And just like that, that world shifts. The dream changes. Love has transformed her life. Love has a way of doing that.

* * *

I call Dan and give him the news. Travis has come for her. He has convinced her to change her mind about going to college so far away. The rundown of Molly’s rationalizations spills from me—she claims she can still enroll in the honors program at UW. We won’t really forfeit all that much, just this past roller coaster of a week and a percentage of the first tuition payment.

“Says something for the kid, traveling all that way to make his case,” Dan tells me.

“What?” I ask, exasperated. “What does it say, Dan? That he’s got nothing better to do? That he’s ready to take responsibility for her, to hold her heart and her dreams and keep them safe? Or that the plant had a temporary layoff and he got bored hanging out with his friends?”

“Maybe he’ll surprise you.”

“This is not helping. We need to be on the same page.”

“No, we don’t. We’re two completely different people, and Molly’s her own person, too. She’s old enough to understand we can have differing points of view.”

As we talk, I move around the room, needing an outlet for my agitation. I seize on the bag of quilting supplies. There’s a piece made from a pocket with a little embroidered dog on it. This was from the pedal-pushers Molly had worn the day she learned to ride a two-wheeler.

By five years of age, she had worn her training wheels down to the rims and I insisted it was time to take them off. She had balked, arguing to the point of tears.

She agreed only when Dan promised he would run alongside her, holding her up.

“I won’t let go until you say,” he vowed.

I was certain she’d never get to the letting-go phase, so I went about my business. I was in the kitchen, trying a new recipe, when I heard shouting and the faint brrring brrring of the bell on Molly’s bike. I went out to see her cruising on two wheels, Dan standing in the middle of the street and grinning from ear to ear.

“They’re young,” Dan is saying, “but they’re still adults.”

“If he was thinking of Molly, then he wouldn’t take this opportunity away from her.”

“The thing is, it’s not up to us—not anymore. Back off, honey. Let Molly work on this herself.”

Back off. I can hear Molly’s voice—Oh, like that’s going to happen.