Totally freaked me out. I thought she had cancer or something. When she had said Barry had proposed, she had looked nauseated with worry. But I had been so happy I had screamed and hugged her, repeating, “I’m going to get a dad. Wow. I’m really getting a dad.” Okay, yes, I already had a dad. But he’d been dead for thirteen years. His name had been Daniel. I was three when it happened, so I don’t remember him. At all. Mom says I was a major daddy’s girl, and I like to think that was true as a way to, you know, apologize to him for completely forgetting his face, and his voice, and his smell, and all that. Still, the idea of a living dad had totally excited me. And I hadn’t been upset about Mom remarrying at all. It had been pretty much a relief, actually. I’d been wickedly concerned about her since I started high school when college suddenly loomed ahead. Soon, I’d be moving out and heading off to some university, and Mom would be left all alone. That just wasn’t acceptable.
