Worth the Drive

by Mara Jacobs

  And just why was this father feeding his daughter so late, anyway? Katie had a momentary pang for the mother who would be getting back a hyped up daughter well past her bedtime later on this evening. But then, Katie didn’t know the circumstances that surrounded this broken family.

  She wondered how many single-parent mistakes she’d make out of necessity or just to keep her sanity. She decided to cut this father a little slack.

  “Oh. Daycare, that’s right. Of course.” The father seemed disturbed that he hadn’t realized how his daughter spent her days during summer vacation. Katie’s heart thawed even more toward the father. There was no bad guy here, just a bad situation.

  Katie and Darío’s food arrived, and they were again spared the need to speak to each other. Their silence was almost comfortable by now, certainly familiar, and the pizza was good. Moments later, Peaches’ pizza and her father’s burger arrived and their table fell into a hushed silence broken only by slurps of Peaches’ straw.

  Both tables ate with deliberation, as if they didn’t want the meal to end. Katie knew it wasn’t because of the food – excellent as it was. For her part, she stalled while eating dinner because she didn’t want to hear why Darío was here, in the Copper Country. He said he’d come with papers of his own for her to sign. She couldn’t really blame him. He’d had some time to think about the situation, cool down after the initial bomb she’d dropped on him in Memphis, realized that marriage was indeed out of the question, and had come up with an agreement of his own. Instinctively, she knew it would be more than fair, and that she would probably sign it. She knew Darío would want to do the honorable thing by his child, his announcement about marriage had proven that, but common sense would prevail. He’d obviously seen that, in their case, honorable did not necessarily mean marriage.

  When their table had been cleared and the suspense was near killing Katie, she began, “Darío, I think I know why you’re here, and…” she stopped when she realized he was not paying attention to her, but had once again turned his head to Peaches’ table.

  Katie, happy for the reprieve, looked to see Peaches alone at the table, the father’s back disappearing down the hallway leading to the restrooms. But Peaches was talking. To herself.

  She was nervously twisting her napkin beyond the point of recognition, the paper shredding about her place setting. Katie noticed several other napkins had also received the same fate and were littered across Peaches’ side of the table. Katie leaned a little to her right to be able to hear what the girl was saying to herself.

  “You see, Dad. I really need a new pair of sneakers. And um…” she stopped, seemed to rethink her opening, and tried again. “Dad, it’s been almost a year since I got the shoes I’m wearing, and,” she stopped again. Peaches shook her little head, dismissing this latest try. Her hair lightly slapped her face as she shook and a clump of strands lodged in her open mouth, which she summarily began to chew on as she thought of her next approach.

  Katie looked under the table and noticed the girl’s shoes. They were indeed worn. They were also Nikes. Katie wondered why, if money was such a problem would the girl would be wearing Nikes? She then remembered that the father was dressed very fashionably and expensively as well, and thought that maybe the rehearsing of a request for shoes wasn’t about money at all, but about not being able to communicate with your father.

  Katie felt a chill go through her and instinctively placed her hand on her abdomen. She looked across at Darío and saw a questioning look on his face. He knew something was wrong with Peaches’ situation, he just hadn’t come to the conclusion that Katie did.

  “Daddy, my shoes…” Peaches trailed off again. Katie, being a journalist and having a way with words, wanted to jump in and help the kid out, but the father was headed back to the table.

  “Ready to go, Peaches?” he asked as he started reaching for his wallet with one hand and the check with the other.

  “Um, yeah, I guess,” she said.

  The father looked at his daughter’s empty glass and empty plate, but didn’t seem to notice the shredded napkins or the anxious look on his daughter’s face. He saw his daughter was making no move to leave. “Did you want some dessert, honey?” he asked.

  “No. I mean, no thank you.”

  Katie smiled at the girl’s remembrance of good manners. The kid was tied up in knots, but caught herself on the thank yous.

