The Milestone Tapes (31 page)

“Bad, huh?” Mia nodded stoically, swirling her straw around the melting ice in her coke.

“Not bad, but definitely private. It’s a personal thing ... relationships, I mean ... sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t—but that isn’t my story to tell you,” Gabe tried to explain. It was the same answer he’d given Kris when she’d questioned him about Mia, the personal stuff was what belonged to Mia.

“But she’s cool, right?”

“Absolutely. Very, very cool. Smart, you’ll think she’s funny, and she takes amazing pictures; her eye for that stuff is pretty incredible. Oh, and she likes to shop ... just like someone else I know.” Gabe raised his brows, finding the common ground.

“You really like her?”

“Yes, I really do. She’s my friend, but she means a lot to me, and you two should get to know each other.”

“Don’t you think she’s too ... you know, young?” Mia asked.

“When you get older, honey, age doesn’t mean as much as it does when you’re younger and starting out. Eventually you become an adult, and you meet another adult, and you’re both established and suddenly the difference in age isn’t so … so … glaring. You’re all kind of in the same place, working, living, paying bills ... it’s a wash, everybody is sort of equal.”

“But she’s like ...way, way younger.” Mia squished her nose up. The sixteen age difference was hard for a sixteen year old to understand, it was her entire life.

“It sounds bigger than it is.” Gabe nodded, signaling for the check over Mia’s shoulder.

“Can I ask you something and you can’t blow it off?” Mia asked quietly.

“Of course, honey, you can ask me whatever you’d like.” Gabe took the final swallow of his wine and waited.

“Are you two serious?”

Mia was insightful. Much like Jenna, and yet it still surprised Gabe. He should have known better than to decoy their relationship under the guise of friendship, but he didn’t want Mia to feel excluded, like she had missed something important and life changing.

“We’re friends,” Gabe allowed.

“Dad, you promised ... ” Mia folded her napkin and fixed her eyes on him.

“Yes, I guess we are.”

“How serious?”

“Serious enough that I want you to meet her, that your liking her is very important to me ... ”

“And if I like her, are we moving to Seattle or something?” Worry creased the spot between Mia’s brows into a tight furrow.

“Absolutely not.” Gabe didn’t even have to think about the answer, he’d never considered leaving Port Angeles, never considered uprooting Mia now and taking her to the city. That ship had sailed. If it was ever a possibility, it had long since passed. When Mia left Port Angeles, it would be because that was her time to go. She could leave for college, or to chase a dream, but Gabe could not imagine being the one to make the decision to leave this place.

“Are you sure?” Mia asked, suddenly feeling like things were spinning outside of her control, imagining a moving truck and cardboard boxes and hugging Ginny for the last time. Tears stung like bees behind her eyes.

“One hundred percent sure, honey.” Gabe laid a small stack of bills inside a leather folio and locked eyes with Mia. “Why don’t we talk about this in the car, okay?” Gabe gathered his coat and helped Mia shrug into hers.

The rain pelted their faces as they walked quickly towards the sleek black Mercedes parked on the street. Haloed in the harshly florescent light of the street lamp, it glowed a glossy hue lit up with droplets of rain.

“Is Kris moving here?” Mia implored before Gabe had even turned the engine over.

“You’re putting the cart before the horse. This is just the start. If things get to that point, we’ll all make that choice together, and you’ll have your say, same as always.”

“I want you tell me the truth, Dad,” Mia snuggled down into the warm, dry leather. “You’re telling me she’s friend, but it obviously something more.”

“Oh Mia, it’s complicated and I want to ease you in ... this is ... new, for both of us—for all three of us, actually.” Gabe pulled the car out onto the road and concentrated on the slick black pavement.

“The truth, Dad, come on. I’m not some little kid, if you love this woman then I have the right to know!”

“I’ve told you the truth, honey,” Gabe reminded her. “She’s my friend ... I like her a lot, and I want you to get to know her as well, that’s all this is right now.”

Mia glared hard out the windshield as the small town whipped by.

“Dad?”

