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He nodded. “He did. I’ll give him that. Paid child support and alimony—kept paying even when he didn’t have to. Tried to keep up a relationship with me, but I had zero interest in it.”

I blew air through pursed lips. “Yeah, I can see that.” I peered up at him. “It’s kind of romantic though. That they circled back to each other.”

He stared at me.

“What?”

His jaw twitched. “You sound like Mom.”

I shrugged. “Well, it’s true. People fuck up. And it sounds like he realized it. Maybe they were soul mates and neither of them ever found that same happiness with anyone else.”

“I don’t believe in soul mates,” he said, his tone clipped.

I scoffed. “Well, Dad doesn’t believe in expiration dates, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”

He barked out a dry laugh.

“Is your mom happy?” I asked.

He looked at the windshield and nodded reluctantly. “Yes. I guess she is.”

I shrugged again. “Good. You should forgive him.”

His head snapped back to me. “What?”

“Why not? I mean, you don’t have to like him. You don’t have to trust him or forget what he did or follow him on Facebook. But he’s in your mom’s life now and holding on to this vendetta is only going to hurt her and your grandmother. I mean, you won’t even go see them for Christmas? Why? Because he’s there? Fuck him. Go see your family.”

He blinked at me.

I shook my head. “Wow. Somebody in this car never had to ignore their drunk misogynistic uncle at Thanksgiving, and it really shows.” I pivoted in my seat to look at him head-on. “Adrian. Hate is exhausting. Life is too short to hate. Let it go. And while you’re at it, it might help you to try to see him as a whole person who isn’t all black or white. You know, he can be your dad who loves you and your mom, and someone who did something really crappy to hurt you guys once. He can be both.”

I watched some sort of internal struggle move across his face. “So just…what? Show up for Christmas?”

“Yeah. Why not? I’ll go with you if you want. If it sucks, we’ll leave.”

He wrinkled his forehead. “You’ll come?”

I shrugged. “Sure.”

He nodded at the house. “What about your dad? Won’t he be alone for Christmas if you’re not here?”

I waved him off. “Let Brent tap in. I’ll go see him Christmas Eve. I’ll take him to Denny’s or something for breakfast. He’ll be thrilled. We can leave after that and make it to Nebraska for dinner.”

“You wouldn’t mind spending Christmas with me?”

“I was gonna spend it with you anyway.”

The corner of his lip twitched.

He peered at me for a long moment. “Okay.” He nodded. “All right. I’ll go, I’ll try it.”

There was something instantly softer about his face. Like deep inside he wanted permission to let this go, but he couldn’t give it to himself.

Adrian didn’t change gears very quickly, I realized. That was part of what made him great. His devotion to the people he cared about was unwavering. It made him steady and reliable. But it also made him inflexible and prone to hang on to things that weren’t good for him for much longer than he should.

“You know, maybe you should talk to someone,” I said. “A good therapist could help you work through some of this stuff.”

He shook his head. “Mom went to therapy for years, and it never seemed to make anything better.”