Melissa's face did something complicated. "Do you want to?"
"Yeah. I think so." He hesitated. "But I'm not asking you to take me."
She nodded slowly. She seemed to understand before he did. "Then you should ask your dad," she said.
* * *
Tyler asked him on a Thursday night in the garage, where Eric was on his back under the F-150 again, trying to figure out why the new radiator he had ordered did not quite fit the old brackets. Tyler stood by the workbench with his hands in the pocket of his hoodie, kicking at a coffee can full of loose bolts, and said it to the underside of the truck, which Eric suspected was the only way he could say it at all.
"He wants to meet me. Daniel. In Tucson. And I want to. And I want you to drive me."
Eric lay very still on the creeper, looking up at the rusted belly of the truck.