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“Don’t ain? Don’t traumatize us both I don’t want to pass by and see you in your skivvies any more than you want me to… or worse, for Hammer to catch you”

I a like hell she listens Last tiht off the fra e she calls music

Within seconds, I hear her feet sto over There is a click, a turn of the knob, and thenat me The doora teenager, I have learned to celebrate every win, no matter how small

“Brooke, what the fuck have I told you about yourladies shouldn’t cuss! It makes you sound like a damn delinquent” I chastise for her mouth when she first walked in She was supposed to be at an afterschool study group Teenagers, never following their damn schedules

“Yeah, Dad, real good speech you’re givin’ Father of the year material, you are”

“Don’t you get s on deaf ears, not that I should be surprised My ets her stubbornness from me

“Anyways”—her tone is just as sharp as before—“now that you’ve kicked the dog out, what are we doin’ for dinner?”

That is Brooke: hter, my life, my world, and my eternal pain in the ass If her s would be different Maybe Only I don’t have time to play should-a, could-a, would-a inher on my own

Erin, Brooke’sand duive a second thought to plans for the future Condoms were preached to us, birth control, all that Yet, when the tiave a second thought to all that shit people had lectured us about

When the little stick showed a pink line, I puked and Erin cried Her parents iot past it With no job, no education, and nowhere to go, she moved in with my mom and me

Myup to help us in every way she could, she worked two jobs to cover daycare costs and then spent hts up with baby Brooke so Erin and I could study or do hoh school It wasn’t easy, but we raduated and joined the Arot married

Leaving Erin and a barely one-year-old Brooke behind was hard; yet I was focused on having a career to support us, not only a paycheck Myout with Brooke as I was now gone more than I was ho even harder, but havingI developed pride in myself, pride in ether with? Naïve? Yes, I was However, drive, dedication, and coh the realities of my situation