That First Special Kiss

“I was in a serious car accident more than a year ago. The limp is what remains after two operations and six weeks of hospitalization.”

Her father grimaced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“No. You wouldn’t, would you?”

A waiter approached the table. “May I bring you something to drink?”

“I’ll have a margarita. Kelly?”

“Just water, please.”

The waiter nodded toward their untouched menus. “I’ll be back soon with your drinks. I’ll take your orders when you’re ready.”

When they were alone again, Jack made an ineffectual motion with his hands. “Are you still in any pain from your injuries?”

“No.” She saw no need to mention the discomfort she felt after overexertion, or when the weather turned cold and damp.

“That’s good. So...you’re a college student?”

“A graduate student. I’ll have my masters degree soon.”

“What’s your major?”

“Communication disorders.”

He nodded. “Sounds like a good field to get into. I’d imagine there’s a demand for good therapists.”

“I enjoy it.”

An awkward silence followed. Their drinks arrived and Jack took a sip of his margarita, waving the waiter away. “We’ll let you know when we’re ready to order.”

“Take your time, sir.”

Jack set his drink on the table and rested his elbows on either side of it. His eyes focused on Kelly’s face. “Okay, let’s have it. I expect you’ve got a few things you’d like to say to me.”

She sipped her water, grateful that her hand was steady when she set the glass down. “You called this meeting. I assumed you were the one with something to say.”

“You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”

She didn’t smile in response to his wry tone. “Why should I?”

“I’ll resist saying ‘because I’m your father’”

Kelly’s finger tightened on the water glass. “Good call.”

He sighed. “I know you’re angry with me, and you have every reason to be. I haven’t been a father to you, Kelly.”

“No. I was orphaned nearly eleven years ago, when my mother died after a long, terrible illness.”

“I talked to your mother several times when she was ill. She assured me you were being raised in a good home, by a nice family.”

Kelly was startled. She hadn’t known her parents had spoken after her mother became ill. “I was placed in a foster home. It wasn’t a family. There was a good-hearted, but rather strict, widow who took in foster children like boarders to supplement her income. She was good to me. I was well fed, well-groomed, and well cared for. But I had no family.”

Jack looked somberly down at his hands. “That isn’t what I was led to believe about your situation. Your mother implied that you had practically been adopted by a loving family.”

Kelly suspected that it had been her mother’s pride that had compelled her to embellish Kelly’s circumstances. She would not have wanted her ex-husband to think she hadn’t provided well for the child she’d been forced to raise alone. “So because you thought I’d been taken in by another family, you saw no need to contact me in any way? Not for any of my birthdays or Christmases or graduations? Not even when my mother died?”

“I have no excuse for my absence from your life,” Jack answered flatly. “I was never cut out to be a father. I tried to tell Greta that, but she never understood. She was miserable in Germany, desperate to come to this country. I was her ticket here. Our marriage didn’t last long, but I thought I’d given her what she wanted—a home in the U.S. A child.”