“Yeah, but his call surprised me.” I hadn’t seen my dad since the whole ring incident. I had no clue what brought him back to town after so much time. My gut told me it wasn’t good.

“I bet. You should have seen your face when you listened to the message.”

Dad rarely called me, so to get a message from him in the middle of the day had been surprise enough. Discovering he was in town, at the hotel, and wanted to meet up with me bordered on shocking. “Well, at least it will be good to see him.” That was true. I missed him. I just hoped he’d be his usual clueless self and wouldn’t notice the ruby ring on my left ring finger.

Owen pulled up out front of the hotel. “I’m going to park and hang around for a bit. Give me a call if you want a ride home.”

“You make it sound like I could just go home alone.”

He shrugged. “Technically, you could.”

“But someone would follow me.”

“Yeah, but you wouldn’t be with them.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for the ride.” I walked into the hotel slowly. I couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t going to be a pleasant father-daughter lunch.

My dad was waiting for me at a table in the dining room. He got up as soon as he saw me. “Hey, sweetie.”

“Hey, Dad.” I hugged him. I didn’t pull away as quickly as I usually would. It felt nice to be hugged by him. I took a step back. “You look great.”

“Thanks.” He smiled.

“You’ve lost weight.” He had, or maybe he was just trimmer or something. He was never overweight really, but now he looked like he was in good shape.

“You can thank my girlfriend for that. She’s been on my back about eating better and exercising.”

“Girlfriend? Why are you and mom so into dating all of a sudden?”

“Your mother is dating?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes. I thought we discussed this.” In our brief conversations, the topic had still managed to come up.

“That’s enough about your mom. How are you?” He pulled out a chair for me.

“I’m doing all right. College has definitely been an adjustment though.”

“I bet. Are classes going well?”

“Mostly. I hate French, but I’m getting through it.”

“French? Why didn’t you just take Spanish?”

“I wanted to try something different.” I unfolded my napkin and put it on my lap.

“You seem to be all about trying new things, nowadays.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He looked away and took a long drink from his water. “Are you ready to tell me why you decided to change schools? It’s because of the boy, isn’t it?”

“His name is Levi, and sort of.” I’d already decided that was the easiest answer, especially now that we were somewhat dating again.

“What does ‘sort of’ mean? Either it was because of him or it wasn’t.” Dad finished off his water before signaling the waiter for a refill.

“It means I wanted to see where things went.”

“And where did they go?”

“What’s going on, Dad? What’s with the interrogation?”

“Interrogation? You’re the one who decided to throw away my deposit at Princeton to transfer schools for a boy you’d just met.”

“Deposit? It’s the money you care about?”

“Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

“Where’s all this coming from?”

Dad ran a hand through his hair. He was nervous. “Are you sure you don’t want to get back with Toby?”

I took a sip of my water. I needed to calm down before I answered. “Toby? We’ve been over for months. What does Toby have to do with anything?”

“We’re going under.”

“What’s going under?”

“The company, Allie.”

I gripped the table for support. “How?”

“We had two bad quarters, and we lost several investors. I thought I had Tyler Henderson on board, but he made it clear he was only interested in helping someone who had the same interests.”

“Are you saying he won’t invest because I dumped Toby?”

“I’m saying he won’t invest unless you two work it out.”

“Well, we’re not going to.”

“Tulane’s not cheap.”

“Don’t pin this on me. Princeton would have been just as expensive.”

“You would be back with Toby.”

“No, I wouldn’t. And don’t worry about tuition. I’ll figure out loans or something.”

“Even if you did, that doesn’t help the bigger picture. This is about a lot more than tuition, it’s the whole business. I’m not asking you to marry him. Just spend some time with Toby and see if you can’t work something out.”

I’d had enough. First, all the crap with Levi, and now my dad? No one was cornering me again. “I’ve lost my appetite.” I stood up to leave.

“Allie, wait.”

I ignored him and walked out of the restaurant. I picked up my phone and called Owen. “Can you take me home?”

“Levi’s going to give you a ride.”

“Perfect. I’ll meet him outside.”

“No, I’m here.” Levi materialized out of nowhere. He’d probably been hanging out at the bar.

Just then, Dad walked out of the restaurant. He’d probably realized I wasn’t coming back. “Allie, we’re not done.”

“Yes, we are.” I turned to Levi. “Please get me out of here.”

Dad pleaded. “Allie, we need to talk. You’ve got the wrong idea.”

“The wrong idea? You pretty much just told me to whore myself out to save your company, or am I wrong?”

“Lower your voice. I didn’t say anything of the sort. I was just giving you information.”

Levi wrapped an arm around my waist, and I was glad for it. I needed any support I could get. “You know I love you, and I care about your company, but you just crossed a line you shouldn’t have. I don’t want to say anything I’m going to regret, so I’m leaving.”

“Allie.”

“No.”

Dad looked at Levi. “Can you please give us a moment?”

“Sorry, I think I better get her home.” Wow, he’d seriously just stood up to my dad. I let Levi lead me out to his car.