Page 91 of The Summer Show
Up in my room, I was finally alone. Temporarily, I knew. Hospitals were for observation, not rest. That meant I had minutes before someone came in to check on me.
I called Dad, not even sure what time it was at home. Didn’t matter. I just needed to hear his voice.
He answered the phone with a sleep drenched “What’s wrong, honey? You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said quickly to reassure him that I wasn’t dead or dying. Now now, anyway, thanks to Nick’s quick thinking. “I just wanted to hear the sounds of home.”
“How is Greece?”
“Hot. Beautiful. The food is amazing. A lot of chickens running around without a chicken herder.”
He laughed. “Did the chickens tell you why they crossed the road?”
“Because they can.” A lump formed in my throat. A sticky thing that refused to budge, even with a hard swallow. “I need to tell you something. Mom is here.”
“In Greece?” He let out a sigh he’d been holding for decades by the sound of its weight shifting. “Crap. Your show. She’s trying to get her face on camera, isn’t she?”
I nodded, then remembered he couldn’t see me. “Yeah. And it worked. She ambushed me with cameras rolling.”
“Your asthma …”
“I’m fine,” I lied. “I just wanted to talk to my sane parent. She said … things.”
“What did she say, baby girl?”
“That she never wanted us—Brit and me. She said she only had us because Grandma, Grandpa, and you pressured her to be a mom.”
When he spoke, his words came out simmering. “That’s not true, Kathleen. You and Brit were wanted, by her and by me. I can’t speak as to her reasons for wanting to be a parent, although I have my suspicions, but I wanted to be a dad more than anything, and at the time I thought she wanted to be a mother, too.”
“Suspicions?”
“Everyone around us was having kids, and what I know of your mother now, I can see where she wanted her moment in the spotlight. New mothers are treated like they’re special. Everyone makes a fuss over them. They’re the center of attention, like a bride. Your mother lives for attention. Every scheme she’s ever had, every crazy cause she’s taken up, it’s all been about her. Motherhood was more of the same. So was being my bride.” There was a sadness in his voice. Reality was a heavy thing and Dad was a good man who had been carrying it for too long.
“Would you hate me if I went no contact with her?”
“Not in a million years. There’s nothing you or Brit could ever do to make me hate you. You’re the loves of my life. I never wanted to be anything except your dad. The day I took you both and left Susan was the most terrifying day of my life, but I knew I had to save you, and the only way was to leave. Afterwards, I worried day and night that she’d come for you and I’d be powerless.”
“But she never did. She didn’t want us.”
“Hey, that’s because she’s flawed, not because of you. You and Brit? You’re perfect. As for going no contact, I never wanted to stop you and Britney from seeing her. I’ve always left the decision up to you because Susan is still your mother. But if you shut her out completely, I’ll always be on your side.”
Tears spilled over the rims of my eyes. “Thanks, Dad.”
We ended the call with lots of I Love Yous. That was Dad, always fulfilling the roles of two parents.
A nurse tapped on the open door on the way in. She checked my temperature, fiddled with my IV, and then she was gone again.
Alone, I had nothing but time to stew.
Well, I had wanted off the show, and boy, had I succeeded. With just two contestants remaining and one in the hospital, what would the director and producers do?
They would have no choice but to move forward without me. Filming wouldn’t wait. These people had schedules, and at the end of the day I was just a random contestant plucked off the streets of Nera, not an indispensable movie star.
The show would go on.
Nick would win.
And before summer’s end I would be back in my library.