“Sweetie, you have to learn at some point.” Had she honestly believed she wouldn’t drive at all?

Now her eyes met his and there was disappointment in them. “She got to you.”

“Got to me how?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. Like I said, I like Lila.”

Frustration welled inside him. “Tell me. I can’t solve the problem if you don’t tell me what the problem is.”

“I’ve started to wonder if maybe she doesn’t want to be burdened with a stepdaughter in a wheelchair. She keeps pushing me to try things I can’t do. Maybe she wants to send me away so you can start a new family and not have to deal with me.”

Oh, they were going to have to have a meeting. A family meeting. “That’s not what she wants. She’s thinking about you and what’s best for your future.”

“I don’t have a future,” Noelle shot back with a savage anger he hadn’t heard from her before. “Not one that includes going to college and living in a dorm. I can barely manage to get in my chair from bed, much less getting myself around a campus. I’ll go and do the PT because it seems like that’s something she needs me to do in order to be okay with me, but I don’t want to listen to her complain about how lazy I am.”

“Nobody is saying that. Lila certainly isn’t. Is she saying things when I’m not around?”

“No. Not like that,” Noelle replied. “She’s always positive about it, but I have to wonder. I know I’m a burden.”

“You’re not a burden. You’re my daughter and you still come first in my life.” She had to. He was pretty sure he wanted to marry Lila, but Noelle still had to come first. “I’ll talk to Lila. Maybe we should all sit down and talk.”

There were tears in his daughter’s eyes. “I don’t want her to hate me. I want things to stay the same. Can’t she like me the way I am?”

“She does like you.” His heart ached for her, but she was wrong about Lila. She had to be. “Are you okay with her taking you to therapy? I can pick you up, but I have a meeting that will likely run long.”

Could he get out of it? He would send Roxie, but she was even less tolerant than he was and might end up arresting the board members.

Noelle sniffled. “Yes, I can go with her. We’re fine most of the time. We had a nice night last night, although she tried to teach me how to make the oatmeal. I can’t cook. She keeps trying to teach me things.”