Page 51 of The Progressions

“Were you sleeping again? Were you sleeping in here with the door unlocked?” Tyler asked, and his voice was almost as loud as before.

“What? No! No, I had locked…” I rubbed my neck. “I’m sure that I locked it. I’m sure.”

“Obviously not!”

“Stop yelling!” I yelled back.

“Are you ok?” he asked me in a normal tone, and I said yes. “Good. You can tell me later who the hell that was. Right now, the movers are here.”

“Good grief,” I sighed. “I was supposed to meet them at Iva’s! I slept through everything.”

“My mom let them in. Iva doesn’t have much there and it won’t take long for them to unload here. But I hope you gave the office forty-eight hours’ notice of these trucks,” he told me. “That shit’s in the lease.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered, and walked toward the door. As I passed him, Tyler took my arm.

“Are you ok?” he asked me again, and this time, I shrugged.

“That was weird. It kind of scared me,” I admitted.

“Yeah, me too. Come on and help me deal with these guys.” He put his arm around me. “We’ll go together.”

That felt weird, too, but in a very good way. I didn’t mind it at all.

“Thanks,” I told him. “And you didn’t respond when I texted, but I hope you believe that I’m sorry about what I said to you and your mom.”

“You’re welcome, and it wasn’t a big deal. I thought about what I’d said, too, and I shouldn’t have put it that way. I’m not mad.”

“Next time, you should answer and say that, then. Because I didn’t like how you weren’t speaking to me.”

His arm pulled me closer. “I’m sorry for not answering, and next time, I will.”

Next time, I would try not to say stupid things, but stuff happened. I hoped not too much stuff, though—because I liked how things were with the two of us working together, standing together.

Just being together. I liked that a lot.

Chapter 11

“Touchdown! Number sixty-two, Tyler Hennessy,” the voce boomed, and the stadium went wild.

We did too, jumping and screaming. Miss Gail hugged me, and I was glad. She’d already made sure that I knew she was ok with my slip of the tongue.

“I understood what you meant. I didn’t like being in debt to others, either,” she had told me quietly when we arrived at their condo this morning.

“I wasn’t trying to say anything about you, personally. I’m just afraid of not being able to take care of us. I’ve been afraid for five years, just about every moment of every day,” I explained.

“It’s all right,” she said. “And don’t worry about me mentioning anything to your father. Ty and I also had a talk about keeping our opinions to ourselves.”

“Do you think he can do that?” I asked her, and she had laughed. I didn’t think so, either.

The offensive linemen were now slapping his back to congratulate him and the QB ran over to shake hands. I screamed louder, trying to encourage them to be even more effusive. It was the fourth quarter and that scoring drive had just moved the Woodsmen ahead! There was plenty of time left in the game, though, and I looked over at my father—

“Dad?Daddy!”

His eyes opened and he said something, but too quietly for me to hear because of the noise in the stadium.

“What’s wrong?” Miss Gail was asking, and I leaned down close to put my ear near his mouth.

“Ok,” I told him. “It’s ok.” I looked up at her. “He’s feeling tired, so we’re going to go. It’s just too much here.” And I should have known better! I had asked him if he wanted to leave at halftime and he’d said no, because he’d known how much I wanted to stay.

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