"Of course," I replied. I figured the best way to tell him was to just spit it out. The faster I let him know, the less time Sam and Karrie spent waiting for us in the courtyard. "Dad, I, ah, brought someone with me."
"Who? Tuck?" Dad had talked to Tuck at games, and he"d stopped by dad"s house with me when we were on our way out a couple of times.
"No, actually it"s a girl that I"m seeing."
My dad"s grin got bigger, and I swear I saw a twinkle in his eye.
"It"s about time."
"Well, Dad, there"s morea" I began.
"Somethin" wrong with her?" he asked.
I chuckled at that.
"No, there"s nothing wrong with her. But she does have a little kid. A daughter, Karrie," I said quickly. "They are both in the courtyard."
"A kid, huh?" Dad asked thoughtfully.
"Yeah."
"Well, let"s go. We don"t want to leave them waiting, and I can"t wait to see the girl that finally got you to care enough to introduce her to me."
Dad took off out of the room and down the hall, forcing me to jog to catch up with him. Right as he reached the doors to the courtyard he stopped, causing me to run into him.
"Jeez, Dad," I said as I steadied myself by placing my hands on his shoulders. "You okay?"
He turned to me and looked down at his flannel shirt, smoothing it with his hands. "Do I look okay?"
"You look great, Dad," I a.s.sured him. "Better than you"ve looked in a long time.
He nodded and opened the door. You could immediately feel the change in atmosphere. Whereas inside was solemn and quiet, the courtyard was alive with excited chatter, birds chirping, and the running water of the fountain.
I looked around and spotted Karrie at the fountain, pointing up at a bird and talking to Sam. "That"s them," I said to my dad.
Sam looked up as we neared and stood, holding out her hand to my father.
"h.e.l.lo, sir. I"m Samantha, or Sam. Nice to meet you."
"I"m Mike," my dad responded, shaking her hand. He looked down at Karrie, causing Sam to say, "And this is my daughter, Karrie."
Sam crouched down to Karrie, who was still distracted by the bird, and said, "Karrie, can you say hi to Mr. Mike? He"s Judd"s daddy."
Karrie turned and looked up at my father, her blonde curls bouncing with the movement.
"Dudd"s daddy?" Karrie asked, squinting in the sun.
My dad bent over to pick her up, then looked at Sam questioningly. "Is it okay if I pick her up?"
"Sure," Sam responded.
Karrie lifted her hands willingly, and my dad picked her up and placed her on his hip.
"There, now we can see each other properly." He smiled down at her, holding out his hand to her. Karrie giggled and took it, shaking it slightly. "It"s nice to meet you, Karrie."
"You Dudd"s daddy?" Karrie asked again.
"That"s right," my dad said with a nod. He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. "Judd is my son."
Karrie looked curiously at both of us, then looked my dad in the eyes and smiled. "Buds."
"You like the birds?"
Karrie nodded and pointed to a group of birds sitting on a feeder.
"You want to go see them?" he asked her.
Karrie nodded enthusiastically.
"Okay."
He carried her over toward the birds, talking and pointing as they walked. I could only a.s.sume he was telling her what types of birds they were.
"You okay?" I asked Sam when they were far enough away.
"Yeah," she said with a smile. "He"s nice."
We watched them for a few minutes, talking and laughing while they watched the birds, before we walked over to join them.
"So, Dad, how"s everything been this week?"
We moved over to a picnic table and sat down, Karrie content on my dad"s lap.
"Really good," he responded. "I"m on track to be out of here in a couple weeks."
"That"s great, Dad," I said sincerely.
"I"m sorry you have to meet me in here, Sam," Dad said.
"Don"t be," Sam said softly, reaching out and placing her hand on his. "I think it"s wonderful what you"re doing. You must be very strong."
My dad turned red at that. If I hadn"t seen it myself, I never would have believed it.
He cleared his throat and asked Sam, "So, do you go to school here?"
"Yes," she replied. "I"m in my last year, just like Judd."
"What are you studying?" he asked. "What is it that you want to do?"
"I"m going to be an art teacher," Sam said.
"She"s an amazing artist, Dad," I added. "I"ve seen some of her work, it"s really great."
"Do you know where you"re going to teach?"
I realized we hadn"t talked about any of this, and I leaned in, eager for her answers.
"Not really. I"ve been looking online and putting together everything that I"ll need. There are a few schools that interest me, and my parents are trying to convince me to come back home and teach at my old middle school. That may be the best option, at least initially."
"Where do your parents live?" he asked.
"About forty-five miles away, in Johnsonville," she replied.
"And what about this one"s daddy?" he asked, looking down at Karrie fondly as she watched us all intently. "Is he alright with you two moving away?"
Sam looked at me quickly, then down at her hands, before looking directly at my dad.
"She doesn"t have a father," Sam said tightly. "He doesn"t want anything to do with her. Ever."
My dad looked startled at that, his face losing its cheerfulness, then reached out and patted Sam"s hand the way she"d done to him earlier.
"I"d say you"re the strong one here, not me."
I didn"t know what was wrong and I was about to lose my mind.
Karrie had been screaming for the last thirty minutes and wouldn"t stop. It all started when I"d tried to get her to go on the potty. The potty training was. .h.i.t or miss, but she"d never reacted to it in this way before.
When I"d pulled down her pull-up and tried to put her on the potty, she"d gone ballistic, screaming and crying big crocodile tears.
After a few minutes I tugged her pull-up back up and told her she didn"t have to go on the potty, but that hadn"t stopped the tantrum.
Everything I tried seemed to make it worse.
I left her in the bathroom and walked out. She screamed.
I stayed in the bathroom with her and shut the door.
She screamed.
I carried her out of the bathroom and brought her into the living room.
She screamed.
I tried putting on Dora, the Wiggles, and Ponies.
Nothing worked.
I had to walk away before I lost it, so I left her in the living room and went to the kitchen, standing with my hand braced against the counter, trying to control my breathing.
It wasn"t working. I could still hear her.
To make things worse, my period had started that morning and I had cramps from h.e.l.l.
It"s like I was living a nightmare.
My phone rang and I looked at the screen. Judd was calling. Now was not the time.
I pressed ignore and put the phone back in my pocket.
My phone beeped, signaling a text message, so I pulled it back out.
"We won. Going out for beer. Join us!"
I shook my head, and then thought back to the days when I could drop everything and go out when one of my friends asked me to. That seemed like such a long time ago.
I could hear Karrie"s voice growing hoa.r.s.e.
"Can"t tonight. Congrats though."
I hoped that would be enough of an answer. I wasn"t in the mood to explain myself.
I walked back to the living room, where Karrie was laying on her back and screaming up at the ceiling.
"Karrie," I said, trying to sound soothing. "What do you need, baby? Are you hungry?"
"No!" she screamed.
That seemed to be her favorite word lately.
"Come on. It"ll be fun. I can pick you up."
I guess he wasn"t going to give up easily.
"You want to take a bath and play with your duckies?" I tried again.
"No!" Karrie now had snot and tears mixed together and drying on her face. I was thinking a bath was a good idea.
"C"mon, let"s get you a bath," I said, reaching over to pick her up and carry her to the bathroom. She flailed in my arms, kicking me in the b.o.o.b in the process.
"Son of aa." I yelled, just as my phone rang again.
I put Karrie on the couch and walked back through the kitchen and out on to the back porch. I left the door open so I could still hear her, as could the neighbors I was sure, but I needed air.
"What?" I asked angrily into the phone.
"Hey, babe," Judd said. He sounded really happy, which made me feel even more resentful.
"I can"t go out, Judd."