  “Um, Daddy…” she tried. She had her father’s attention. He watched and waited patiently, trying to help her with the words, but he didn’t know what they were.

  “Yes, honey, what is it?”

  “Um…”

  Katie and Darío squirmed in their seats, feeling as uncomfortable for so obviously eavesdropping as they felt for the father and daughter next to them. As if both realizing they were staring, they looked at each other, but their ears were tuned to Peaches and her father.

  “Did you get enough to eat?” The father’s concern was genuine. He seemed to pick up on his daughter’s unease. He wanted to help her, he just didn’t know what she needed.

  “Yeah. I mean, yes, thank you. Um…you see,” she had turned her voice to the sales pitch voice she’d been practicing while her father was away. “Um…” Her green eyes stared at her father. He looked back at her, waiting, a sympathetic look on his face.

  Katie saw the moment the girl gave up. Her shoulders slumped. She reached for a clump of hair and began to chew it again. “The pizza was really good, Daddy, thanks. I’m ready to go, now.”

  Katie watched as the father struggled with the decision to push his daughter into telling him what was wrong or to let it go. He looked bewildered and Katie’s heart, though none too pro-man on this day, went out to him. She saw nearly the same body movements of defeat come over the father that had just come over Peaches. All except the hair chewing.

  “Okay, Peaches, let’s get you home to your mother, then.”

  Katie watched them leave then turned to Darío, finally ready to hear what he had to say. Anything to take her mind off the heartbreaking scene she’d just witnessed.

  “Do you think they can not afford new shoes?” Darío asked. “Do you know that family? Could we perhaps get the shoes for the little girl without their knowledge?”

  Katie’s throat clenched with emotion. She took a long swallow of her water and waited for it to pass. She wasn’t sure if it would ever completely pass. She sensed that with impending motherhood she was destined to have her heart broken and then mended, daily.

  “I don’t think it was about the money for the shoes. She was wearing expensive shoes and clothes and so was he.”

  Darío nodded, he’d apparently noticed the same thing. “So…?” he asked. Katie knew he was looking for an easy answer as to what had just happened, but she didn’t have one.

  “I think…” she hesitated, choosing her words carefully. “I think she just doesn’t know how to talk to her father. Not beyond ‘yes please’ and ‘thank you’.”

  Darío continued nodding, his face drawn. His forehead, so tan until the top three inches where his hat rested while he golfed, was furrowed; much like Peaches’ had been when she’d been mustering up her courage. “And the father?”

  “I’m pretty sure it’s a divorce situation. Apparently, he can’t read his daughter any better than she can communicate with him.” Katie breathed deeply, took another sip of water and placed her hands on the table, as if to steady them. “It’s very sad.”

  Darío looked into her eyes, placed a large, dark hand on top of hers and said, “It is too sad, Katie. That must not happen to our child. That must not ever be our daughter.”

  As Katie moved to answer, Darío cut her off with a soft squeeze of her hand under his. “Please, Gata, don’t let me ever be that father. Not knowing what his daughter needs. Only able to watch helplessly.”

  It wasn’t fair. It should be Ron’s child growing inside her. It should have been her child Ron pushed in the cart at the grocery store. And it shou
ld be easy for Peaches to ask her dad for gym shoes.

  But life was not fair.

  Or maybe it was. She was, after years of wishing and dreaming, going to become a mother. Maybe life was fair, just twisted.

  Katie nodded, knowing she would do whatever it took to never put her child in the position of rehearsing a simple request of her father.

  “I’m going on Tour with Darío,” Katie said.

  She waited for Lizzie and Alison’s reactions. When she got none, she hurried on. “In fact, he’s meeting me here in a half hour, but I wanted to have a chance to tell you guys alone first. So you can tell me if I’m making the biggest mistake of my life or not.”

  They were at the Commodore, in their usual booth. She’d told them of Darío’s unexpected arrival the day before, of Peaches’ saga and how when they got back to Katie’s house they’d talked for hours and come up with a plan. Then Darío had spent the night in the hotel across the street from the Commodore.

