That’s all Connor had said, but while Annabelle waited for Mitch to pick her up, she drained the battery on her phone reading those four words over and over.

It was like Mitch always said: She couldn’t control how other people acted, but she could control how it affected her. And she wasn’t going to let Mia’s fake-sympathetic words bring her down. Not today.

The next morning, Mom kissed Annabelle’s cheek on her way out the door to work.

“Tutoring at—”

“Eleven,” Annabelle finished for her. “And Janine’s money is on the kitchen table. I know. And when I wait for you to get me after practice, I’m supposed to read the next chapter of the summer reading book and then review Spanish note cards.”

Mom smiled. “I’m proud of you. For going for what you want with the high school team and keeping up with everything else.”

Annabelle let Mom kiss her cheek on the way out and mumbled “Thanks.” But it still seemed like she hadn’t done anything that impressive for Mom to be proud of. Like maybe Mom’s expectations were sort of low.

After Mom was gone, she pulled out the letter from her dad. She read it again even though she knew it by heart, and she tried to imagine whether her dad looked different now and where he’d been sitting and what he’d been thinking as he wrote it.

What would Mom say if she knew he’d written? Back after Dad had first moved out, Mom had acted like it was a huge priority for Annabelle to see him.

“Your time with your father is important,” she’d say, making Annabelle turn down invitations to friends’ houses on “Dad days.” One time she’d said no when Mitch invited them to go away for the weekend with him and his daughters.

“Annabelle needs to have a relationship with her dad,” she’d told him. “I can’t be the reason that doesn’t happen.”

But then after that awful swim practice, Mom had stopped objecting when things came up on Saturdays. She’d decided it was fine to move all the way to Gray Island, even. That was after Dad had stopped calling completely, but still.

Would she want Annabelle to have a relationship with her dad now, or did she think it was too late?

Would she believe that Dad was really better? Or would she make a big thing of only letting Annabelle see him if he came to Gray Island and she and Mitch supervised?

Dad’s letter was the biggest thing Annabelle had ever kept from her mom. But she wanted to figure it out herself—how she felt about it and what she wanted to do. She didn’t want Mom’s opinions drowning out her own.

She was reading Dad’s words one last time when a text came in from Mia.

Saw Mr. Derrickson at the Bagelry and he and my dad talked for ages about some new whaling exhibit in Boston. My dad thinks he’s “such a great guy.” Little does he know!!!