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“That sounds promising.”

“It doesn’t feel promising.”

“What happened?”

I give him the short version. The tour. Ruby’s offer at Black Fern. My questions about visits and schedules and how often she could get away. Her telling me I was trying to make her answer questions she couldn’t answer.

Dad listens without interrupting.

When I’m finished, he picks up the towel again, wipes his hands, then sets it back down.

“So, she told you to figure out what you want.”

“I know what I want.”

“Do you?”

I look at him. “I want the tour.”

“I know.”

“And I want Ruby.”

“I know that too.”

“Then why are you asking?”

“Because those are two things you want. I’m asking what you want your life to look like.”

I sit back.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

Dad nods once. “Maybe you’ve been starting with the wrong question.”

I wait for him to continue because he’s always been good at getting to the bottom of what’s bothering me and helping me work through it.

“A career tells you what kind of work you do. It doesn’t decide what kind of life you have.”

The sentence sits between us. He doesn’t explain it, because he doesn’t need to.

For years, I’ve treated music like it gets first claim on everything else because that’s what it took to build something from almost nothing. Take the gig. Drive all night. Sleep wherever. Say yes before somebody changes their mind. If another opportunity comes up, grab that one too.

It worked.

Hollow North is about to release an album with a real push behind it. We’re joining another tour with Macklin Row. There are festivals being discussed, extra dates, maybe more after that if things keep going the way we hope.

That’s the career.

But I keep acting like every other part of my life has to wait and see what the career decides first.

“I think I’ve been treating home like something I come back to between jobs,” I say.

Dad studies me. “Have you?”

“Yeah.” I rub my palms over my thighs. “Even the duplex. When I rented it, I didn’t think much past needing somewhere that wasn’t your house.”

“Your mother was devastated.”