31
Sam
It was almost Labor Day, and summer felt like the last inch of water draining from the bathtub. Wyatt met Sam at the library and took her out to lunch at the diner. “It’s payday, m’lady,” he said.
When they’d ordered turkey sandwiches and fries to share, Sam said, “So, I had the talk with my dad last night.”
Wyatt’s eyes went huge. “What do you mean ‘talk’?”
Sam smiled. “Like about you and me.”
“Oh my God, is he going to kill me? I’ll totally marry you right now if you want.”
Sam laughed. “No, he was really cute about it. He just came in and sat on my bed and was like, ‘Sammy, seems like you’re having a pretty big love affair this summer.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ ”
“Is he going to kill me or not?”
“No, it was nothing like that. He said he was happy for me. That there’s nothing more exciting in life than that pull toward another person. It was really nice. And it made me feel happy for my parents, that he feels that way.”
Wyatt’s whole body relaxed. “He’s so cool. Your whole family is so cool. Everything just right out in the open so there are no land mines to step on.”
“Is it any better with your parents?”
“It’s worse, I think. Michael’s wasted most of the time and they don’t say a word about it. They know for sure that I’m not going to college, but we don’t talk about what I am doing. It’s just this big, thick silence in the house.” Wyatt peeled the label off his bottle of Coke. “I wish my dad would be like, ‘Oh hey, son, I see you’re in love.’ Or even ‘Oh hey, I see you’re’ anything.”
Sam said, “Yeah, I guess we’re talkers.”
“It’s awesome,” he said. “Your family is the best.”