Page 40 of The Progressions

“Daddy, you should have told me! I would have come back and gotten you.”

He waved his hand slowly, dismissing that. “You didn’t need me there.”

“I missed you, too. I really wanted you to come but I think I understand why you didn’t.”

“Do you?” he asked.

“I think that you’re trying to make up for being here and living life.” I sighed.

“You mean, without your mother?”

I nodded. “Yes. You’re sorry that you have to be alone and you wish…sometimes I’m afraid that you wish you had gone with her.”

“Is that what you think? That I would have missed out on raising you? No,” he said. “Never. I wouldn’t have missed one single minute.”

“Not even when I got stuck in the sand dune when you were teaching me to drive?”

He paused. “Maybe not that minute. I tried to tell you not to swerve.”

I remembered him yelling more than “telling,” and I laughed. “There was a squirrel! You got the car fixed, and now…I did it again.”

“You ran into another dune?”

“No, but when Iva called and needed me to drive her to the hospital, I backed up into a light pole. The car needs some work.”

“I was wondering when you were going to tell me.”

“You knew?” I asked. “You let me stew in it?”

“Exactly,” he said, I laughed again. “I wouldn’t have missed a minute, Kasia, not even the sand dune. I love you very much.”

But he still felt guilty, which I understood very well. “I love you, too, Daddy.”

“Next time. If Tyler gets more tickets and wants you to escort his mom, I would go. If I have the opportunity.”

“We will have the opportunity,” I said, feeling certain. I was remembering how Tyler had walked me over to get a tissue, guiding me with his hand. I was also remembering how he’d lit up when he’d seen us waiting for him today—he’d looked at both of us, but I had been included in it.

“We’ll go again,” I promised. I was feeling very good about everything.

Chapter 9

Iwasn’t sure whether I wanted to tell her. “It was all right,” I finally said, keeping my tone neutral.

“All right?”

“It was fun,” I added, but Iva wasn’t satisfied. She had been texting questions since the night before, when she’d apparently talked to my dad and he had spilled the beans about our dinner at Tyler’s house, an event which I had been keeping to myself. When I hadn’t provided enough detail in my responses to her many messages, she’d called, because she really, really wanted to know more.

“Kasia, all I’m doing is sitting in a hospital, worrying. I’m worried about my baby, my livelihood, my boyfriend…” Her voice broke. “Dominic may be dead somewhere!”

“He’s not,” I said. “I’m sure he’s fine.” I had no doubt that stupid Dominic was more fine than she was.

“I don’t want to think about any of it, just for a few minutes. Distract me,” she suggested.

I understood the desire to live vicariously—wasn’t I doing the same thing when I looked at Shay Galton’s posts and tried to replicate her snake pose with a rolled-up towel? I didn’t want to hurt Iva’s feelings by describing how great things had been, though, so I kept it short. “There’s really nothing. I already told you all about the game.” I had given her every detail of that after she’d been discharged the day before and I’d driven her home. “The rest was no big deal,” I continued. “My dad and I went to Tyler’s for dinner, and it was good.”

But she kept asking questions. “What did you have?”

It couldn’t have hurt to answer that. “He eats really healthy. He and his mom made three roast chickens with little potatoes and also a bunch of steamed vegetables. Dad and I brought them even more from our garden and they made a huge salad. They cook so well together even if she can’t get around much in the kitchen.”

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