Chapter 3 - The Things I Didn't Ask
I pulled out a chair.
"Sit down, Dad."
"The food's getting cold."
"It can wait."
He stayed standing.
Jack Dalton could face a seized engine, an angry customer, or a winter heating bill without flinching.
Talking about being hurt nearly finished him.
"Your anniversary dinner," he said at last.
"Karen told me you'd decided to keep it to couples."
I remembered that dinner.
Karen said Dad hadn't wanted to drive after dark.
I'd accepted it because accepting it required nothing from me.
"What else?"
"Megan's birthday. Said the restaurant was too loud for me."
"She told us your knee was bothering you."
He shrugged.
"It usually is."
That nearly broke me.
He was still helping the lie make sense.
I called Megan.
"Grandpa didn't refuse. Your mother told him not to come. I'm at his house. There's plenty of dinner if you want some."
"Is he okay?"
I looked at him.
"You should ask him yourself."
She said she'd come when her shift ended.
I didn't ask her to choose between us.
I gave her the address she already knew and hung up.
Dad finally sat.
"Don't turn her against her mother."
"I told her what happened."
"Then stop there."
I reached for the bakery bag.
Inside were pecan bars, individually wrapped, with a little sticker that said NO WALNUTS.
Karen was allergic to walnuts.
Dad had remembered.
"You bought these for her?"
"Everybody likes something sweet."
I had to turn away.
For years I'd told myself Dad preferred being alone.
I'd stopped asking after the first no.
Sometimes I hadn't even called; Karen said she'd handled it.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
He rubbed the scar across his thumb.
"Because the one time I said I thought she was uncomfortable around me, you told me she was under stress."
I remembered saying it.
Not the day.
Not the occasion.
Just how easily the words had come.
The doorbell rang.
Through the front window, I saw Karen on the porch.
Howard stood behind her with his hands in his coat pockets.
Dad rose to answer.
I caught his arm, then let go.
It was his house.
He opened the door.
May you like
Karen looked past him at me.
"Get your coat. We're going home."
