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“Oh, I’m up for it. Plus, Sammy asked me to take pictures, which I can’t do if I’m not there.”
This day is going to be excruciating. “If you think you can handle it.”
“Quit second guessing me,” he practically growls.
“It’s okay, Dad. You can take pictures at lunch. That should be enough.”Thank you, Sammy, and please God may your dad not be so pigheaded that he doesn’t take you up on that offer.
“I’m going and that’s all there is to it,” he says resolutely. With that, he gets out of the car and slams his door so loudly everything shakes. Clearly his knee pain is getting the best of him because he’s much more churlish than normal. Plus, I saw him wince as soon as he put any pressure on his knee. It almost made me feel sorry for him.
Sammy and I lead the way to the elevator. We get there well ahead of Jamie who’s hobbling slowly behind us.
Yeah, this is going to be a fun day.
CHAPTERNINETEEN
JAMIE
My knee hurts like hell. I’ve been lucky enough to avoid surgery on it since injuring it nearly twenty years ago, but that’s only because I haven’t had anyone knock me to the ground and land on it. An image of Melissa lying on top of me fills my brain, causing my heart to accelerate like a jackhammer.
“Maybe we can rent you a wheelchair,” Melissa suggests when I finally get to the elevator.
“I told you, I’m fine.” I jab repeatedly at the call button that’s already lit, as if it would ease some of my discomfort.
When the elevator arrives, several people get off before we get on. “Where should we start?” Sammy wants to know.
“That depends on your style and budget,” Melissa tells her.
“I want to wear the same clothes everyone else will be wearing. I don’t want to stand out too much. Oh, and Dad said I could spend five hundred dollars.”
Melissa tips her head back and forth while thinking. “Let’s start at Forever 21 and go from there.” She leads the way as we get off the elevator onto the second floor of the mall. Pointing, she tells me, “The store is down there to the right.”
“Aren’t we walking together?” I want to know.
She glances at my knee before giving me a knowing look. “Not if we’re going to get any real shopping done.”
Nice, kick a man when he’s down.I don’t say anything while they hurry toward their destination. As annoyed as I am with Melissa, I’m also very grateful to her for taking an interest in my daughter. Before now, the only adult woman to take Sammy shopping has been her grandmother, and from what Sammy says, my mom is all about Talbots and nothing else. Every time Sammy would come home with something, she’d complain she looked like a grandmother on her way to play cards at the senior center.
By the time I get to the store, Sammy and Melissa are nowhere to be seen. So, I find a salesperson. “Did you see a red-haired woman and a red-haired tween girl anywhere?”
She points to the back of the store. “Your wife and daughter are in the changing room, sir.”
“She’s not my …” I begin to say but decide she doesn’t care what my relationship is with Melissa.
When I get to the changing area, I call in through the doorway, “Sammy, are you in there?”
“Sit down on one of the chairs out there and I’ll be right out to model for you.”
I do what I’m told and it’s nothing short of ecstasy to get off my feet. I kick up the foot of my injured leg and rest it on the opposite foot, then I lean back and close my eyes for a minute. I don’t open them until I hear my daughter exclaim, “Check out this dress, Dad.”
My eyes nearly pop out of my head when I see it’s a shade of purple almost identical to the shirt Melissa is wearing. Sammy has never worn that color and it looks great on her. “You look very grown up,” I tell her. I don’t share how nervous that makes me.
“The style is appropriate,” Melissa interjects.
“It’s nice.”
“What don’t you like about it?” she demands.
“I said it was nice.” What is she not understanding about the word nice?
