“Mom?” she asked. “Does it still count if Dad can’t go with me?”

My chest tightened. I sat beside her, gently tucking a loose curl behind her ear. “Of course it counts, honey. Your dad would want you to shine tonight. So that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

My daughter pressed her lips together, thinking. “I want to honor him. Even if it’s just us.”

I nodded, swallowing the lump rising in my throat. Keith’s voice echoed in my mind: “I’ll take her to every father-daughter dance, Jill. Every one. I promise.”

He had made that promise, and now it was up to me to keep it.

She handed me her shoes. “I miss Daddy. He used to tie up my shoes.”

I knelt and tied them, double-knotting just like Keith always did. “He’d say you look beautiful. And he’d be right, Katie-girl.”

She smiled—a brief glimpse of her old self. Then she pinned her “Daddy’s Girl” badge over her heart.