“Everyone always leaves.”

“Really? I’m right here.”

Preslee leveled a gaze at him. “I’m not talking about you. Well, not yet anyway. But, Dad, you aren’t going to live forever. There will come a time when you will leave me.”

“Well, I think I still got a few good years left in me. Don’t start kicking dirt over my grave just yet.”

She laughed. “You know what I mean.”

He shook his head. “Actually, I don’t. Who left? Are you talking about your mom? Because you have to know she’d have sold her soul to the devil to stay with you. With both of us. Dying doesn’t count as leaving. That’s something that is just a part of life and can’t be helped. You can’t hold that against her.”

She blinked back the tears building once again in her eyes. “I don’t. Not really. I know in my heart that she didn’t want to leave. But that doesn’t make her any less gone. And the older I get, the more trouble I’m having hanging on to those memories of her. Pieces of Mom are starting to fade away. I was so young when she died. I can barely remember the sound of her voice anymore.” She sniffled.

“Oh, baby girl.” Her dad grasped her hand. “I forget sometimes how young you were when she passed. Tell you what. Why don’t we pull out some of the old home videos tonight and watch them? It would be nice to hear your mother’s voice and see her smiling again. It might ease both of our hearts a little.”

Preslee smiled. “I’d love that. Do you know where the box of them is?”

“They’re up in the attic. Let me just go pull the ladder down and grab those.” He started to rise.

She beat him to a standing position. “No way. You are not climbing on another ladder. I forbid it. Especially while you’re still wearing a cast. You could reinjure yourself. Besides, you’ll have trouble carrying the box. I’ll go up to the attic and get them myself.”

“All right,” her dad said, settling his long frame back on the couch. “But before you do, tell me who else?”

“Huh?”

“You said everyone leaves you. Who else were you talking about? Your birth mom?”

Preslee nodded slightly. “She was one of them, although I’m not sure I care all that much about her leaving. Not anymore. I think talking with you about her helped me move past some of it. I’d like to try and put all of that behind me now.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear that. But what do you mean by ‘one of them’?”

“Well, I was also referring to the guys I dated in the past. They all left me. Not the other way around.”