Page 86 of Lovesick
“Good.”
“Any word on your sentencing?”
“Still on good behavior,” he said. “There’s a chance for parole in a year or two.”
My eyes widened. That was news. “Really?”
He nodded a little.
Resisting the urge to text Ellie a warning was hard.
Somehow, my dad occupied three spots in my mind. The drunk, the dad figure, and the jailbird. Right now, I couldn’t picture this sedate, boring guy as the one who’d stormed into the Frolicking Moose and almost shot Bethany in a drunken rage.
But I could never forget it, either.
“Any news from there?” I asked, then almost winced. How awkward. What could possibly be news in his world?
He just shook his head, lips puffed in a closed line.
“I, uh ... it’s been eventful here,” I said. “Almost drove my car off a cliff the other day.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, but ... it worked out okay. Car is totaled, but I’m alive.”
“Good. Insurance cover it?”
“Not sure. We’re waiting to hear back.”
“Glad you’re safe.”
“Me too.”
Another painful silence. Moments like this reminded me why it seemed so easy for Ellie to cut him from her life without a thought. She hadn’t even spoken his name since that awful day in the coffee shop.
“Listen, Dad, can we talk about Mama?”
His features darkened. He shifted a little in his seat but didn’t stop me.
I pressed on. “I’m ... I’m trying to remember her. Remember our life together. It seems so long ago, and ... I’m not sure I’m remembering what was real or who Ithinkshe was.”
He scoffed. “Whoever you thoughtshe was was probably wrong. There wasn’t a person on this planet who could peg Kat down.”
I frowned. “Okay, but ... was she a romantic?”
“She claimed to be a hopeless romantic.”
My heart sped up. “Was she?”
He shrugged. “What does that even mean?”
“You know ... the kind of person who really believes in love. In the safety and power of romance as a force for good in the world.”
His brow wrinkled. “That doesn’t sound like her. She was an endless flirt who led men on, had sex with them, and then moved on.”
I hid a wince. He wasn’t wrong.
“Did you try to be romantic with her?” I asked.
