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We each order a cone; I get mint and she gets cookie dough.
There are tables and chairs outside the shop and we take a seat so we can eat our ice cream in peace instead of walking down the street with it.
I lick my ice cream and then ask her, “How’d it go yesterday with the therapist?”
“Good, I think.” She shrugs. “We still have lots to talk about, but I think we’ve made a lot of progress in a short amount of time, so that’s good. I think Mom’s feeling a lot better. She’s looking and acting more like a human being.”
I nod and grab a napkin, wiping melted ice cream off my fingers. “Any word from your dad?”
She nods. “He keeps calling my mom, non-stop, apparently. She never answers, but that doesn’t stop him from leaving nasty messages. I keep telling her she needs to change her number.” She shakes her head. “Cade’s caught him driving by the house twice, looking for her, I guess.”
My eyes widen in surprise. “Has Cade confronted him?”
She shakes her head. “He never stops. Only gives dirty looks.”
“We should get a security system installed.”
She nods in agreement. “Yeah, we definitely should. He might be my dad, but I don’t trust him. At all.” Fear flashes in her eyes.
I don’t like seeing that she’s afraid. Especially of someone she should be able to love completely. It’s a shame she’s been robbed of that.
“We talked about Gabe too, at therapy, I mean,” she adds.
I nearly fall out of my chair. I can’t even remember the last time I’ve heard someone utter Gabe’s name. After he died it became this unwritten rule that we never speak his name.
“Gabe?” I repeat, hating how squeaky my voice sounds, but she’s completely surprised me. “How’d that go?”
“Good.” She licks her ice cream, her brows furrowed so I know she’s thinking deeply about something. “I feel better, since we talked about him yesterday. Like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I’ve blamed myself for what happened for a long time, and Dr. Long is showing me that it isn’t my fault. Accidents do happen.”
I frown. “I didn’t know that.”
“Know what?” She bites into her cone.
“That you blamed yourself. You never talk about it.”
“Exactly. I don’t talk about it, because it hurts too much, and I felt like for a long time I could’ve prevented his death. So, I guess, it became easier to pretend he doesn’t exist, which was wrong of me. I don’t want to erase his existence from my life.” She presses her lips together, staring off into the distance. “I want to go visit his grave. I haven’t been in years.”
“We can go. Just say when.”
“When.” She smiles, but it’s a little bit sad.
“Right now?” I confirm.
“Well, after we finish our ice cream. We should probably get some flowers too. Aren’t you supposed to take flowers to a grave? Maybe a toy too? Gabe loved trains.”
“Whatever you want.”
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“Don’t thank me.”
“You deserve to be thanked,” she argues. “You’re pretty awesome.”
I chuckle. “No, I just love you.”
She grins. “Same difference.”
We finish our ice cream, and since we’re already downtown, it doesn’t take us long to get flowers and a toy train.
