Still, though, I’ve learned through observation that running your own fishing boat is a lot of work. Gavin will need to be involved via telephone and email once we return to Buffalo. But for Gavin, knowing his father is no longer out at sea for weeks at a time is a big relief, and worth the extra workload. I feel it too.
And to make things easier, he’s also hired a lovely woman named Maria to help Garrett out in the office. Garrett,of course, protested, but I think she has charmed him in more ways than one. Which is also my suspicion as to why he’s finally letting Gavin do some upgrades to his home. Like father, like son, I guess. They really are the same.
“Hey, Dad,” Gavin says as he reaches into the cooler and grabs a root beer for him.
“Put it back on ice,” he says. “There’s something I need to do before I get too comfortable.” He steps to my side and dangles a set of keys in front of me. “I believe I promised someone a driving lesson.”
I look up at him, then look over my shoulder. He didn’t drive his pickup truck here. Instead, he came here in his 1970 El Camino.
“You can’t be serious,” I say. I point at the car. “Even I, who knows nothing about cars, knows that’s a classic.”
“This is Alaska.” Garrett gestures around. “Cars like that are a dime a dozen around here.” He narrows his eyes at me. “But don’t tell the lower forty-eight. We don’t want them raiding our supply of reliable cars.”
“Reliable?” I question. Sure, I heard the purr of the engine as it made its way down the drive, but the car is older than Garrett.
Gavin grins at his father. “If it ran in the seventies it’ll run today.”
“That’s right.” His father points his finger and nods at him.
“I’m going to have to take your word on that,” I say. I may not own a car, but I do know my father’s cars have without fail ended up in the shop for some unforeseen problem or engine light that costs thousands to fix.
He jingles the keys in front of me again.
I hesitate before I grab them. “Are you sure you want to teach me how to drive in that?”
“Of course,” he says, then pats Gavin on the shoulder. “That’s the car I taught Gavin in. Should work for you too.”
I look at Gavin. “Really?”
He nods his head, smiles, then shrugs. “I got my first blow job in that car too.”
“Same,” his dad says, and they blindly slap each other a high five. He narrows his eyes back at me, then points back and forth between me and Gavin. “But don’t you two get any ideas.”
“Not a problem,” I say, rising from my seat. I look at Gavin. “Are you coming with us?”
“Nah,” he says. “There’s not a lot of space. It’s really only built for two. No need for us to cram ourselves on that bench seat.”
“Yeah,” Garrett says. “I don’t need a reminder of what it was like to sit on your old couch.”
Gavin levels him with a look. “Like yours was any better.”
“Hey,” Garrett says. “Leave my La-Z-Boy out of this.”
Gavin reaches for my hand and gives it a squeeze. “Have fun,” he says, then nods his head towards his dad. “He’s an excellent teacher. You’ll be alright with him.”
Of course I will be. He’s Gavin’s dad; there was never a doubt in my mind.
Gavin
Seeing Connor slowly steer the car up the driveway makes my heart happier than it already is. It’s not that he’s driving that does it. It’s that he’s getting to have an experience he should have had ages ago. But now it’s even better than it would have been as he’s learning from my dad instead of his.
On paper, most people would assume it’s the other way around. That Connor was the one of us born lucky. The golden boy with a gold, not silver, spoon in his mouth. Where my spoon was second-hand plasticware. But who cares how I was fed? I was loved, and my dad did the best he could under, at times, terrible circumstances. Now we get to share that with Connor. He deserves it. He deserves the world. When they get back, I’m going to give him a little piece of it.
I’ve already placed it on the table in front of where he sits. It’sthe deed to this house and property, amended to have both of our names on it. It doesn’t matter to me that we’ve only been together a few months. He’s it for me and I want to make sure he knows it.
I think my dad does too. He’s accepted Connor into our life with no hesitation. Showing him around and explaining the history of Alaska to him.
When I mentioned to him that I wanted to add Connor to the deed of this house, he smiled. It’s not that my dad never wanted this place. It’s more that he wanted me to keep it for me to share with someone. Before Connor, I never thought that was a possibility. It’s been Dad and me against the world for so long; it didn’t seem possible anyone would ever want to join our team. Yet Connor jumped in headfirst and fit himself right in. We’re a family of three now?—
