My eyes blurred with sleep and emotion. But he was really there.
I launched myself from the booth and threw my arms around my father, perhaps too enthusiastically. He staggered backward and I caught my toe on a nearby chair, nearly flipping it over.
Dad laughed and squeezed me to his chest. “I’ve missed my graceful girl.”
Standing there together felt so almost right, like a rare ceramic vase with a hidden hairline c***k running through its base, that I didn’t even have a smart-assed comeback. Besides, isn’t it the flaws that, over time, make them priceless?
almost“It’s so good to see you,” Dad whispered, then pulled back to look me over by the dim bar lights. He bit his lip and put a hand to my red mass of curls. “You still have your mother’s hair.”
“Ha!” I retorted. “Mom wouldn’t be
