Page 26 of Frisco

She laughed. “I’m not testing Harper either. His grandmother is saying to prepare. No way am I missing out. I’ve got six months of vacation. It’s time I call some of it in.”

It took me a second to digest what had just happened.

I was packing, preparing to go on this trip alone. My roommates came home, and just hearing the story, they were going. No questions. No discussion. No trying to talk me out of it. Nothing. Just instant, “We’re going with you. I gotta go and pack my vibrators because a dead grandmother told me to.” Those were my friends.

Damn.

I reached up and flicked a tear away.

Damn.

Moving back after what Foley did, I hadn’t—no. That wasn’t true. I was going to say I hadn’t taken the time to appreciate my friends, but that wasn’t the truth. I had. I was so seriously appreciative of them that sometimes, I worried I was too appreciative. I depended on them too much. Was that fair to them? For them to deal with me, to come “bring me home,” as Harper had put it, and now this?

Oh yeah.

My throat swelled with emotion.

Life was not easy. It wasn’t easy at all, but with the right friends, it got a little less hard.

I hit call on my phone.

“Daughter! How are you? How’ve you been? The Old Gents started a YouTube channel. We’re uploading our first dance routine this weekend.”

“I–what?”

“Oh yeah. I told you about that, didn’t I? We got a name. Old Gents. It’s catchy, right? Stevie thinks it’ll bring in a bunch of the young crowd. You know. All those gals who go crazy over rich millionaires. He’s thinking ‘gents’ will come up as ‘gentlemen’ and boom. There you go. Our dance video will show up.”

Harper and Aly started laughing, and I had to clear my throat because I’d dissolve as well. “Dad.”

“Yeah? Who’s that? Who are you with?”

“Uh. I’m with Aly and Harper.”

“Oh, hey everyone! Kali, tell them hi from me. Did you do it? Say hi. I want to hear you say hi for me.”

“Dad.”

“What?”

“We’re going to California. We’re going on a road trip.”

Silence for a moment.

He cleared his throat, and got all serious. “You know, Kali. You know you don’t have to go all the way to California for your road trip. You can come here! Harper and Aly can join in on the next dance routine.”

“I’m so down for that, Mr. Michaels,” Harper yelled from the front seat.

“Who was that? Kali, which one was that? They’re down to come here and dance with your Pops?”

8

KALI

We didn’t fly, and to this day, I couldn’t tell you why that didn’t happen. We just didn’t. Aly offered her SUV, so after she and Harper made their plans (I didn’t know what those were), we piled our suitcases into the vehicle. Then Harper brought out a cloth grocery bag of food, and Aly started bringing out the coolers.

Not one, or two. Three coolers.

Those were just the food.

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