Catching Tatum Read Online Free PDF Page A

proud.
    It felt like a fairy tale coming into the massive room. We weren't the first to arrive so when we were announced plenty of heads turned in our direction. It wasn't just fathers and daughters—there were mothers and sons too; not as many, but enough. The talks and speeches dragged on forever, but we had food to occupy us, so it wasn't horrible. It was a five-course meal with a ceremonial cake-cutting at the end. The oldest and youngest service members did the honors. My dad knew one of the Colonels sitting at our table and they spent a good bit of the dinner quietly talking back and forth, but Dad would lean over and tell me this or that about the speech or speaker, from time to time. Then it was time to dance the night away. Some of the kids spent just as much time dancing with each other as they did with their parents, but for me, part two of “the talk” commenced when the dancing did.
    “Remember what we were talking about earlier?” Dad asked about halfway through “True Colors.”
    “When?” Some played possum, I played dumb—what can I say?
    “When we were on the run. Talking about boys?”
    “Um ... yeah,” I said as he twisted me by my hand out onto the floor.
    “Who makes the rules?”
    “I do.”
    “That's right, but … I can suggest a thing or two. I am your dad after all.”
    “Oh, brother!” I sighed as he flung me out to his side and sashayed over to the other side.
    “Thing number one,” he said, pulling me to the beat of the music, making me move where he wanted me to, “find a good, strong leader. See how I do this?” he asked, directing me with his hands on my hands. He pushed me out into spins and pulled me around to the beat of the music, like he had done at home a thousand times before. “I'm leading you ... but I'm not forcing you to do anything you don't want to do, right? You have to want to come with me.” And with that he spun me out; I followed out and back in at the beckoning of his hand. “If you don't follow, we look ridiculous—well, I still look good, but you look off, out of step,” he said with a wink. “But ...” he said, suddenly going limp, leaving us mostly motionless on the floor. We still swayed to the music but I couldn't make him move and he wasn't making me do anything. “ ... If I don't lead you, or give you a direction to go in, we both look like we're trying to fake it to the music. You want a good leader, Tatum,” he said. We started dancing again until the song was over. When it ended we clapped and started up with the next song.
    “How do I know what a good leader is?” I asked him.
    “How do you know I'm a good dancer?” he asked, pushing me to one side then the other, putting us back in a full step again.
    “Because you're confident. You know the moves.”
    “That's my girl ... a good leader knows what’s right and does it. Remember that stealing bases thing?”
    “Yeah?”
    “A good leader wouldn't do that.”
    “Dad, no offense, but I think that's a bad example ... steals are good for your team in the game.”
    “If you're lucky, but if you're not and you've got two outs already, it finishes the whole inning.”
    “OK, I still think it's kind of lame, but I get it ... I'm not supposed to let a boy get too far. Right?”
    “You got it.”
    “Is too far like ... making a home run?”
    “You're talking to the wrong guy on that. I'm your dad. I'd be happy for you to never make it to any base, ever, until you're married ...”
    “Well, that's not going to happen.” I laughed. “No offense.” I wasn't going to tell him I was already well-practiced at kissing, if not much else.
    “I know and that's why you need to come up with your rules. I can tell you what I think ... but the truth is you have to decide for yourself what you think is too far. Your rules, remember? I think mine are good, I think they’ll save a lot of problems, but you have to buy into it. Make your rules now, before it's too late, then stick with them no