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He’s right. We should slow down. And not just because Tara is probably going home with Kent, but also because the more alone time I spend with Will, the deeper I fall. My parachute tore long ago. There’s only a hard landing in this girl’s future.
“Will, I’m sorry. It’s just—”
“I know, Melissa. Trust me, I know.”
eighteen
“MOM, OVER HERE!” IZZYcalls me over to the sixteenth row of Newbury Elementary’s auditorium. She has her ticket in hand, waving it in the air, near her seat at her brother’s talent show performance.
I look behind me to make sure Dad hasn’t gotten lost in the crowd.
“Everyone’s acting like we’re going to a Broadway performance, not a damn talent show.” He moves his shoulder out of the way of an obscenely large bouquet a parent has brought.
“Should I have brought him flowers?”
He snickers. “We gave him something better.”
Dad is beyond clever with his gift to Hunter. He made him a wooden magic wand, sanded and polished in a crisp black to look professional on tonight’s stage. It’s longer than the kid ones you find in stores.
“Best grandpa ever,” I quip, to which Dad nods in modest agreement as we reach our row.
“Melissa. Gavin,” Tyler stands and greets us. Maisie follows suit. They’re wearing coordinating camel-colored outfits. So trendy. So bland.
We exchange polite handshakes. Well, I do. Dad just stands there and stretches out his neck.
In order for Izzy and me to get to our seats, Tyler and Maisie have to push back into their seats to make way for us. This is always so uncomfortable. If I walk in with my front to them, our faces will be uncomfortably close. If I give them my back, I’ll be rubbing my ass into them. I choose the ass side and suck my stomach in to be as far away from touching them as possible.
I make Izzy change seats with me so she’s next to her father. As we do so, I see Dad is still standing in the aisle with his hands in front, not saying a word. Tyler and Maisie are still standing as well, pressed awkwardly against their seats. Maisie takes the hint first and moves out of the aisle. Tyler looks like a boy being scolded as he, too, moves out of the aisle and makes room for my father to walk in. Izzy and I go to exit as well, but Dad tells us to stay and does the shimmy-in-front method to get to the seat next to me.
“Mom, can I get popcorn for the show?” Izzy asks as a kid comes down the aisle, selling Ziplock bags of treats.
I’m about to take out money for her, but Tyler is already calling over the kid and handing over a ten-dollar bill for five bags of popcorn.
I take the bags from Tyler, one of which I keep on my lap. I know there is no way Dad will accept anything from him.
“Izzy, did you see who’s in the row three rows in front of us?” Maisie asks in a hushed tone, and Izzy looks at me.
“Maisie asked you a question,” I tell her, assuming she didn’t hear.
“Oh.” Izzy looks down at her popcorn and plays with a kernel until it smashes in her fingers. “Yeah.”
I look around a few rows in front of us and don’t see anyone we know. “Who’s here, sweetie?”
“No one.”
Tyler laughs. “That’s right. My daughter is too young to have a crush. You have to wait until you’re sixteen.”
This makes me laugh. “We were dating at fifteen, Tyler.”
“Exactly,” he and Dad both bemoan the same time.
I cross my legs and lean into Izzy. “Hey. You have a crush?”
She slinks down in her seat and hides under her sweater, like a turtle afraid to come out of its shell. “Mom! God. You’re all so embarrassing. No … I don’t like anyone. Dad and Maisie were just asking me questions at dinner, and they read into it. That’s all.”
Tyler doesn’t seem fazed by Izzy’s comments. Maisie, on the other hand, drops her posture in defeat.I wonder how much Maisie and Izzy really do talk.
The show begins, and we sit through the standard elementary school show openings of the pledge, a song, and then a long speech by the principal, followed by the head of the arts department. It’s thirty minutes before the show actually starts.
