When I finally dragged myself downstairs the next morning, Charlie was already up, waiting patiently as he poured orange juice into a pair of mugs. I tossed my backpack on a chair and greeted him quietly, “Morning, Dad.”

“Hey, Bells,” he smiled easily at me, his eyes bright with a sort of subdued excitement. I wonder what he was so happy about this morning. I looked at him, puzzled, and quickly fixed a bowl of cereal before sitting down and opening my book – this morning I was reading Jane Eyre, I was a sucker for Brontë novels – and immersing myself in its literary beauty.

Only a few minutes passed before Charlie cleared his throat and spoke. “So, you’ll be needing a ride to school this morning, right?”

I glanced up at him briefly before returning my eyes to my book. “Yeah,” I said nonchalantly, “if that’s okay with you. I mean, if you can’t that’s okay too. I suppose I could just…run…”

Charlie looked at me with a horrified expression. “No! Of course not! I just meant that I think you should take the truck,” he paused to fish in the pockets of his uniform police jacket, “you know, just so you don’t feel embarrassed to have your old man driving you to school…”

I chuckled lightly, shaking my head as I got up to put my bowl in the sink. “I would never be embarrassed of you, Dad.” I slung my backpack on my shoulder and started to leave. He grinned at me, following me out the front door, and then pulled out a set of keys from his pocket.

“Catch,” he said, tossing them at me. There were three keys on the ring, unlabeled and looked as though they’d never been used more than once or twice.

“One’s for the front door, one’s for the back, and one’s for your new car. Er, well – new to you. She’s been hanging out here for a while now. But she’s in okay shape, a real trooper all right.”

I looked from the keys to him and back again and stepped out into the driveway. “Are you saying you’re giving me your truck? That truck, right there?” I said incredulously, pointed to the timeworn red truck parked on the gravel next to Charlie’s cruiser. Charlie faltered a little at my visage.