His words drown out hers. “—together. Just like we did when we had to retrace our steps to find the stuffed seal you lostin Disney World, and when we realized listening to audiobooks would help with your dyslexia, and when you thought you’d never get into Harvard because you’d assumed you flubbed the essay on what captivates you when you said ‘yourself.’”
She can’t help but smile at that last one. This Mallory’s wardrobe is still bananas, but maybe the two of them have more in common than she thought. “Those aren’t exactly at the same level as this.”
“They are to me. Because you were hurting, same as you are now. The hardest thing for a father to do is to see his little girl in pain.”
Papa. Bear.
And yet, wouldn’t her mom in her world say the same?
“Addendum,” he says, “see his little girl in pain and not be able to fix it.”
A queasiness flips her stomach.He can’t make this all go away.Part of her believed—hoped?—that he could. That he would.
“You can’t, then, fix it?” she says, almost in a whisper.
“Not something this big, baby girl.”
“But you would, if you could?”
“I’d want to. Course, then I’d have your mom screaming in my ear that even if I could, I shouldn’t. Because we raised you right.”
Does that imply her mom didn’t?
He adds, “We raised you to be able to handle whatever life throws at you.”
So that’s actually a “no” to going on the run with her.
Mallory blurts out, “Like you did? With Mom?”
“That’s private, Mallory, but yes. We all screw up. We all have to make amends. You know I have.”
But I don’t.
“Listen, MallieMoo, life’s complicated. Like this situation you’re in. But you know the way out, don’t you?”
Not really.
He continues, “It’s what your mom did, even if it took her a bit to get there.”
She draws in a breath and waits for him to finish.
“Tell the truth.”
The bluntness of his words hits like whiplash. Maybe this is his way of hinting that he knows Noreen didn’t actually frame anyone. “So spill all?” she says, hunting. “No matter the consequences?”
“As long as you’ve done all you can to cushion anyone who might get hurt. And you have what you need to deal with those consequences.”
“And what’s that?”
“Family. Which you have in spades.”
A text comes in from Ilena, asking to be let in.
“I do,” Mallory says, “we both do.”
“Aw, MallieMoo, now you’re going to make an old man cry.”
She had meant herself and this Mallory. But his interpretation is right too. “Well, just don’t go dehydrating yourself because I’m going to need you.” She hears him choke back the moisture that must actually be forming, and damned if it doesn’t start to incite the same in her. “And... Dad? I’m lucky to have you.”