  “Go on, tell us everything before we can tell you what we think,” Lizzie said.

  “First, let me say how amazing it was to talk this out with him. When I went to Memphis and he shot me down, I thought it’d be like Ron all over again. Well, no, not like Ron, he and I ignored our problems, Darío just dismissed them. At the time I thought it was the same thing, but he was just caught off-guard. Once he had time to digest the situation we were able to sit and talk this whole thing out. I tell you, it was pretty refreshing to hash out a problem with a man for hours.

  “I’ll travel with him until my sixth month. The doctor said travel until then would be fine, plus I’ll be getting tons of good exercise walking the course during rounds. That gives us just over three months to get to know each other better. We agreed not to bring up legal papers or rights or visitation or anything like that for the entire time. When I get to six months, hopefully we can decide how to proceed, whether I’ll live here and Darío will buy a home in Hancock so he can spend time with the baby.”

  “Or what?” Alison asked. “What’s the alternative to you staying in Hancock? We just got Lizard back up here, don’t tell me we’re going to lose you?”

  “Well, he said he was still going to try to convince me to marry him, so that’s an option.”

  Lizzie piped in, “You say ‘that’s an option’ like marriage is just another choice for dinner. ‘Well, honey, there’s roast beef, chicken or, I suppose we could get married’.”

  Katie placed a hand on Lizzie’s arm, “Lizard, you’re in a great marriage. I thought I was too once upon a time. Truth is, maybe marriage should be looked upon more like a business agreement than a love match.”

  “You can’t mean that,” Lizzie said.

  Katie shrugged. “What’s that saying? First time marry for love, second time marry for companionship.”

  “I thought it was second time marry for money,” Alison said.

  “I thought it was for friendship,” Lizzie added.

  Katie waved them both away. “Whatever. Anyway, I had my marriage for love, and it was lovely.” She saw Alison opening her mouth and cut her off. “For most of it anyway.” Alison raised her eyebrows, but kept silent. “But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. I can’t marry a man who feels about me the way he does right now. Not to mention I barely know the man.”

  Alison took a sip of her drink. “Oh, I don’t know, apparently you know him pretty well if that bun in your oven is any indication.”

  Katie only laughed as Lizzie chastised Alison with a look. “That’s what’s so weird about it. Like last night. When he was leaving to go to the hotel,” she stopped at both Lizzie and Alison’s questioning glances. “Yes, hotel. He’d already checked in before he came to see me. I liked that he didn’t assume. So, anyway, he goes to leave and it was like a first date. Should we kiss? Handshake? Kiss on the cheek? I mean, we’re having a baby together and we didn’t know how to say goodnight.”

  “So what happened?” Lizzie asked.

  Katie ducked her head, her face flushing with the memory. “He kissed me on both cheeks.” It had sent heat through her at the time as well.

  “How very European,” Lizzie teased.

  Alison, ever practical, asked, “What about your job?”

  “I talked with Don a long time today. We talked about a leave of absence, but we came up with something else. So I can stay on staff and keep my benefits, I’ll file a story or two each week while I’m gone. Sort of a slice of life thing from the Tour. We’re not sure if it will be more travel-oriented or sports-oriented. We’re going to talk about it more tomorrow, nail out the details before Darío and I head out on Monday. He was great about it, even with no notice.”

  Katie had hated doing that to Don, he’d been so good to her at the Ingot, but he’d been very understanding. They were more than boss and worker. They were friends, and Don knew what this pregnancy meant to Katie. She’d take her laptop on the road with her and be in constant touch with Don about different story ideas.

  The thought of doing some writing other than obits and wedding announcements stirred Katie with an excitement about her job she hadn’t felt in years.

  “Okay, back to Darío,” Lizzie said.

  Katie waited. She knew her friends would support whatever decision she made, but she also knew that they’d certainly voice their opinions with no problem.

