Nothing about the last year had been easy on either of them. Noelle needed someone who would support her, not yell at her.

Like your dad yelled at you when you spent too much time chasing girls in high school and none on your homework? He’d been hard as hell on you and you thanked that old man for making you go to college. You would be working at a fast food place if it hadn’t been for him kicking your ass.

His father. He’d been the tough-love king. But Noelle didn’t need that. She didn’t.

“I’m not hungry.” She sat at the table as quiet as she’d been during the car ride home. She’d cried, but silently, and it made him all the angrier.

How could he not have seen it? “Has she always been that mean to you?”

She turned her head, looking up at him, her eyes red from crying. “No. Not at all. Dad, we were arguing. She was pushing me, and I didn’t want to do it.”

“She had no right to talk to you that way.”

“She was being a bitch, but I was, too.”

It didn’t matter what Noelle had done. “She’s the adult and I doubt very much you were being a . . . I don’t want you to use that language.”

Noelle’s hands fisted, her body going taut. “I’m sixteen. I’m almost seventeen, Dad. I assure you, I use that language a lot. Can’t we talk to her? Maybe if we talk to her she’ll be okay with the fact that I’m going to be in this chair for the rest of my life. I know she’s trying to help.”

Was she? He’d thought she was. But if that was how she helped, then she had no place in his home. He had to take care of Noelle, and that meant being supportive.

Can’t you see it’s not normal for her to never fight with anyone? She’s afraid to fight even for herself.

Was Noelle’s passiveness normal? She’d always been a quiet, studious girl, but after the divorce she’d never fought with him. Not once. He’d always thought he was lucky, but what if it wasn’t that she thought he was always right? What if her willingness to go along with what he wanted was because she was afraid of what might happen if she caused waves?

“You’re happy here, right, sweetheart?”

The tension left her body with a long sigh, like a cord had been cut. “Of course.”

“It must have been weird to have to move here after your mom passed.”

“Dad, I like it here.”