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but collide.
    “What has you all happy?” Dad grumbled, sitting on the exam table.
    “River,” I answered honestly. He’d texted me all day yesterday from work, but our schedules hadn’t meshed and we hadn’t gotten a chance to see each other.
    His eyes narrowed. “Don’t get too attached to that boy, Avery. He’ll just break your heart when he leaves, and you’ll be downright bitchy. Hell, it’s bad enough already.” He pointed at me. “Watch yourself.”
    I soothed my hackles, which begged to go up in my own defense. “Actually, I think I’m going with him next weekend to Colorado.”
    Dad’s mouth hung open, his eyes ready to shoot fire. “You. Are. Not.”
    “I am,” I said with a certainty I hadn’t felt this morning when I woke up. Guess you made that decision. “It’s just for a weekend, Dad. Aunt Dawn already said she’d come up and stay.” She’d actually been all too happy to do so when I’d called her this morning.
    “You can not put her out like that!”
    “Dad, she lives thirty minutes away and she’s retired. It’s hardly putting her out to ask her to spend a weekend with her brother.”
    He grumbled, tapping his foot against the side of the exam table. “And what about Adeline?”
    “What about her?” I closed the magazine, giving up any pretense of reading.
    “Are you thinking of moving there? With him? Why else would you go?”
    I should have waited until we were home to say anything, or told him before this appointment. “Let’s just talk about this later.”
    “No, the doc is late as usual. Let’s talk about it now.” He crossed his arms around his chest. His fingernails were too long, but at least I’d gotten him to shower this morning.
    For the smallest second, the potential of a different future washed over me—a future where every day wasn’t fighting with him, where I could live for me, step fully into the independent adulthood I’d always been so scared to want. A future where River kissed me, where I finally allowed myself to really examine my feelings for my best friend.
    “What if I wanted to move?” I asked softly. “What if I wanted to have an actual life, Dad?”
    “One where you’re not tied down by an invalid father? Is that what you mean?”
    “You’re not an invalid. And River already said you could come with us—”
    “Enough!” he snapped. “I’m not moving to Colorado and neither are you. Your life is here, with me. I know it’s not the life you wanted, but this isn’t what I wanted, either. We’re in this together. It’s always been you and me, Avery. What would I do without you? What would Adeline do? You know we can’t make it without you. So you can go for the weekend and live out your little fantasy, but you know you’ll come right back here, because you’re not the kind of girl to walk out on her family.”
    He lifted his eyebrows, challenging me to say that I was.
    Was he right? Did it matter what I wanted?
    The doctor knocked, saving me from going down that tunnel.
    “Mr. Claire,” Dr. Stone said as he sat in front of the computer on the desk and flipped through the screens. “Okay, so how have you been feeling this month? Your weight is up.”
    “I like to eat,” Dad joked, bringing out his charming side, the way he always did with Dr. Stone. After all, he had something Dad wanted.
    He’s playing you, too.
    I kept my thoughts to myself as Dr. Stone examined him, prodding and asking the same questions he did every month.
    “And how is your pain level?” he asked.
    They had my full attention, now.
    “It’s bad, doc,” Dad said, grimacing as he pushed against his lower back. “It’s getting worse.”
    Dr. Stone nodded thoughtfully, rubbing his goatee. It was hard to believe he was the same age as my dad, or maybe it was just that there were healthy men that age, in general. “I’m not going to lie to you, Jim. The pain is always going to be there. There’s no guarantee with a spine fused where yours is. I