Lisette, was dead. Died three months ago of ovarian cancer.
Marcus hadn’t talked to Lisette in the fourteen years since their breakup after college. Hadn’t known he’d left her pregnant with a child. Hadn’t even been able to make sense of the hows and whys of it all until a woman named Nina, Izzy’s legal guardian and godmother, had gotten on the phone after Izzy and cleared up some of the details.
So now he not only had a daughter he’d never met before, but was also a single father. All in one fell swoop.
The impact of the revelations had left him reeling ever since the phone call, and he’d already been in a state of shock at finding himself flat on his back in the hospital thanks to a lone nut job with a gun.
If Marcus had been the mystical, spiritual thinker his parents had raised him to be, he’d have believed the universe was trying to tell him something big. But one element of his parents’ philosophy had gotten through to him: he did believe in Fate. And Fate had handed him not only a second chance at life, but a chance to know the daughter he might never have otherwise met. Fate had made him a father, and he was going to make the best of these new circumstances in his life, no matter how radical a change from his previous reality it all was.
Izzy had said she wanted to spend the summer with him.
Maybe longer.
And he was on his way to meet her and start being her dad.
She’d been living in San Francisco with Nina for the past few months, but she hated the city. She’d spent most of her life on the rural California coast near Santa Cruz with her mom, and she was intimidated by the noise and the hustle and bustle of people everywhere.
The plane touched down on the tarmac of San Francisco International Airport right on schedule, and Marcus’s stomach pitched. He was terrified.
No, he couldn’t focus on his fear. It was only going to freak him out. He needed to concentrate on the pleasant, comforting parts of returning to the country he’d left.
There was Ginger, whom he’d always regretted losing touch with. She reminded him of his days at Berkeley. Those four years were probably the happiest in his life, and if he hadn’t been such a lousy correspondent, he might still have been able to call her his best friend. She’d been the most sincere, solid person he’d ever let himself get close to. She was far more solid than him. He had always felt a little like a dry leaf to her oak tree…as if he might drift away with a strong wind, whereas she was rooted and strong, and would still be standing tall a hundred years from now. He realized that he’d always taken her for granted. She wasn’t an oak tree—she was a special person who deserved better than a friend who never called or wrote.
It would be great to see her and catch up on all that had happened in the last fourteen years. And they were going to have a whole summer to do it, since she was opening her home to him and Izzy. He’d felt a little uncomfortable asking if she’d mind letting them stay for a week or so while he looked for a place, but when she’d suggested they stay the whole summer, he was reminded yet again of what a good friend she was. He had ulterior motives: Ginger was the one person he knew who might be able to help Izzy make sense of her mother’s death, since she knew what it was like to lose a parent.
Warmth filled his chest when he thought of Ginger’s kindness, of how insistent she’d been that having two houseguests for the summer would be no trouble at all.
There. That’s what he needed to focus on. Happy thoughts.
Hers had been the most welcome of all the e-mails he’d found waiting for him upon his return to Amsterdam after the hospital stay. He’d called her right away and, without thinking twice, asked her for that huge favor, never really doubting that she’d be willing to help. Now that he’d stared death in the face, he understood the priceless value of such a good friend, and he promised
Marcus hadn’t talked to Lisette in the fourteen years since their breakup after college. Hadn’t known he’d left her pregnant with a child. Hadn’t even been able to make sense of the hows and whys of it all until a woman named Nina, Izzy’s legal guardian and godmother, had gotten on the phone after Izzy and cleared up some of the details.
So now he not only had a daughter he’d never met before, but was also a single father. All in one fell swoop.
The impact of the revelations had left him reeling ever since the phone call, and he’d already been in a state of shock at finding himself flat on his back in the hospital thanks to a lone nut job with a gun.
If Marcus had been the mystical, spiritual thinker his parents had raised him to be, he’d have believed the universe was trying to tell him something big. But one element of his parents’ philosophy had gotten through to him: he did believe in Fate. And Fate had handed him not only a second chance at life, but a chance to know the daughter he might never have otherwise met. Fate had made him a father, and he was going to make the best of these new circumstances in his life, no matter how radical a change from his previous reality it all was.
Izzy had said she wanted to spend the summer with him.
Maybe longer.
And he was on his way to meet her and start being her dad.
She’d been living in San Francisco with Nina for the past few months, but she hated the city. She’d spent most of her life on the rural California coast near Santa Cruz with her mom, and she was intimidated by the noise and the hustle and bustle of people everywhere.
The plane touched down on the tarmac of San Francisco International Airport right on schedule, and Marcus’s stomach pitched. He was terrified.
No, he couldn’t focus on his fear. It was only going to freak him out. He needed to concentrate on the pleasant, comforting parts of returning to the country he’d left.
There was Ginger, whom he’d always regretted losing touch with. She reminded him of his days at Berkeley. Those four years were probably the happiest in his life, and if he hadn’t been such a lousy correspondent, he might still have been able to call her his best friend. She’d been the most sincere, solid person he’d ever let himself get close to. She was far more solid than him. He had always felt a little like a dry leaf to her oak tree…as if he might drift away with a strong wind, whereas she was rooted and strong, and would still be standing tall a hundred years from now. He realized that he’d always taken her for granted. She wasn’t an oak tree—she was a special person who deserved better than a friend who never called or wrote.
It would be great to see her and catch up on all that had happened in the last fourteen years. And they were going to have a whole summer to do it, since she was opening her home to him and Izzy. He’d felt a little uncomfortable asking if she’d mind letting them stay for a week or so while he looked for a place, but when she’d suggested they stay the whole summer, he was reminded yet again of what a good friend she was. He had ulterior motives: Ginger was the one person he knew who might be able to help Izzy make sense of her mother’s death, since she knew what it was like to lose a parent.
Warmth filled his chest when he thought of Ginger’s kindness, of how insistent she’d been that having two houseguests for the summer would be no trouble at all.
There. That’s what he needed to focus on. Happy thoughts.
Hers had been the most welcome of all the e-mails he’d found waiting for him upon his return to Amsterdam after the hospital stay. He’d called her right away and, without thinking twice, asked her for that huge favor, never really doubting that she’d be willing to help. Now that he’d stared death in the face, he understood the priceless value of such a good friend, and he promised
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