DISTRACTED

“I honestly don’t know. Maybe I don’t want things to get more tense.”

“You’re worried about tension with a tenant? You’re slipping, Micheal.”

I snort and get up from my chair, pacing over to the window.

“I don’t know about that. But I know I’m not in the right headspace. Things have not been the same since that damn trip to the resort. I keep thinking about what might have happened if Lucia hadn’t been there if I’d gone down with her. Maybe we could have avoided the accident.”

“That’s something you couldn’t foresee happening, and you can’t blame yourself. Regina is thirteen. She’s going to end up getting into scrapes.”

“You wouldn’t be able to say that it’s normal for teenagers to get hurt if you’d seen her on the snow in such pain.”

I keep thinking back to when I came down the slope and saw Lucia with Regina. She hadn’t panicked, hadn’t fretted over anything. She was calm and in command, something I should have been and couldn’t do it. I am so glad that she was there when we needed h