Mom had sighed.“And I’ll admit, Gen might not be of the caliber of woman I wanted you to marry, but I suppose I can see the appeal.She’s certainly done well to manage raising the girl.”
“Bella is pretty special, isn’t she?”
“I like her,” his dad had said.“She reminds me of you at that age.”
“Oh David.”Mom had rolled her eyes.
Dad had shrugged.“She just seems like her head’s screwed on right, and I like that she’s so unaffected.”
Kyle had sensed a compliment in there, which he’d tucked away.He knew his dad loved him but Dad’s praise didn’t come so often that Kyle could afford to ignore it.
He glanced at Dad now, seated in a picnic chair with Mom in her own beside him, their glasses of wine perched precariously on the small fold-up table between them.
Kyle had brought an extra chair for Minnie but she’d refused.He got the impression she’d be happy to refuse anything Kyle offered, simply out of spite.
Gen, when she’d arrived, had also been happy to sit on the oversized picnic blanket with Bella and Kyle.Bella sat between them, with Minnie on Gen’s other side, as far away from Mom as possible.
“So, Bella, I was thinking that you might like to call me Nanna,” Mom said.“I don’t think that sounds as old as calling someone Granny or Grandma.”
His chest tensed at the cheap potshot, easing with relief when Minnie didn’t seem to hear.His mom’s statement was so ironic, when he knew for a fact that his mom was at least ten years older than Minnie.
“Okay, Mrs.Tinker.”
He bit back a smile.Looked like that day wasn’t today.
“I’m happy for you to call me whatever you like,” Dad said to Bella.“Just don’t call me late to dinner.”He winked.
Bella laughed, and began wondering aloud which of the names might work.“Granddad?No, that sounds old.Pop?I don’t know.That sounds like a drink.”
“Why not Grandpapa?”Kyle suggested.
“Oh Kyle,” Mom muttered, as Bella said “No!That sounds too much like someone from a fairy tale.”
But in some ways this felt like a fairy tale.He certainly hadn’t expected things to work out as quickly as they had.Maybe that was God’s hand in it all, or the prayers that kept surrounding him.Not that things were resolved just yet.But he’d continue to trust God for a happy ending.
“Anybody need more chips?”he asked, offering the bag around.
“I don’t know that ‘need’ is the word anybody should use,” Mom chided.
Minnie muttered something on the other side of Gen that Kyle didn’t catch, but which provoked him just the same.“What was that, Minnie?Did you want some?”
“No, thank you.”Her voice was stiff.
Ah, the good times they kept on rolling.“Gen?”He offered the bag to her.
She shook her head, even though in the dim light he could see her eyeing them, like maybe she was hungry.
“I’d like some more,” Bella said.“Please,” she added with a glance at Gen, as if she’d remembered her manners.
Gen nodded, and he gave Bella the bag, which she happily munched her way through as the blues band continued.
But while her daughter might be relaxed, he noticed new tension rippling through Gen.He reached behind Bella and tapped Gen’s hand, and murmured, “Are you okay?”
She pressed her lips together, which he was learning was the signal for no, but nodded anyway.Which meant he’d need to get her aside soon to find out what was wrong.Because he cared about her as the mother of his child, not because of anything else.
Even if the evening reminded him of other things.So many things.Times growing up as teens when they’d spent Independence Days together, eating too many hot dogs and foods he’d learned to avoid after scouts had started turning up and he’d realized his NHL dreams might actually one day be possible.They’d watched fireworks on the back of the pickup truck his parents had reluctantly bought him.They’d done other things there too, he now recalled with a blush.
He snuck another look at her, wishing he knew how to get her to open up.They texted most nights, but she was never too open about what was happening at work.Which was probably only fair, due to privacy laws, but still.He wished he could help her.
