After a few hours of goofing off in her room and trying to get her to
remember things, Allison's dad left again. Mrs. Iraheta came into the
room. "Alli Kat? Baby? I'm so sorry you had to see your father like
that..." she muttered. Allison wrapped her arms around her mother's
small neck. "I love you, Mom. Adam says Daddy's an alcoholic or
something." she said confidently, proud that she learned to say the
word 'alcoholic'. Allison's mom sighed. "Yes, baby, Daddy drinks
sometimes." she answered quietly. Allison looked at me, then came up
and gave me a hug. Allison's mom smiled. "You two are perfect. Meant
to be." she said. Allison smiled. "I know." she said.
I could tell that she understood perfectly.
Soon Alli's dad was back home, but sober. He came into her room.
"Allison, sweetheart, I'm so sorry about earlier. I had just come back
from the bar, and I was a mess, you gotta know that I love you..." he
said, wrapping his arms around his beautiful daughter that he's taken
for granted for so long. "I love you too, Daddy." she smiled.
Suddenly, everything was fine.
Allison and I fell asleep intertwined on her bed. She woke me up in
the middle of the night to tell me that she remembered something. At
first I was annoyed. But then she started singing "Slow Ride." Our
duet from tour. My eyes started filling with tears. "Baby, you
remember that?" I asked quietly. She nodded. "The smell of your skin
made me remember." I grinned. "Slow Ride" was such a big part of that
summer. And now she remembered.
I kissed her harder than I ever have.