The back door opened just before eleven.<\/p>\n
I heard Kaylee come inside, set her bag down, and kick off her shoes.<\/p>\n
She appeared in the kitchen wearing her warmup jacket, her blonde braid half undone.<\/p>\n
She looked tired, but happy.<\/p>\n
"You're both still up?"<\/p>\n
"Apparently," I said.<\/p>\n
She pulled out a chair and sat down.<\/p>\n
"Everyone keeps sending me videos from tonight."<\/p>\n
Travis looked at her.<\/p>\n
"What videos?"<\/p>\n
"Grandpa walking across the court."<\/p>\n
She laughed.<\/p>\n
"Somebody posted it, and now people keep sharing it."<\/p>\n
I smiled.<\/p>\n
"Your grandpa doesn't even know how to use Facebook."<\/p>\n
"I know. That's the best part."<\/p>\n
She took a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water.<\/p>\n
Then she glanced toward the rose.<\/p>\n
"Did Grandpa give you that?"<\/p>\n
Travis nodded.<\/p>\n
"He did."<\/p>\n
Kaylee looked at him for a moment.<\/p>\n
Then she moved her chair closer and sat on his knee.<\/p>\n
I hadn't seen her do that since she was a little girl.<\/p>\n
At five feet ten inches tall, she barely fit.<\/p>\n
She had to shift sideways to get comfortable, and one of her legs stuck out awkwardly beside the chair.<\/p>\n
Travis adjusted his arm around her.<\/p>\n
Neither of them laughed about how ridiculous the arrangement looked.<\/p>\n
He simply held her.<\/p>\n
She rested her head against his shoulder.<\/p>\n
For a while, nobody spoke.<\/p>\n
Then Kaylee lifted her face.<\/p>\n
"Travis, I wasn't angry because you said no."<\/p>\n
He looked at her.<\/p>\n
"I was hurt because I thought you didn't want to walk with me."<\/p>\n
His expression changed.<\/p>\n
"Kay, I always wanted to."<\/p>\n
"Then why didn't you say yes?"<\/p>\n
He glanced toward the rose.<\/p>\n
"I was afraid."<\/p>\n
"Of what?"<\/p>\n
He took a breath.<\/p>\n
"That someday you'd tell me I wasn't really your dad."<\/p>\n
Kaylee stared at him.<\/p>\n
For a moment, she looked as though she couldn't believe he'd said it.<\/p>\n
Then she began asking questions.<\/p>\n
"Who taught me how to braid my hair?"<\/p>\n
Travis blinked.<\/p>\n
"I did."<\/p>\n
"Who drove me to volleyball practice when Mom was working?"<\/p>\n
"I did."<\/p>\n
"Who built the practice net in the backyard?"<\/p>\n
"I did."<\/p>\n
She tilted her head.<\/p>\n
"Who came to my games?"<\/p>\n
He gave her a small smile.<\/p>\n
"I tried to."<\/p>\n
"You came to every game you could."<\/p>\n
She said it firmly.<\/p>\n
"Even when we had to drive forever to get there."<\/p>\n
Travis laughed softly.<\/p>\n
"Some of those gyms were a long way away."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
She rested her head against him again.<\/p>\n
"Then why would you think you weren't my dad?"<\/p>\n
He opened his mouth.<\/p>\n
Nothing came out.<\/p>\n
I turned toward the sink, pretending to rinse a glass that was already clean.<\/p>\n
I didn't want to interrupt.<\/p>\n
For nine years, Travis had been deciding what Kaylee might feel about him without asking her.<\/p>\n
Now she was giving him the answer.<\/p>\n
"I thought I was supposed to leave room for Ryan," he said.<\/p>\n
Kaylee lifted her head.<\/p>\n
"Ryan hasn't called me in six years."<\/p>\n
"I know, sweetheart."<\/p>\n
"He didn't come to my confirmation."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
"He doesn't know anything about my life."<\/p>\n
She paused.<\/p>\n
"I don't hate him. But I can't keep waiting for him to decide he wants to be my dad."<\/p>\n
Travis's eyes filled.<\/p>\n
Kaylee took his hand.<\/p>\n
"I wasn't asking you to replace him."<\/p>\n
She looked directly at him.<\/p>\n
"I was asking you because you're the one I wanted."<\/p>\n
He lowered his head.<\/p>\n
"I should have understood that."<\/p>\n
"Yes," she said.<\/p>\n
She didn't pretend otherwise.<\/p>\n
Then she leaned against him again.<\/p>\n
"But you can understand it now."<\/p>\n
He held her tightly.<\/p>\n
I stood at the sink and cried quietly.<\/p>\n
