Jack and Nancy were good people. Nice people. A nice house in a nice neighborhood. I vaguely picked up on the stories of how Nancy couldn’t get pregnant, and how Jack had taken a second mortgage on the house to pay for treatments that never seemed to work. So the next logical thing was to take in a punk kid like me. The truth of it all was that I think they did it as a good showing to the big guy upstairs, because they both knew I’d be eighteen soon enough. Then I’d be out of their hair.

Hell, maybe they were using me to get good graces so they could adopt a baby.

Whatever it was, good for them.

They gave me a room with a bed and a TV. They made sure I had three meals a day. Jack even came through on a promise to get me a guitar. It was a pretty nice one too. Had to have cost him a bunch of pennies to do that. But what did I care? It wasn’t my money.

Tonight I had everything worked out perfectly.

Jack had some guys night out thing with people from college. He did it every few weeks. He’d trade in his suit and try to look all cool in a t-shirt and slick his hair back. Nancy would make fun of him but walk him to the front door and kiss him about a hundred times. Strange how watching them kiss made me jealous. Not because I liked Nancy or anything, hell no. I mean, yeah, sure, she was pretty, but she was twice my age and she didn’t fit my type. It was watching two people who loved each other. Two people who wanted to have a family but couldn’t. Yet I was there, the end result of who-knows-what, without a family. I didn’t get why the universe did that shit to people.

Normally Nancy would be home. But tonight she was going out too. She was going to her friend’s house for some wine, cheese, and gossip.

That left me alone. In the big house that would never be mine.

But the whole being alone in the house thing meant nothing to me. That wasn’t the point of my night. The point of the night was something so much more.

Rose was going to be home alone too. Frank took Vivian to some shitty pop concert. And he trusted Rose to be home alone. Which meant I could finally sneak over to her house and be there with her alone. And by being alone, it meant something very special for both of us. I had offered to bring her here. To this really nice house. To the bedroom that was temporarily mine. It was a big room with a big and comfortable bed.

But Rose wanted it to be at her house. Her room. Which I was totally fine with. I didn’t care where my time with Rose was spent. I just wanted her. I just wanted to be near her. The last six months had been super wild. Her father could have kicked me out and away at any time, but he kept things civil with me and set rules that I followed. I knew in my heart that going over there while he wasn’t home probably wasn’t smart… but he never told me not to do it.

Plus, watching Rose break the rules a little for once in her life made me smile.

For the first time in my life I stopped at the mirror in the foyer and looked at myself because I cared how I looked. I wore a faded leather jacket, my hair too long and too messy, but that was me. There was no hiding who I was.

I was ready to have a night we’d both never forget.

I opened the door to leave and froze.

Someone was standing there. It wasn’t Jack or Nancy. It wasn’t Rose or her father.

“Dad…”

* * *

“You going to fucking hug me or what?”

My father stood there in a long sleeved shirt with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. His forearms were covered in random patches of tattoos, many of them not even real pictures. He had a five o’clock shadow and his eyes were heavy. Wrinkles on his forehead. His dark hair fluffy with strands of gray.

“Dad,” I whispered.

“Son.”

“When… how…”

He laughed. He put a hand to my shoulder and squeezed. It hurt. He was the strongest man I’d ever met. Sometimes I envisioned Frank and my father fighting, wondering who would win.

“I got out, son,” he said. “Did my time. Good behavior.”

“So you’re free now?”

“Yeah.”

“So I can come live with you?”

“I don’t know, son,” he said, looking around. “I might want to come live here.”

I smiled. “No. It’s all fake here, Dad.”

“You doing good?”

“I guess. Hey, are you allowed here?”

“No.”

“You can go right back to jail…”

“I needed to see my son,” he said.

It made my heart feel things when he said stuff like that. Normally he was just drunk and angry. Forcing me into one of his moneymaking schemes. Waiting to get caught and tossed back into jail. But he looked different now. Rough, yeah. But clean. Sober.

“They’re not home,” I said.

“I fucking know that,” Dad said. “I know how to scan a house. Let’s get a bite to eat.”

“I can’t.”

“You can’t?”

“I’m going to see Rose.”

“Rose…”

“My… uh…”

What the hell were me and Rose?

“Your girlfriend,” Dad said. “Christ, you’re growing up. Oh, man. I feel old.”

“I’m sorry. I have plans. I can’t break these plans with her.”

Dad raised an eyebrow. “Right. Plans.”

“I want to see you though,” I said. “Shit. Let me…”

“Son, shut up for a second. You go see your girl. Enjoy your night. You bringing her flowers or anything?”

“Flowers? Why?”

“Son, women love flowers,” Dad said.

“Oh. Right.”

Dad took his hand away and dug in his pocket. He took out some cash and put it in my hand. “Stop and get her some flowers. Trust me.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

“Hey. I know you’re not spending the night. So how about we meet up in a couple hours.”

“Yeah?”

“I mean, unless you have a curfew here,” Dad said.

“No,” I said, lying. But I already had a plan. I’d leave a note saying I was at a friend’s house. Jack insisted I have my own cellphone. So they could check in with me. “I can meet up…”

My brain worked hard to plan out the rest of the night.

“Good,” Dad said. “Meet me at nine-thirty. We’ll hit up, uh, Johnny’s.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. My treat, kiddo. We’ll get a good meal and have a good conversation.”

“Can I crash at your place?” I asked eagerly.

“Let’s do this right,” Dad said. “I’ll start making some calls tomorrow and we’ll get this worked out. These people good to you? If so, don’t just run on them.”

“Okay. Fine.”

Dad winked.

I shut the door and we walked down the sidewalk together.

He went one way, I went the other way.

I walked with my heart full and a smile on my face.

Things were coming together, finally.

But I should have known better than to get excited.