Runner Girl Ch. 11

*****

Once they'd received Amy's text, John and Aaron made the drive back to the McGuinness residence and let themselves inside. Aaron had no idea what to expect, so he hung back looking for a clue from John, who found Amy among the four women, all with tear-stained faces and puffy eyes. He took Amy in his arms and held her, not saying anything, just waiting to see if she spoke. He felt another pair of arms circle him, and then another, and in just a few seconds he was engulfed in a McGuinness-girl hug. The feeling was so familiar -- very similar to his own family -- that he spontaneously blurted out, "Where's Dad?" Dropping the "your" before "Dad" did not go unnoticed, and Amy whispered, "Out back -- chopping wood."

John understood immediately. The woodpile was for Ed McGuinness what the batting cage was for John. He went to the window and spotted Ed in the backyard. Without a lot of conscious forethought, he grabbed his jacket from the hook and went out to the backyard as the women watched wordlessly.

Ed glanced up at John, but did not speak or stop the mechanical rhythm of splitting logs. John watched for a minute before he joined and started placing a fresh log on the cutting block after each was split. Several minutes passed with nothing but the sound of the ax splitting wood, until Ed paused and looked at John. "It's an odd feeling, a mixture of pain and relief." Down came the ax. Ka-chunk! "There are a few things a man imagines as the worst possible thing that can happen to his daughter." Ka-chunk! "Then to find out it actually did happen and she survived it. She lived through my nightmare and it didn't destroy her." Ka-chunk!

John nodded in agreement, but intuitively knew to keep his mouth shut. He didn't know what it felt like to have daughters.

"Her not telling us is an entirely different blow." Ed lifted the ax and slipped back into silence while John continued the mechanical gesture of placing a new log on the stump over and over. Ka-chunk! Ka-chunk! Ka-chunk!

When he ran out of logs within reach, John spoke, "She's had a hard time talking about it. She seemed to feel that by not talking about it, she would eventually just get over it."

Ed stared at the empty stump and John glanced at the window and saw a face quickly duck away. "Tell me about that guy who's suing you. The one with the broken nose."

"I don't know much about him, except that he's a guy from Amy's running group who had a thing for her. I saw him holding her wrist and not letting her pass and when I put my hand on his shoulder to have a word with him, he took a swing at me and missed. He was drunk and had a porcelain nose. I'm not a tough guy. I don't get in fights."

Ed's features softened slightly and he said, "Yeah? Not a tough guy? Just a Casanova?"

John raised his eyebrows in surprise and Ed continued, "Let me ask you something. What's the longest monogamous relationship you've been in?"

John thought it over during a brief pause. Did Ed mean completely monogamous? What if monogamy wasn't expected or agreed upon? That certainly didn't constitute cheating, did it? And what kind of an answer did Ed McGuinness expect? Months? Years? He looked back to the window but there was no one there.

"The truth is, Mr. McGuinness, not very long at all. I've never met anyone like Amy before. I love Amy and I'm not going to hurt her."

"Yeah? You say that now, but what about when you get bored in a few months? I know a man in your position gets a lot of opportunity. My daughter's already had to survive a rapist who hurt her physically and mentally and emotionally, and now I have to worry about some New York playboy breaking her heart? You're a wolf in an expensive suit. What the hell do you want with our Amy anyway?"

John felt slightly unnerved at being called a wolf by a man with an ax in his hand and fire in his eyes, but he swallowed and proceeded with the truth.

"I want what you have."

Ed flinched and furrowed his brow, but John went on undeterred. "I want a wife who looks at me like Mrs. McGuinness looks at you after thirty-five years of marriage. I want kids who love me like your girls love you. Kids who grow up to be fantastic adults because I raised them right. I want a family and I'm already convinced I want that with Amy, but she won't even talk to me about it until we ride this planet around the sun and 'experience the four seasons' together." He said, quoting Amy, his voice turning just slightly sing-songy at the end in mimicry.

John's quoting Amy's stance in good humor caused Ed to finally crack a momentary grin. He'd overheard the conversation they'd had the day before, but he still needed to make something clear, so he glared and gestured with the ax still in his hand, "If you hurt Amy, you will regret it. I may not be a young man, but I've got a lot of anger that I can't take out on a guy who's already in prison, so the next guy who pisses me off is going to pay for the sins of a bunch of others."

John nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I know how that is. That's pretty much what happened to Keith. The truth is I was glad he took a swing at me. I actually did hit him hard."

"Good," Ed said. "Sounds like he had it coming. Help me gather up this wood, will you? We'll put it in the shed and go have some coffee."

"Sure," John answered.