Operation Pucker Up by Rachele Alpine

Author:Rachele Alpine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

CHAPTER

Twenty-Three

DAD WAS IN THE DRIVEWAY when I got off the bus at the end of the day. The trunk of his big silver car was open and he carried a bunch of clothes on hangers. My heart dropped and I felt all dizzy, like I couldn’t stand up any longer. I had seen this before, and it could only mean one thing.

“You’re leaving again?” I asked softly, because sometimes it was easier to say the hard things quietly. When you spoke them loud enough that everyone could hear, it seemed so much more real. I couldn’t believe it. How could he do this again? Had we done something wrong?

“Oh, honey, no,” Dad said. He put the shirts down and rushed over to me. He wrapped his arms around me and I pulled away at first, but then fit myself into him. The hug was both comfortable and unfamiliar at the same time. I tried hard to remember what it felt like to hug him and feel nothing but love and security. He finally pulled away and stooped down so we were on the same level. “I’m moving out of my apartment. The lease is up, and I need to empty the place out of all my stuff. That’s what these shirts are.”

“When I saw you with all your stuff, I thought . . .” I felt my throat clench up and stared up at the sky. I watched a bird do circles over the trees. I didn’t want him to see that I was about to cry. I needed to be strong for Mom and Claire. I needed him to understand he couldn’t do things like this to us.

Dad bent down in front of me so he was at my level. “Grace, I’m not going anywhere,” he said, his voice taking on the serious tone he used to use when he and Mom would have their late-night talks. Conversations that were only murmurs from their bedroom, their voices rising and falling. In the beginning, I’d knock on their door and ask if everything was okay. That was before I learned things were not okay at all, even if Mom and Dad smiled and said they were.

“Please don’t leave us again,” I told him.

“I’m here to stay. You don’t need to worry about that anymore.”

“I want to believe you,” I said. “But it’s so hard.”

I watched as Dad’s eyes lost their brightness and filled with sadness. He wrapped his arms around me again, and I held on to him with all my might. I hoped he was telling the truth, and not just for Mom and Claire, but for me, too.

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