9. Tyler

                                    

                                          
"Would you stop?" Jenna admonished me. 
"I can't," I said. I was practically bouncing all over the place. It was like I had more energy than ever. It would be a good night for a show with the energy I was exhibiting. Jenna just smiled and shook her head. 
Josh and Debby were at the house waiting, but also babysitting Rosie and Junie who would wake up to the best surprise ever in their young lives. I hoped. 
And I waited. And waited. I hoped we didn't have a repeat of the last time we were at the airport to pick Samantha up from California. 
Finally, the doors from the luggage hall opened and I watched eagerly. 
And there she was! All smiles, and tanned! She came running up to us and threw her arms around Jenna first, who seemed reluctant to let go, and then she was hanging off my neck as my arms wrapped around her. 
"Hi!" I said to her. 
"Hi Dad," she beamed. "Hi, Mom."
"Welcome home, sweetheart," Jenna said, a huge smile on her face. 
"No luggage?" I asked. 
"How much do I need for a weekend?" She said showing me her very full backpack. 
"That's all you brought? What about homework?" Jenna asked. 
"I finished most of it on the plane on my computer. I brought my math and my English book. I don't have much this weekend, thankfully."
Samantha was spending her senior year in California with Brendon and Sarah. She'd had such a rough year this past year between an assault in January and being abducted by her uncle over the summer, and of course the shooting last summer, we thought we'd offer her a break from Ohio. She deserved something good. And since she was always joking about moving to California, we offered her that choice.  And much to my chagrin, she took it. So I had to accept that my daughter was, in fact, a grown human with her own thoughts and opinions. I couldn't be prouder of her.
Samantha was walking between the two of us, chatting happily about her school, her friends, Brendon and Sarah, their friends, California and some of the things she'd gotten up to in the first month of school. 
We'd wanted her to come home earlier but she asked to stay because her social life was quite active. Which both made me happy and sad. Happy for her, sad that she didn't want to immediately come home. 
I put my arm around Sam and pulled her to me in a side hug. She returned the gesture. 
"I'm so glad you could break yourself away from your very active social life to come visit your old man," I said.  
"See! You admit it!" Samantha laughed. 
"No. It was a slip of the tongue. I meant your grandfather."
Samantha looked at me with a comical skeptical look on her face. Yeah. She didn't believe me. She'd been calling me 'old man' since she was 15. It was a bit of an inside joke between us. 
We got into the car and drove home. 
"Are you hungry? Do you need anything before we go home?" I asked. 
"Uh, no. I'm okay. I'm looking forward to getting home," she grinned. 
It was nine o'clock but for Sam it was only six. I was surprised she wasn't hungry at least. 
"Did you eat dinner on the plane?" I asked. 
Samantha made a face that indicated to me, whatever was served was not palatable.