Joey and I were determined to find out what these two had going before we came into the picture. I honestly wanted to know what had my dad so goo goo for her. After all she is a gorgeous woman. Then again all the women he's been with were gorgeous. His has a thing for girls with the curls. This Regan chick most definitely seems like she's fit the bill one way or another. The way he looked at her was even different from the way he looked at his ex wife now that I think about it. It wasn't the stunned and annoyed look like that time. It was the stunned and 'wow she stole my heart' look. I think my dad needs her back in his life. The smile he wore looked permanent. As we listened by the door me and Joey made a bet that if she stormed out of his office mad then I have to give him a bag of candy bars to last him a month but if she didn't then he's have to clean my room AND sleep without his Roger Rabbit for a week. We shook on the bet and sat in with our ears at the door. We couldn't hear anything at first it was just silence.

  "What are they doing in there?" Joey whispered to me.

  "I don't know buddy I don't hear anything." I replied still trying to listen.

  "You think they're kissing?" He asked.

  "No! He wouldn't do that." I said as confident as I could.

Then I started thinking. As pretty as she is I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't lip locking right now. Forgetting that the once the door was closed the office was completely sound proof we didn't hear my dad coming. The door flew open and both me and Joey fell to the floor in the office as my dad stood behind the door. We could hear the soft giggling coming from Regan who was sitting in one of the chairs  in front of my dad's desk.

  "This is why I keep the door open now." I heard my dad say as me and Joey scrambled to our feet.

  "He....heeeeey guys! Feliz navidad to ya!" I said with a nervous laugh.

  "Give it up Carly. We're caught." Joey huffed.

  "Sorry buddy. I guess we'll have to be secret agents another time." I said running my hand through his hair.

  "Don't you guys have presents to open?" Regan asked as she smiled.

  "That's right! We do! Joey I have a surprise for you and you're gonna freak when you open it." I said to him.

  "Really? Dad can we?" Joey asked excited.

Daddy looked at us and gave us a smile.

  "Joey you can go open your gifts now and Carlyn I need you to stay just for a second and you can go."

  "Dad seriously? It's Christmas!" I said.

  "I know but it's just for a minute. Joey go ahead downstairs little man and we'll be right down."

Joey went out of the office in a hurry and rounded the corner to get to the steps. My dad closed the door and led me to the empty seat next to Regan and I sat down. My dad sat down behind his desk and leaned back in his chair. He looked to me with a happy look on his face.

  "Carlyn do you know this is?" He asked me.

  "Daddy I think I know the person who rescued me. This is Regan! And she's awesome! You should marry her like today." I said.

Then the awkward silence in the room was very clear that I might have struck a small nerve. I looked at my dad and then looked at Regan. Her head was down and she looked a little sad.

  "Did I say something wrong?" I asked.

Regan looked up and turned to me.

  "No sweetie you didn't. See Prince. You promised me! Why didn't you?"

Regan almost snapped but remembered that I was in the room.

  "It's not that simple Regan she's 16."

  "Come on Skipper that shouldn't be something to stop you! She's still your daughter! Don't be ashamed of who you are!"

"I never said that I was ashamed. You know me better than that."

  "So then tell her! Tell her now! You're her dad and she needs to know it all."

  "Mouse......"

  "You promised me nerd! Tell her!"

  "Tell me what?" I asked interjecting.

Regan sighed and looked at me. My dad stood up and went over to a box on the shelf. Inside the box was another small black box.

  "Hey! I've seen that before!" I said excited.

  "You saw the ring?" Regan asked.

  "Well yeah! He showed it to me! It's very pretty. When I asked why he still had it was when he shot me down. What's really going on with you guys. Daddy you look like you still have feelings for her."

He signed and placed the box on his desk.

  "Tell her Prince. I can't do it for you." Regan replied with a warm smile.

  "Carlyn we were supposed to marry but.......when she got sick we didn't get along so well up until I thought I lost her." He said.

  "Lost her from what?" I asked.

  "Carly my doctors told me that I had cancer while I was away in college. I was supposed to die within a two month window. Well....I died of course but something......changed. The cancer that the doctors thought I had was just.....gone."

I've never been so lost.....like how does cancer just disappear? Now I have questions!

  "Daddy?"

My dad sat up and leaned over the desk.

  "Carlyn.....Regan and I were trying to work out our problems and things were going well when she passed. What she wants me to tell you is......I prayed hard for her to not leave me. I loved her deeply and it probably would have killed me if I lost her. I just held her in my arms and prayed that she would come back even just for a second. I guess he heard me because in came an ambulance with stretcher. Before they could pull away from the curb she was slowly coming back. I waited for hours for her to wake up and when she did......I was.....happy. A day after being rushed to the hospital one of the doctors came in and told us that her cancer wasn't a cancer at all. It was a medical condition that's so rare that very few people have it."

  "Well what is it?" I asked.

Regan turned to me and grabbed my hand.

  "My body can react to a benign tumor as something cancerous. It's hereditary and I knew Prince wanted kids. I didn't want to be the one to bare the burden of giving that to a child. We talked things through and we both agreed that even though my chances of ever having a child were small we didn't want to run the risk of something happening to the baby. Over time our relationship was nothing more than friends. It felt like we were forcing ourselves. I love your dad and I always will and I'm sure he loves me too. Things just.....weren't in the cards for us as a couple."

Wow. Now everything makes sense. Things were trying to keep them apart but they tried not to let it come between them.

  "Especially knowing about this new rare disorder we didn't want her body to mistake the unborn child as a cancerous tumor." My dad said sadly.

  "So then why did you look at her like you haven't seen her in five years?" I asked.

  "Well that's just it. We haven't seen each other  since he married his first wife." Regan said.

She looked really sad. I almost felt bad for her.

  "Was it because....."

  "She was able to give him children on the first try." She replied as her eyes began to get misty.

  "Yeah but we all know what happened with that." He said as he played with the ring box in front of him.

  "I gave him the ring back once I realized that we couldn't force it anymore. We were better off as friends. I moved to Michigan for a while hoping that I would be able to start over new but......when my mom died I knew it was time I came home." She said.

  "So are you back now? For good?" My dad asked as he studied her face.

  "I don't think I can ever leave again Skipper. I'm sorry if I never said that....."

  "It's ok. After what I did to you in the past consider that my karma. I'm always gonna love you little girl."

  "Good. Because I'm always gonna love you too.....nerd."

Regan and my dad smiled back at one another as they laughed. These two really had a hard love affair. They had to part ways because of her body being weird. Then their love just stalled in a way. She must have really loved him to let him move on with his life and not feel like she was holding him back from his dream of being a parent. The love they have for each other was definitely felt. I hope me and Tre have that kind of relationship one day.