Lucia noticed the softening of his demeanor, but didn't comment on it.  A lot of people found the topic bothersome.  It didn't bother her at all anymore, but others never quite knew how to handle it. 

"Funny.. you say you can't imagine life with out your dad, and I honestly can't imagine my life with one.  You weren't insensitive at all.  To be honest you can't miss what you never had.  I don't know what it is like to have a dad.  It doesn't make me sad, or mad, or anything really.  It just is what it is, and I have never known anything different. My mom was awesome about it though, she made things special so I didn't mind missing out on the special daddy things. We ordered pizza and rented a movie on the Father Daughter dance nights, and I got to stay home from school and watch the price is right on the donuts with dad days.  I grew up never really noticing.  So I guess you could say I understand the concept of dads, just not as they apply to me."  She said with a small laugh. 

"Like what are they for?  Shit, I wouldn't know what to do with one... do I feed it? water it? walk him twice a day?"  She joked.  "I mean I literally have no idea.  I get that they aren't pets or houseplants, but lets be honest, I have about as much experience with fathers as I do neurosurgery.   I get that they exist, but that's about it." 

She sipped her coffee with a shrug.  "I mean I guess when I was a kid I would wonder.  Every kid does, you play that little mind game, what would it be like if...I mean I used to get mad at my mom, and tell myself it was ok, she wasn't my real mom.  My real mom was some super special princess and someday she would come get me and we would run away to fairylandia or whatever.  Kid stuff.  When I was first in school and kids would ask, I made up stories ya know?  Like I told one kid my dad was an astronaut on a super secret special mission to Mars.  My mom got so mad at me though, so I eventually stopped."  

She gave him a smile when he glanced in the rear view mirror.  "But I promise, it doesn't bother me.  You know your dad, so if something happened to him your life would change... it would be different.  I don't know who mine is, so today this file tells me he is alive, it could have said deceased.  That doesn't change my life in anyway." 

She knew she was babbling, but she couldn't stop herself. She hated that everything she said made her sound cold and heartless, so she kept talking, and somehow it just made it worse.  "I don't think I meant that to sound as harsh and uncaring as it did, but I don't know how else to explain it.  I guess it is like being born without something, for example, a thumb, or hand.  You understand you are different, but you don't know any other way."