Page 192 of Catch Me
“Not sure.”
“It sounds like rap.”
It was hard not to laugh. “Music evolves. It’s an interesting blend.”
His derisive sound echoed my own thoughts. I had a varied taste in music, but I liked the roots of a genre. George Strait, Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, and the like. My dad would swear by even older music, but he was an old fart, so that made sense.
“Don’t you have Bluetooth in this thing?” he grumbled as he messed with the settings.
I lightly swatted his hand away. “It’s an ’07.”
“Maybe it’s time for an upgrade.”
“An upgrade,” I laughed. “I love my car.”
“Keep the car, but upgrade it.”
“Coming from the guy who still has his ’89 Cummings.”
“But I also have a Rav-4. I’m up with the times, unlike you.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“She’d love that you kept it,” he went on, serious now. “When we bought this, it was brand-spanking new. She wanted to show it off everywhere. Mostly, though, she wanted to drive it up the mountains.”
There was a fondness in his eyes as he talked about my mom. It was always there, even when it was overshadowed by sadness. That had faded over the years, but it would never go away.
“Why’d you never date after?” I asked.
He glanced at me. “Why would I want to?”
“I don’t know. Companionship. It’s a long time to be alone.”
“Like you, I don’t really mind being alone, as long as I have the people that matter to me when I need them. Besides, there ain’t a thing in the world that could replace your mom, and I’ve never seen a point in trying. Thing is, I don’t want anything to live in that space in my heart except my memories of the time we got together. You understand that.”
My fingers gripped the wheel, but I didn’t respond. There was no point arguing or trying to convince him of anything. He was my dad, and he knew me too well. I thought he probably understood the pain he’d seen in me, the anger, so I wouldn’t insult him by acting like he didn’t know what was going on.
“She was the only one I ever had,” he said, sounding lost in memory now. “Sophomore year, she transferred from Dallas. I thought she was a city girl in a pond she didn’t know how to swim in. I teased her about it.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yeah. I was so mean to her for a while that eventually, she slapped me across the face and stomped on my foot so hard I couldn’t run in the track meet that day. I probably fell in love with her then.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Because she hit you?”
“It took guts to do that, especially in a small town like that. She didn’t give me the time of day for months, but I kept at it, just trying to get her to talk to me. I was a dumb kid then and didn’t realize my jabs had actually hurt her when she first moved. She was in a new place where she didn’t know anybody, and there were no big buildings or city buses. It wasn’t until I put in the effort to see who she was that she let me be her friend.”
“How’d you do that?”
“I saw her walking home alone every day, and I was always taught to never let a girl do that. That might be outdated, but I’d still do it today if I was in those shoes again. I walked on the other side of the street until she stopped glaring at me one day, then I started walking next to her. When she realized I lived on the other side of town, she told me I was a creep, but she laughed about it, so I kept doing it. Then, I got my truck and told her if she didn’t let me drive her home, I’d drive through the puddles and spray mud all over her.”
“Oh my god, you were relentless. Surprised you didn’t get slapped a few more times.”
He shrugged. “When it’s real, you know it. I never asked her out or anything. I just wanted to make sure she got home every day. There were some guys at school who leered at her, and she was in unfamiliar territory. She’s the one who made the first move, actually.”
“She told me about that,” I recalled. “Said she kept waiting, but all you ever did was kiss her on the cheek like a friend.”
“So, she kissed me,” he said with a chuckle. “Man, I was ready to drop to one knee right then and there.”
