“Are you ready?”she asked, as she got to Riley’s door.“We’re going to be late if we don’t leave soon, and your dad will be waiting for you at the terminal.”
“Yeah, I’m coming.”Riley handed her the backpack.
Sarah opened it and examined the contents.“Good job.You remembered everything this time.”
“Yep, even my toothbrush,” said Riley, taking the pack and heading down the stairs.
“Don’t forget your jacket,” said Sarah.
“It’s so hot.”Riley’s chin jutted out as though she were ready to argue.
Sarah gave the girl the same stare she remembered her mother using whenever she started to disagree.“Take it, please.The weather may change.”She didn’t add that she did not want Graham to have something else to find fault with.
It was bad enough that he continued to have concerns about the cats.
“Oh, Mom.”Riley rolled her eyes, and Sarah raised her left eyebrow in response.
“Okay, okay,” said Riley, taking the jacket from the hook by the front door.
Sarah turned to glance at the empty house before locking the door.It would be lonely this weekend without Riley, and though part of her longed for the reprieve and solitude, another part was dreading it.
“Watch out for a parking spot,” she said half an hour later, as they pulled into the overnight parking lot at the terminal, cursing herself for not leaving earlier.It was harder to find parking in the summer, especially on weekends.She should have remembered that.
“There’s one,” said Riley, pointing to where a car was pulling away.
Sarah tapped her fingers on the steering wheel to keep herself calm.“Come on, come on,” she muttered under her breath, pulling into the spot as soon as it was vacated.“Now let’s go!”
She paid for parking, and they ran to the terminal.“Hurry!They’ll stop selling tickets soon.”
“I’ll go get in line,” said Riley, running ahead.
Sarah nodded, winded now from their quick sprint.“Really need to get back to the gym,” she muttered, before walking through the automatic door and joining Riley in line.
“Sorry, sales are closed,” said the woman, pointing to the clock when they got to the counter.
“Please,” said Sarah.“I’m taking her to see her father.”
“Pleeease,” said Riley, her face drawn in a frown.“I haven’t seen my daddy in weeks.”Sarah looked at Riley a moment and refrained from letting her mouth hang open.
“And I don’t want Mommy to get in trouble.”
Sarah turned toward the older woman behind the counter and away from Riley’s obvious crocodile tears.Riley never called her father Daddy.
The woman’s expression softened.“I’ve taken a few of those ferry rides to my ex myself,” she said.“And if I ever missed a ferry, there was hell to pay.”She turned to the till and rang up two tickets.Sarah tapped her credit card to pay.
“Thank you so much,” she said.
“Now go,” said the woman, “before any of that lot”—she nodded toward several people waiting a few meters away—“see that I just sold one to you and not them.”
“Thank you so much.”Sarah turned and rushed Riley toward the escalator and then onto the gangway.
“Where did you learn to do that?”she asked Riley, when they stepped onto the deck of the ferry.
“I have a friend who does that to get things from the teacher.”
“And ‘Daddy’?”
“Sally calls her dad Daddy.I wanted to see how it sounded.”
