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I sighed. “Paxon, you’re still busy after school?”
“Yeah. It’s our final celebration for soccer. Last goodbyes and all that, especially for the seniors.”
“Oh.” I tapped the table and glanced at Justin again. As far as I knew, he didn’t have swimming tonight. Granted, that didn’t stop him from spending both mornings and after school there. We never saw him until classes started and then he was gone as soon as they ended. Most likely, he’d go there again to swim during the open pool slot.
“Bryan has to go home after school. Toby has a doctor’s appointment. Seth is still working,” I mumbled. Everyone was busy.
“What’s going on?” Paxon asked. “Do you need to do something?”
Finally, Justin looked up at me. I looked away from him.
“It’s nothing big,” I said. “I just didn’t want to go alone.”
“Your dad?” Justin finally said something.
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Dad had been messaging me all week and he finally told me yesterday that he had come back. I hadn’t expected that and still didn’t really believe it. But he wanted to see me, and I was trying. I really was.
Dr. Arason would be happy to hear that he had returned. It proved her right and me wrong, not that she’d ever say that to me. She’d be nicer about it, more therapist-y about the response, but the barebones of it would be that he did return. My fears were unfounded. And she was right. I needed to keep pushing past my fears, so that meant going to meet my dad.
“Yeah, I’m meeting him after school. I hate meeting him alone.” The bell finally rang. I stood and gathered my things. “I’ll see you guys later.”
“Cadence?” Paxon asked. “I can skip out.”
I shook my head. “No, enjoy this last meet-up with your team. You deserve it.” I hiked up my bag and headed to my locker.
Micah was waiting there for me, grinning big.
Thankfully, we had quickly made up, especially after I filled him in on what had happened with Benji during the celebration picnic. He had even wanted to hunt Benji down himself. I was barely able to stop him.
And now we were back to being best friends.
Which meant he was over the top happy and as his best friend, that was my cue to get him talking and sharing whatever good news made him look like he had won an award.
“What’s with that look?” I asked.
“There’s no look,” he said.
I poked at his eyebrow. “There is definitely a look. What are you up to? Did you finally talk Hazel into going on a date?”
His excitement only increased as his grin widened. “How did you know?”
“I’m a little hurt. Of course I know.” I shoved everything I needed into my bag. “I need to head out and meet my dad.”
His smile finally faltered into something a bit more serious. Maybe with too much worry. “Did you find someone to go with you?”
I shook my head. “No. But it’s fine. I’m just meeting with my dad.”
“Cadence.”
“Micah.” I stuck my tongue out at him, getting a smile from him. “I’ll be fine. He’s finally back in town, so there’s that at least. That’s a good step, right? A positive.”
“A huge positive. Before Thanksgiving too. Good. Otherwise, I would have had to hunt him down and beat him up.”
I laughed. “I’m sure that would have gone over well. I’ll see you later.”
“Call me after, I’ll answer. And remember, you have us for Thanksgiving. And if your dad really cares, he’ll come too instead of trying to drag you away from us.”
I swallowed hard. “I know.” I gave him a quick hug and headed out to the parking lot.
