She appreciated that he said it. The honesty of it....not performing uncomplicated joy, not pretending he wasn't sitting inside something complicated, but leading with the true thing first.
"What else are you feeling," she said.
"I don't think I'm going to answer that right now," he said. "Not because I won't. Just because I need an hour first."
"Okay."
"Is that alright."
"Dad." She looked at the garden through the kitchen window. "You're allowed to have feelings about things. That's what I've been telling you."
"I know." A pause. "He came to see me."
She went still. "What."
"Yesterday. Damien. He came to my hotel." A pause. "He sat across from me in a lobby chair and told me he was going to ask you to marry him and he wanted me to know before he did it." Another pause. "He didn't ask my permission. He was very clear that he wasn't asking my permission."
"That sounds like him."
