“Sounds stupid. Parker tells me all the time how her parents shame her. They sound like horrible parents,” I said.

“It’s not an ideal situation for her, but she’ll be an adult soon enough and hopefully can make her own decisions. Life changes once you go away to college,” he said.

It dawned on me that I would be going away and leaving him all alone. “What about you, Dad? Maybe you can transfer to a school down in Texas.” The realization that we would be apart made my heart sink into the pit of my pancake-filled stomach.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. I can retire early and write that book I’ve always wanted to write.” He wasn’t joking. Ever since I could remember, my dad wanted to write the next great American novel. Since becoming assistant principal of Oak Grove, he never had the time.

“Please retire to a beach somewhere so I can visit. But don’t be one of those reclusive writers who forgets to bathe and walks around town muttering to himself, okay? Like that’s just going to be too much for me. I can’t field daily calls about your well-being.”

My dad pretended to be crushed. “I’ll try my best to not be an embarrassment to you.”

“Do you have a five-year plan?” It was a question he always asked me.

“I plan to get you off to college, sell the house, maybe move down to Florida to be closer to Uncle Ronnie.”

I barely hid my gasp when my father mentioned selling the house. We had moved into this house when he became assistant principal six years ago, a year before my mother died. We needed more space and my mother wanted a larger kitchen. She wanted to start a catering business but when she got sick, that dream was forgotten. I didn’t hide my surprise well enough.

He patted my hand. “We’re not doing anything for a while. Let’s get you through college first.”

I finished my breakfast and drove to the gym to work on core strengthening exercises. My phone started ringing loud enough to cut into the alternative rock on my headphones. I took off my headphones and flipped open the phone.

“Hey, you’re finally up.” I sat up on the weight bench, excited that Hayley called.

“You only called me like six times. Not all of us get up at the crack of dawn to work out and pump iron,” she said.

“Sorry. A lot went down this morning. Parker can’t spend the night anymore unless her parents know about us and that’s not going to happen. And my dad is thinking of selling the house and moving to Florida when he retires.”

“No way. Is he retiring soon?”

“No. We were just talking about going away to college and it came up,” I said.