Pieces of Me

Chapter 1

Spencer

"Spencer!"

I briefly debated ignoring my mother, but then her footfalls sounded on the stairs and I gave it up as hopeless. Her head popped into my doorway and my irritation faded when I took in the sheen of tears in her eyes and the deeper set to the wrinkles bracketing her mouth and the corner of her eyes, the ones that had only really started showing up in the past couple of years.

"There's someone on the phone for you," she said.

I ignored the way her eyes tightened and focused on how strange it was that I had a call when I knew for a fact my phone hadn't gotten any calls or notifications all day. "On your phone?" I asked stupidly, since how else could I have a call?

"Yes." I stepped forward and held out a hand, but Mom didn't hand over her phone yet. She sort of stared at me instead. "It's your father," she whispered.

And then it all made sense. The tears, the hesitation. The fact that the call hadn't come in on my phone. My father didn't have my phone number... but he did have hers.

"Really?" I asked, though that was another stupid question, since Mom and I didn't lie to each other. Not even when we really probably should.

"Really." Now she did hold out the phone toward me, but I hesitated.

I had never spoken to my father. Not in all my life. In fact, I was pretty sure we had never laid eyes on each other. He probably didn't even know what I looked like, and I had only seen a couple of grainy photos of him from before he left my mom. It used to make me angry, so angry I would tell myself I had no father at all, since an absent one didn't count. But suddenly, those times felt very foolish. Whether I was angry with him or not – and whether we acknowledged each other or not – there was no changing the truth. There was a man out there who had given me half my DNA. And now, after over twenty years, he finally wanted to talk.

Apparently.

It all seemed a little surreal, but I snapped out of my thoughts when Mom started withdrawing her phone. I had snatched it away from her before I even realized what I was doing.

"I'll talk to him," I said.

"Okay. I'll be downstairs." That was code, I knew. Code for I'm here if you need me.

Only, in this case, it was more like when I needed her. Because just knowing he was on the other end of a call had me aching. I felt hurt and confused, and I didn't even know what he wanted yet.

The door shut softly behind Mom and I sat down on my bed before bringing the phone to my ear. I took in a deep breath, then released it. "Hello?"

"Spencer?" a man said.

"Yeah, it's me."

There was a brief pause before I heard him sigh. "Listen... I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. I know I was never there for you when you were growing up and I want to make it right. Get to know you."

I had gone into this without any expectations, but if I'd made a list of reasons I thought he might be calling, this would have been near the bottom.

"You... really?"

"Yeah. I don't know what your plans are for the summer, but would you consider coming out and staying with me?"

If I'd been surprised before, I was floored now. If he'd made this phone call when I was a kid, or maybe even when I was a teen, I would have been over the moon. Now, I couldn't get past the confusion. "Why?"