“Yes, honey?”

“Have you always dated a lot?” Mia was suddenly curious.

“Off and on over the years, honestly. Nothing serious. But I’ve seen some women.” Gabe nodded, squeezing the steering wheel.

“Oh.”

“Does that bother you, Mia?”

“I don’t know. Yes and no. I guess I always suspected as much, I just wish you had told me,” Mia answered honestly, the words catching in her throat.

“I’m sorry.” It was all Gabe could think of to say. He wasn’t sure how to explain the balance he’d tried to construct for them all, how he felt like—for a long time—he was being an unfaithful husband, an unfaithful father. How he wanted to move on with his life, but how he wanted Mia to stay her course. It was the balance of polar fields, magnets of the same charge being forced together.

“Are you going to marry Kris? Is that why I’m meeting her now?”

“I don’t know, Mia. I love her, that’s the truth. But, then again, you’re getting older ...I think you’re mature enough to handle and understand what happens between a man and a woman, no matter where that relationship goes. So it was more about this being the right time than anything else, hon.”

“Okay, so let’s get this laid out ... Kris is your girlfriend, and you love her. You may or may not want to marry her someday, and because I’m not a little kid anymore, it’s time to bring me in?” Mia checked off the Cliff Notes of what the evening had revealed.

“Yes.”

“Okay, I can live with that.” Mia nodded.

“So, is it my turn for questions?” Gabe asked, pulled the car under the sweeping car port and turning the engine off.

“Sure, whatcha want to know?” Mia slid out the door and walked towards the side entrance of the house into the mud room.

“Tell me about your friend ...” Gabe asked, hanging his coat up on a peg and wandering into the kitchen.

“Bryan? Well, let’s see,” Mia slipped onto a bar stool and rested her chin in her hands. “He’s very nice,” she said, laughing at how similar a conversation they were having, how they were using the same adjectives even.

“Nice?” Gabe raised his eye brows as he filled a glass with water and leaned against the kitchen counter.

“Very. He’s popular. Oh, and his best friend is Sarah’s boyfriend, so that’s fun. But you’ve met him, you know all of that stuff.” Mia shrugged and plucked a grape of the bunch in the fruit bowl, letting the irony run between them.

“And how are you going to work this college?” Gabe took a long sip, the ice cubes clinked against the glass loudly.

“Seattle U isn’t far. I can drive up on the weekend and his family still lives here. Did you know he wants to be a teacher? Actually, he teaches that Super Hero program at the Callam County Y,” Mia volunteered.

“Nice,” Gabe nodded his approval.

He knew Barb and Gene Devon, Bryan’s parents. They were good people, salt of the Earth folks with a gaggle of children, and a prefab, small box home by Ginny. All of that he approved of, Bryan—in theory—he approved of, but Mia was only sixteen, his baby girl, and their budding relationship gave him pause. Kris had laughed at him when he voiced his concern over tuna steak the other night; she used words like “normal” and “expected.”

“He’s a good guy, Dad. So, you kind of need to back off a little,” Mia hinted at the idea of a little more freedom. “I’m sixteen, and I’m not dumb, I am actually a pretty good judge of character—thank you for that trait, by the way—so if I say, Bryan’s coming over and we’re going on a walk ... just let it be, okay?”

“Mia ...”

“No, Dad, no “Mia.” You want me be honest with you, and accept the changes you’re proposing ... Well, my friend, that street runs both ways.” She held up her hand in protest, and pushed two fingers together demonstrating her theory.

Gabe pursed his lips watching Mia cautiously. “I’ll try,” he finally agreed.

“Try hard, Dad. And I’ll try hard, too.” Mia smiled Gabe, plopping another grape into her mouth.

“All right, I’m beat,” Gabe yawned loudly, setting his glass in the sink and rubbing his hands over his stomach. “I’m gonna get some sleep. Not to late Mia, you have school tomorrow.” he wandered over and kissed her on the crown of her head, “love you, girl.”

“Love you too, Dad.” Mia wrapped her arm around his side and squeezed him tightly.