  “Did he make any demands about a paternity test?”

  “Not really demands. I explained we could do blood tests after the baby was born, but the only thing we could do while the baby was in-utero was an amnio and I wasn’t prepared to do that. There’s a risk it could hurt the baby and I’m not going to take that chance for something we can find out right after the baby’s born. Something I know for certain, anyway.”

  “And he was okay with that?”

  Katie nodded. “He agreed that we’d wait till after the baby was born before we’d even discuss paternity tests.”

  “You said he showed up with papers for you to sign, what was in them?” Alison asked.

  Katie shook her head. “I don’t know. I never ended up reading them. At the end of our talk, Darío took his papers and the set I’d taken to Memphis for him to sign and tore them up. Then he held out his hand and said, ‘This should be our agreement alone. No lawyers, no judges.’ I shook on it. That’s all he needed. For now.”

  Alison and Lizzie both looked dumbfounded. “Are you kidding? A handshake? Wow. And you trust him?”

  Katie sipped on her water and took a bite of pizza, all the while thinking. “I know it’s crazy. But yeah, I trust him. I know he’ll never go back on his word. That’s why I allowed him to tear up the papers. That he wanted to tear up the papers says a lot, because, the thing is, he doesn’t trust me, not yet, not completely. I think a part of him still thinks I trapped him.”

  Lizzie waved that away. “That’s preposterous. Not in a million years would you have guessed you’d get pregnant that night.”

  “We know that…” Katie left the sentence unfinished.

  Alison leaned forward, and Katie went on guard for the question she was about to ask. “So, if you think he doesn’t trust you, why are you willing to have just a handshake deal?”

  Katie met Alison head on, knowing she couldn’t hide from her psychologist friend. “Because in the next three months, I’m going to make him trust me.”

  “That’s important to you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  Katie sat back in her seat, put her hands on the table, fingers clasped together. She looked at her two best friends in the world. Women she’d shared everything with since kindergarten. She gave them the only answer she had. “Because he’s the father of my child.”

  Chapter Twelve

  I don’t like watching golf on TV. I can’t stand whispering.

  - David Brenner, comedian

  Darío walked into the Commodore and immediately saw Katie and her friends. It was as if he sensed her more than saw her. He’d had th
e same feeling in Memphis when she’d walked in his gallery. He was drawn to her by some invisible force.

  She threw her head back and laughed at something one of the women across from her said. Even across the entire restaurant her golden beauty was obvious.

  The knot that had been in his stomach all day eased at the sight of her.

  Actually, it has eased greatly last night when they’d made their decision.

  Katie was going on Tour with him. She was giving him a chance. Was giving them a chance to perhaps become a family. Something he had never been a part of. Not really. He wouldn’t trade his mother for the world, but it had always just been the two of them. They were more of a team than a family.

  He honestly didn’t think this day would come, he’d certainly never gone looking for it. But he was about to have a family of his own. And he was going to try like hell to make sure his family stayed together, that he was a part of the decisions being made about his child and its future. He’d make sure his child never felt the awkwardness that Peaches had felt last night with her own father.

  He’d spent most of the day thinking about her as he drove around the area where Katie lived. The Copper Country consisted of mainly Hancock, where Katie had grown up and still lived, Calumet, where they’d gone for dinner last night, and Houghton, which was home to the University.

  In some ways, the area reminded him of the small town in Spain he’d grown up in and where he still resided when not traveling. Houghton was quaint, with just one main thoroughfare, and only one stoplight that Darío had seen.

  Water was everywhere, from the man-made canal that divided Houghton and Hancock, to Lake Superior, just twelve miles from the Hancock city limits. Darío loved water, had grown up around it, and although he knew Lake Superior was a fresh water lake, it could easily pass for an ocean. He found himself lonesome for the Bay of Biscay near his home. He’d stayed at the lake for hours this afternoon as he thought about Peaches and Katie and his unborn child.