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“I can be a better mother if I have you by my side.” She sniffs, wiping her face.
“Your relationship with your son shouldn’t be contingent on your relationship with me. That’s not fair. Be a mother to him, Tracy.Please.”
She dabs her face with her sleeve. “I’ve gotta go.”
“Let me get Owen. I don’t know why he hasn’t come down yet.”
“I don’t want him to see me upset.”
“It’ll be okay. He’s a caring kid, he’ll give you a hug.” I try to get her to smile, but she glares at me. I hold up my finger. “One sec. I’ll be right back.”
I go upstairs and find Owen in his closet with his LEGO sets.
“What are you doing in here?”
“Just playing.”
“I called you when your mother got here. Come say bye to her.”
“Do I have to?”
“Yes.”
He gets up, not looking happy about it. I poke him in the side and he laughs, too ticklish to stay grumpy. We walk down the stairs and look in the kitchen and then the living room.
“Tracy?” I call.
Nothing.
I go back to the kitchen and open the back door. Her car is gone.
Fuck.
I close the door and lean against it, defeated, and look at my son.
“Did she leave?” he asks.
“It looks like she did, yes.”
He lifts his little shoulder up in a shrug, and my heart fucking aches.
“I didn’t want to see her anyway.”
“Son, I’m so sorry. She shouldn’t have left this way. She was upset with me. It’s not you.”
His eyes fill with tears and I’m in front of him in the next second, pulling him to me.
“She doesn’t like me, Dad. She never has.”
“She does. She loves you so much, Owen. She just doesn’t know how to show it.” Even as the words are coming out of my mouth, I question them. I don’t know if they’re true, and I don’t know if I should be pretending that they are. I just don’t want my son to hurt.
I decide we need a break from Tracy for today. Now that she’s heading back to Arizona, there’s time to deal with this. I’ll call her later, but for now, I don’t want to think about her.
“Can we call Felicity and have her come back?” he asks, leaning back to look at me.
I grab a tissue and force him to blow his nose. He grumbles as always. The boy would leave his nose running for days to avoid ever blowing it.
“How about we just see her in the morning? She might be doing something fun tonight.”