Mia watched her father amble towards his bedroom. It suddenly dawned on her that she was happy for him. She’d watched her father go to bed alone every night, eat meals alone, worry about life alone. She had never considered him lonely, but being with Bryan had awakened her to another side of things, the side that was better with someone else. Someone you connected to, someone who understood what you were saying, and someone who got you. Maybe it wasn’t the same level, but it felt human all the same.

Suddenly, Mia knew she wanted to talk to Bryan, to tell him all about her dinner with her dad, to tell him her realization. She flitted into her room, grabbing her cell which was charging beside her bed. She scrolled down her saved favorites and found his number, hitting the send button. She listened to trilling on the other end.

“Mia?” Bryan’s voice broke off the ring, it was breathy and sexy, she felt her stomach pinch with desire, she wanted to kiss him.

“Hi! I’m just calling to say ... hi.” She laughed at how silly that sounded, “How’s everything?”

“Can you meet me?” Bryan sounded strange, an urgent a tone she’d never heard before.

“My Dad’s home—” Mia began.

“It’s important, we need to talk, please ... meet me.”

Mia’s blood ran cold. He sounded distant, distracted, she watched enough television to know what talks usually meant. “Oh, Bry, I can’t ... ” She didn’t want to go there with him now, she was happy, just a few more minutes of happiness.

“Please, Mia ... ten minutes, you’ll be back in bed by midnight, I promise.” His tone was pleading, and important.

“Okay, can you come here? Meet me on the trailhead?” Mia offered, if this was bad—and she thought it was going to be bad—the closer to home she was, the better.

“Sure, of course, I’ll be there five. Wait for me.” The line went dead. Mia clicked the end button and slid off her bed onto the floor, pulling her knees up to her chest, feeling a hole of dread rip inside her. Her mouth tasted like fear.

She slipped on her leather loafers and tipped toed out the door towards the edge of the woods. This was their place, where they snuck off to be alone. She heard him trudge up the path from the small parking lot that would disguise his car noise and keep his arrival secret.

“Mia?” he whispered, reaching her, pulling her close and pressing his lips to hers hard. Her head swam, light sparks flashed behind her eyes and she melted into him easily.

“You sounded ... bad ... what’s going on?” She forced herself to concentrate, pulling her fear back to the surface.

“Mia ... I ... I love you.” Bryan took her face in his hands, looking deeply into her eyes.

“You ... love ... me?” Mia spaced the words out slowly, making room for them in her head, wrapping her mind around what that meant and how that made her feel.

“I do, I love you. I was thinking about it all day, and I realized it, I love you ... so much. I can’t stop thinking about you, I always want to be with you, you’re everything to me—I love you,” he kissed her again, softer this time, letting the kisses trail from her lips to her neck, up the path to her ears, the tender spot behind them, across the plains of her cheeks, her eyes, her forehead.

“Bryan ...” Mia wrapped her arms around his waist, burrowing her face into his chest. “I love you, too.” The words slipped from her lips, sweetly and softly without consciously thinking them, as a natural as breathing. “Very much.”

“Oh, Mia!” Bryan kissed her again. He was celebrating.

“I thought you were going to end this.” Mia wagged her finger at the space between them, as if the inches apart encompassed their relationship.

“What? No! No way. Why? Why would you think that?” Bryan took a step back, his face numbed with disbelief.

“Well, there was that phone call ...you were pretty urgent ...” Mia explained, the fear she felt was almost comical now, silly, she was so excited, so in love, she wanted to dance. Suddenly all the musicals and love songs and stories made sense.

“Oh, I didn’t even think! No, no, no. I was just nervous, I didn’t want to lose my nerve. I kept telling myself, if she calls me tonight—no matter what—I’m just gonna tell her ... and then you called, and I knew I had to say it to your face, ’cause I love you and that’s a big deal!” Bryan’s face broken into a triumphant smile.

“I should probably get back home, no telling what my Dad will do if he finds out I left.” Mia stifled a yawn with her hand.