Memory's Door (A Well Spring Novel) by James L. Rubart

this discussion.”
    “Be wise.” Kat poked him in the shoulder. “I mean it. This is a good kid. Yes, he’s a senior but he’s good for her. Haven’t you seen it? She’s lighter than she’s been in a year and it’s good for your relationship with her. Tell me you saw that tonight. And that you’re not going to crush her.”
    “What are you insinuating?”
    “That he asked her to the prom tonight, and when she tells you, you’re going to smile and congratulate her.”
    “What? Wait a minute. When did this turn from ‘a friend’ to going to the prom? Let me guess, you wanted to ease me into it? Meet the kid, agree he’s great, then roll over and say yes?”
    “You and Abbie have done pretty well over the past several months. If you’re going to tell her she can’t go with Calen I suggest you do it with a great deal of tenderness and tact.”
    “She’s just a little girl.”
    “I wish that were true.”
    “It is true.”
    “It’s not.”
    “I don’t care if she’s twenty.”
    Kat didn’t answer and turned over. Within minutes she was asleep. Slumber didn’t come for Marcus till nearly an hour later. And fifty minutes of prayer didn’t get him any closer to knowing what he was going to do.

    The next evening at nine thirty Abbie slumped onto the couch in their family room next to Kat and skewered him with her eyes. “This is where you tell me I can’t go to the prom with Calen, right?”
    “I’m only saying I want to discuss it.”
    “Let’s cut to the final scene, Dad. Do you approve or not approve? Can I go or not?”
    “He seems like a nice kid but—”
    “He’s not a kid ! He’s a senior and he’s almost eighteen years old. He’s nearly an adult.”
    Marcus took a deep breath. “Exactly.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “He seems like a nice adult but—”
    “But I’m too young to date, he’s too much older than me, blah, blah, blah, and I can’t go to the prom with him.”
    “I’m just trying to—”
    Abbie grabbed the back of her long red hair and pulled down, her eyes closed. “To what, Dad? Protect me? Keep me from getting my heart broken? I just want to go to a dance together and if that goes well maybe a movie. Take a hike in the mountains. Go to a Sounders game together. Hang out with him at youth group. I’m not going to bed the guy.”
    “Abbie!”
    “What?” She kicked the coffee table and yanked her arms across her chest.
    “Statistically young girls . . . women . . . who start dating early have a much greater chance of winding up in relationships that will hurt them and taint their marriages for years to come. I know emotionally this doesn’t register with you, but please consider the logic of this.” He glanced at Kat for support but she shook her head. “You’re only fourteen years old and you’ll have years of time to date when you’re older.”
    “Technically I’ve lived on earth for fourteen years so I’m really in my fifteenth year of living.”
    “Abbie.”
    She scowled. “Marcus.”
    “Don’t call me that.”
    “Then be my dad, not a professor lecturing me on the ills of holding hands with a boy at my age. Can’t you trust me just a little bit? I’ve prayed about this by myself and with Mom and I’m not blind.”
    He stared at her pleading eyes and an image of the dinnerthey’d had almost a year ago at the Space Needle flashed into his mind. And the times since then where they’d watched TV together, went for mountain bike rides, and how her face lit up for a few seconds when he framed a picture he’d taken of her playing soccer and gave it to her for no reason at all. He didn’t want to lose the ground they’d gained.
    And logic? Yes, it was logical to let her go. It was one date. She wasn’t getting engaged. And he could keep a very close eye on where things went from here with Calen.
    “Okay, you can go.” The words sputtered out of his mouth, and the moment they did he wished he could take them back.
    Abbie leaped