Page 242 - My FlipBook

L IS A J. L A W R E N C E

“Yes. Every year.” He shrank smaller in his skin, both he
and Roger almost husks now.
“And that one time you picked me up from school in your
boxers, and I got teased so bad that I tried to get expelled so
I wouldn’t have to go back. After that I begged you to let me
take the bus.”
“You never told me that.” He swiveled to look at her.
She nodded, blinking back tears. “Or the time I woke up

in the night and found you’d wandered out in the snow, and I
had to ask the neighbors to help get you back inside. Ringing
doorbells at two in the morning.”
Elgin’s eyebrows knit together, and Greta knew they had
stumbled onto failings he didn’t even remember.
“But at least he never left you,” Ash said, like this tipped
the scale the other way. ADVANCE READING COPY

“He left me in every other way except the physical.
I could reach out and touch him—yes—but that doesn’t mean
he was with me.”
Elgin looked like he’d been struck. “I’m sorry, Alice. I will
always be sorry for that. I hope I can make it up to you.” He
struggled to collect himself, not sure where to look now. “My
point is, Ash and Greta, that even people who love you make
mistakes—terrible mistakes—and disappoint and embarrass
you. But if you can see some good in me, a flawed person, can

you also see it in your father?”
Silence. Eyes traveled from face to face. Ash deflated to
his normal size, his face drooping, followed by his shoulders.
Greta looked back and forth between Roger and Ash. Yes. Part

232