Page 281

My dad is at the bar when I come down on Saturday, my last morning, with my bag. He’s been at the bar every morning. He hasn’t come up to the fourteenth floor once. He hasn’t sat in on anything. He’s talked to people in the lobby, I’ve seen him, but he’s never once come near a door with printer paper on it.

I sit down on the stool next to him.

He looks at me. Then back at his coffee.

“Morley called me last night,” he says.

I wait.

“He said you told them you wanted to hit somebody.”

“Yeah.”

My father turns his cup.

“He said it was the most honest answer they heard all week,” he says. “He said they’ve had kids in that chair for twenty years telling them they were protecting a teammate. He said you were the first one who said I wanted to.”

He doesn’t look at me.

“I would have told you not to say that,” he says.

“Yeah.”

“I would have been wrong.”

I look at him.

He’s still looking at his coffee. His jaw is doing something I recognize because I do it. The thing where you’re holding something in your mouth you don’t want to let out.

He doesn’t say anything else. I don’t, either. Kids in tracksuits drag their bags across the lobby behind us.

After a while, he puts a twenty under his saucer and stands up.

“I’ll see you at home,” he says.

He puts his hand on my shoulder on his way past just for a second. Then he goes.

39

It’s Worth About Two

Tessa

I pull up the airport’s curb where Rafe is standing, and it’s so ridiculous, but my heart’s pounding in my chest. I throw the car in park and get out. He’s already got his things in the back seat.

“Hi, baby,” he mutters when I throw my arms around him.

He hugs me back, lifting me off the ground. Then he opens the passenger door for me.

On the drive to my place, I ask him a million questions, and he tells me all about Buffalo. He tells me about his dad, Sato, everything he already told me over FaceTime.

“And Sato just called when I stepped off the plane.”

I jump in my seat. “What did she say?”

“Second round,” he says. “If she had to bet. Could be late first if somebody falls in love. Could be third if somebody gets scared.”

“That’s good, right?”