My daughter wasn't asking him to erase her past.<\/p>\n
She wasn't demanding that he promise never to make another mistake.<\/p>\n
She was telling him that she loved him, that she had chosen him, and that she wanted him beside her.<\/p>\n
That should have been enough all along.<\/p>\n
After a few minutes, Kaylee slid off his knee and returned to her chair.<\/p>\n
She examined the rose.<\/p>\n
"Grandpa must really like you."<\/p>\n
Travis smiled.<\/p>\n
"I think he does."<\/p>\n
"He doesn't give things away just because someone asks."<\/p>\n
"No," Travis said. "He doesn't."<\/p>\n
She smiled.<\/p>\n
"Well, he gave it to you."<\/p>\n
Travis looked at the flower.<\/p>\n
"Yes, he did."<\/p>\n
Kaylee yawned and stood.<\/p>\n
"I'm going to bed. I'm exhausted."<\/p>\n
She kissed my cheek.<\/p>\n
Then she squeezed Travis's shoulder.<\/p>\n
"Good night."<\/p>\n
"Good night, Kay."<\/p>\n
She walked upstairs.<\/p>\n
We listened until her footsteps disappeared.<\/p>\n
Travis looked at me.<\/p>\n
"I didn't know she felt that way."<\/p>\n
I sat beside him.<\/p>\n
"She told you tonight."<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
"I should have listened sooner."<\/p>\n
I didn't argue.<\/p>\n
We both knew it was true.<\/p>\n
But I also knew that something important had happened.<\/p>\n
Kaylee had been given the chance to tell him what she wanted.<\/p>\n
And Travis had finally heard her.<\/p>\n
The next morning, Dad called.<\/p>\n
He wanted to know whether we had put the rose in water.<\/p>\n
Travis looked at the flower on the table.<\/p>\n
"Not yet."<\/p>\n
"Well, you'd better do that," Dad replied. "It won't last long sitting out."<\/p>\n
Travis laughed.<\/p>\n
"We'll take care of it."<\/p>\n
Dad asked how Kaylee had been after the celebration.<\/p>\n
I told him she was tired but happy.<\/p>\n
Then he asked to speak to Travis.<\/p>\n
I handed over the phone.<\/p>\n
"Morning, Duane," my husband said.<\/p>\n
"Morning, son."<\/p>\n
Travis looked down at the rose.<\/p>\n
"I wanted to thank you for last night."<\/p>\n
Dad answered without hesitation.<\/p>\n
"She asked me to walk with her. That's what grandfathers do."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
There was a brief pause.<\/p>\n
Then Dad added, "You keep showing up for her."<\/p>\n
Travis nodded.<\/p>\n
"I will."<\/p>\n
They talked for another minute about the farm and the weather.<\/p>\n
Nothing dramatic.<\/p>\n
Nothing that required an apology or another speech.<\/p>\n
When the call ended, Travis trimmed the rose's stem and placed it in a glass jar on the windowsill.<\/p>\n
He moved the jar away from the edge so Mason wouldn't knock it over.<\/p>\n
Then he returned to the kitchen table and began sorting through the papers he'd brought home from work.<\/p>\n
The rose sat in the morning light.<\/p>\n
I looked at it while I made breakfast.<\/p>\n
It wasn't a symbol of a perfect family.<\/p>\n
It was simply a flower my father had carried across a gymnasium and handed to my husband.<\/p>\n
But every time I saw it, I thought about what had happened between them.<\/p>\n
One man had worried for years that he didn't belong.<\/p>\n
Another man had never needed to ask.<\/p>\n
And my daughter had finally made it clear that there was room for both.<\/p>\n
Source: kaylestore.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The back door opened just before eleven. I heard Kaylee come inside, set her bag down, and kick off her shoes. She appeared in the kitchen wearing her warmup jacket, … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sharestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9821,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9809\/revisions\/9821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nClick here to continue reading: PART 8: The Photograph on Our Refrigerator Reminded Me That Love Had Never Been the Problem; Fear Had Kept My Husband From Recognizing His Place<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"