I grabbed my bag and met up with Mom, who wrapped her arm around my shoulders and walked with me to the door. Cane followed us out, and when we got into the car, he told us goodnight.
His eyes lingered on mine more than they should have. He backed away and stood on the cement walkway that led to his front door, while I pulled out of the driveway and away from the house. I glanced at him one more time before pulling off.
“Cane is so good to us,” Mom exhaled. “Letting you use his pool and feeding you. He’s a busy man, and I’m sure he just wants to come to a quiet home and escape the madness. Have you thanked him for letting you use the pool and for being in his home while he’s away?”
No, in fact, I hadn’t thanked him. But I would eventually. I lied anyway, just so she wouldn’t scold me. “Of course I thanked him. He is a nice person.”
“Yes, he is. You know, your dad has had a lot of weird, dumb, selfish friends, but Cane is none of those things. He’s probably the only friend of your dad’s that I actually approve of and like being around. He’s very supportive and uplifting of everyone and always gives me a good vibe when he’s around. There’s never any negativity from Cane. He’s also great with your Dad when it comes to that crazy temper of his.”
Great, Mom. Just great. Keep making me feel like shit for wanting him.
She sighed. “To be honest, I still wonder why he sticks around so much. We don’t have much to offer him, other than our friendship. During the times he visits for dinners, he could be eating in a fancy restaurant or going on a date. I don’t know.” She shrugged and let out a short breath. “I guess it’s just nice to know his time spent with us is real and genuine. You know?”
“Okay, Mom. You should probably stop. You’re being super sentimental right now.”
Her laughter was a soft chime, filling the car. “God, I know, baby. I know. It’s just…me and your dad’s anniversary is coming up, and you’ll be in college soon. It’s all happening so fast, you know?”
I reached over to rub her shoulder. “It’s okay, Mom. Seriously, I’ll visit all the time…especially if you give me a car.”
In that moment, it seemed an imaginary sponge had soaked up all her tears. She gave me a dull look with a slight smile and said, “Nice try, little girl, but I’m a lawyer. I see right through that little sympathy card you just tried to pull on me.”
“You can’t say it wasn’t a good one, though!”
She stared at me, trying to fight a grin.
It was useless.
We both broke into laughter, the sounds nearly identical.
29
KANDY
Something unexpected happened three and a half weeks before I was supposed to be going to college: Dad asked me to go out on a father-daughter date with him.
How was this unexpected? Well, it had caught me off guard because Dad and I never really spent time together outside of the house. Yes, we had the vacation, and yes, he’d come home every day, happy to see his family, but outside of home, we never really hung out one-on-one.
If I could recall the last time we did go on one of our father-daughter dates, I was sixteen, and the only reason we hung out that day was because I needed a new dress for the homecoming dance. Mom couldn’t take me, so I had to drag Dad along with me. We bought a dress, and then he teased me about how he was going to feed me so much ice cream that I would feel sick and couldn’t go to the dance to be ogled by teenage boys. He was a goof that way.
There was a knock on my door, and I instantly knew it was him by the knock. He double-tapped three times. I was in the middle of reading a magazine article about a new matte nail polish.
“Come in,” I called.
Dad opened the door with a small smile. I expected to see him in his uniform, but he was dressed in casual clothing. He ran a hand over the top of his dark, wavy head of hair, stepping inside and looking around, like he hadn’t seen my room in a while.
Now that I thought about it, maybe it had been a while since he last stepped foot in here. Dad was very much like Mom in the sense that they didn’t like to invade my privacy. They felt everyone deserved their own place of solitude. Outside of my room, though, there was no such thing as privacy. I’d lost count of how many times Dad asked me teasingly who I was texting whenever we were around each other.