CHAPTER SEVEN Chad

"You what?" Dad asked, his reaction seeming like his head would split in two. "Let me guess. You actually started right up with the things I warned you to avoid at first, didn't you?"

"Chill, Pops," I stated, rolling my eyes.

My father set his bottle of water on the kitchen island, quickly glancing at Mom, and then turned back to me angrily. "You want me to what?" he asked, returning his eyes to Mom. "Did you hear that, Maggie?"

"Relax a second, dear," she cautioned, raising her hand to Dad. "You know how our son is," she defended.

Dad walked to the sliding glass doors and stared at the ocean, his way of taking a breather and calming down. "That is precisely why I advised Chad to take a few days before expressing his uncommon thoughts to a stranger, Maggie," he stated, relaxing his shoulders and taking a deep breath before he turned to face Mom and me. He motioned toward Cole's house. "That man is a multi-million dollar client of mine, son. I urged him to give you a shot and hire you."

"He's a broken man, is what he is," I replied.

"A rich broken man, let me remind you."

"Always about money with you, Dad," I said, sliding onto a bar stool and grinning at him. I glanced toward Mom and she gave me the not today, Chad, look.

Too late. "Look around you, son," he began, waving his arms around the room and gesturing to the waterfront view outside. "All this doesn't happen because of stardust and groovy feelings."

I rolled my eyes again. "Groovy?" I asked. "Welcome to the future, Pops."

"I can't do this, Maggie," he announced to my mother. "He doesn't listen to me."

I stood up, heading toward him. "You asked me for a favor, Dad. I'm sorry that I can't stand by and ignore a poor soul who is obviously lost or hurting."

"You are not listening to me, son," he began. "I know you care about others, but give a person two minutes to get to know you first before you go off on one of your intuition campaigns. You've lost a good opportunity here."

"I'm sorry I disappointed you," I replied.

"He's sorry," Mom chimed in.

Dad wasn't caving so easily this time. He led me back to the island and forced me to sit across from him. "You cannot spend your entire life doing these things, son. I love you. I love your unique sense of being, but you are an adult now."

I stared at my father and let him vent. I knew he worried. I knew he thought I was a dreamer. I was aware of all that he did for me, but he didn't understand that the core of who I was, was exactly what he saw.

"I'm not going to change because I'm an adult, Dad. The person you see isn't simply a persona I concocted."

"You're not listening to me," he argued. "You need to think about your plans for the future, Chad. You have to grow up."

"I am grown up, Dad. I just don't aspire to gather great wealth like you have. What you value is not what I value," I disclosed.

Mom had seen enough. She did not like when her two men disagreed or couldn't understand each other's position. "That's enough for today, Alex. Chad, why don't you go simmer down for a bit?"

"I'm totally relaxed, Mom. It's Dad that doesn't want to hear me." My father stood and walked out of the room. "See?" I asked her, shrugging my shoulders.

Mom sat on the bar stool Dad had just vacated, gathering her thoughts like she always did before speaking during a heated discussion.

"You're wrong, honey. Dad is devastated with worry about you. He's concerned that you can't move past David's death and now, with Clint leaving, he's afraid for you."

"I can't shut off the emotions I have, Mom. If I sense that something bad or painful happened to someone, I'm drawn to them."

"I know, son, but what about you? What about what hurts you?" she asked. "That's what Dad worries about."

"I don't want to think about that," I whispered.

"We think you should."

Dad had gone one direction in the house, leaving Mom and me alone. I went the other, leaving Mom alone. They were right. I was suffering. Why couldn't I find love? Others that I knew had had great love. They'd even lost great love. And then found love again. I'd been there. I'd helped. Why couldn't I help myself?

I grabbed a sweatshirt from the guest house where I was living and wandered toward the beach. The surf, the sand, all the natural beauty of the shoreline soothed my soul. I was drawn to the ocean the way a moth is to flame. I could spend hours walking and thinking as the waves washed over my toes, invigorating my mind.

The beach was empty as the sun set behind me in the west. It was almost as if I could visualize a human form off in the distance as the ocean mist battled with the last remaining light.

"You're right about him,"the voice I recognized in my unconscious mind spoke. "He's not like us."

"So, you are here," I whispered, smiling.

After last speaking with Perry, his dead husband, Jack, had been on my mind. Imagine my surprise to find a picture of Jack in my new neighbor's bedroom. Many people would say something like small world or what a coincidence, but I knew better. I believed in signs and messages from the universe and it took little convincing that Jack was up to his old tricks.

I'd kept this news from Mom and Dad earlier. I don't think Dad needed any more ammo when it came to my thoughts about the world around me. Best to keep this close to the vest.

"What's next, Jack?" I asked. "I can't imagine you're here for nothing."

I waited. No response. Nothing. My eyes were playing tricks on me as I gazed down the beach. I swore I saw someone walking out of the ocean. Wiping at my eyes and refocusing revealed nothing but fading light.