connors-Ringer said and gave her a big hug. You’d think she hadn’t seen her mother in years with the way there was a death grip on her. Nope, last night she was there packing up the rest of her things, but she’d said she would ride with her father for this trip.

“You can let go before you squeeze the oxygen out of her,” her father told her mother.

Her mother laughed. “Caleb. You know how hard this is going to be. And why.”

Stewart ran his hands over her mother’s shoulder.

“It’s going to be fine,” Laine argued. “I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

Her parents passed a look to each other. One of fond memories and laughter. Of a time before…the accident.

Her parents would always love each other. She knew that. 

Now they were best of friends it seemed. In her heart, she knew if her father hadn’t done what he had, they might still be together. The fact they co-parented her for years proved it. Her mother had even lived on the same property as her father, but in a smaller house, for years.

Yeah, it was an odd relationship and most judged, but she didn’t care. To her, it was all about being loved.

She got plenty of that.

“You better not,” Stewart said. “I’m going to be calming your mother the whole way home tomorrow.”

“You’re up for it,” she told her stepfather of eight years. He was a good guy. Married her mother when Laine was ten. He wasn’t so comfortable living in the small house on the property with her father, but he’d done it for a few years until he could get her mother to move a few miles away.

“I am,” Stewart said. “Why don’t I find a dolly and we can load everything up to get to your room? Second floor, right?”

“That’s right,” she said. Stewart and she went in to see if they could locate one and left her parents out in the parking lot.

When they returned pushing the dolly, the smile was gone from her face. “They don’t have an elevator,” Stewart said.

“What?” her mother asked. “We’ve got to carry this all up the stairs?”

“Stewart and I can handle the fridge,” Laine said. “It’s not that heavy. Neither is my luggage or TV.” This had more to do with the fact her father wouldn’t be able to see her room.

“I’ll find some young strong men that want to earn money,” her father said and wheeled off before she could stop him.

That’s what he always did. Flashed his money and got things done.

If she wished that he’d found another way to do things in her life, she kept it to herself.

She understood his limitations but not everything had to be solved with a bankroll.

“Let’s go get my stuff out of Dad’s van,” she said. It was easier to load everything in her father’s vehicle knowing they’d be closer in a handicap spot.

“One benefit of today,” Stewart said cheerfully. “Your mother and I must be half a mile away.”

“Not that far,” her mother said.

“Close enough,” Stewart said.

The three of them got everything out of the van by the time her father came back in his electric wheelchair. He had a manual one he used most times and had a strong upper body from it. But not knowing everything that would be going on with this trip, he opted for this one instead today.

“These three young men are more than willing to earn money for a few trips up and down the stairs. What are your names again?”

“Kyle, Stefan, and Mike,” the first guy said. He pointed to himself when he said Kyle and then the rest of the men. 

“I’m Laine and it’s nice to meet you. Thanks for helping us out.”

“No problem,” Mike said. He was cute and gave her a look like he wanted to check her out more but was trying not to with her parents all around.

“We loaded everything on the dolly. It just needs to go to the second floor.”

“Well then, let’s go to your room,” her mother said.

She handed her key to her mother. “I’ll be there in a second.”

Her mother nodded while Laine stayed behind with her father. “I wish you could go up too.”

“It didn’t work out that way,” her father said. “It’s all about you. The second floor is more secure than the first and you know it.”

She’d had safety shoved down her throat for years. The only child that was protected by everyone other than her father.

Correction, it was on her father’s dime, but she wished he didn’t always push it off to someone else.

The fact he took the time to come with her today was something though.

He was a busy man with a large company to run. The business took a lot of time, energy and put stress on his shoulders.

Her father tried to make time for her over the years and she welcomed what she got. She was just happy he was in her life when there were times she wasn’t sure he would be.

Her father pulled a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket. “Here is the name of a man you call for anything you need. He’s local and a retired trooper.”

“Why?” she asked, opening up the paper and seeing the name there. “Why can’t I call you?”

“You can and I expect you will. But he lives locally and is on the company payroll while you’re here. Anything you need, you call.”

“Like if I want a milkshake in the middle of the night?” she asked, giggling. She’d never do that.

“I want to say yes, but you wouldn’t inconvenience anyone that way. Next year you’ll have a car on campus. You might get a flat or your battery could die.”

“Oh,” she said. “I get it.”

He was always thinking ahead and looking out for her.

“If you need anything in this area, he’s who you call. Where to go, the safest places to eat and party. I know you’re going to party. I want it done the right way.”

She forced a smile. She knew why he was saying this and hated every minute of it. 

“Times are different,” she said.

“Not different enough. I don’t want a call like the one my parents got and have you end up in a chair like this. Your mother and I weren’t smart. Always remember that.”

All she had to do was look at the man she loved to remember. 

“I will,” she said. She leaned down and kissed him. “Will you be here when I’m done unloading everything?”

She could tell he wanted to take off, but he said, “I’ll be at the hotel. There is too much traffic here and I’m in the way.”

“Oh,” she said. 

“Mom and Stewart are going to talk to you about it. We’ll all go to dinner tonight. I won’t leave without saying goodbye, I promise.”

“You better keep that promise,” she said, leaning down to kiss him on the cheek.

She’d keep her tears in place and hoped he did keep his word and was there tonight when so many other times he said he’d be somewhere and wasn’t. That something came up. 

Her father held her stare. She meant business and he knew.

“Dinner tonight.”

But hours later, her father chartered a private plane to go home for an emergency at work. Just as she expected. 

Laine tried not to be disappointed while her mother and Stewart cheered her up. She put on a happy face as she’d done most of her life.

Her father couldn’t help who he was and she had to stop hoping for more.