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“Aiden is a good boy,” she rambled on. “I have MS. He takes great care of me. His father is an over the road truck driver and gone a lot.”
At least he had some redeeming qualities even if they didn’t extend to me.
“Carla, it was a pleasure to meet you and you Aiden,” my mother said, sugar dripping off her tongue. I wanted to roll my eyes at her. “But we have items melting in our cart.”
“Oh dear, I’m so sorry for keeping you.”
“Not a problem, Carla. It was my pleasure to meet you both. If Aiden needs anything when your husband is out of town, please don’t hesitate to contact us. My husband and I would be happy to help. That has to be a lot of responsibility for a young man.”
His mouth fell open. He knew Mom realized he jammed his cart into me on purpose and he was as surprised at her offer of help as I was.
“That is nice of you Kat. I’m sure he’s tired of it. We’ll let you know,” Carla said.
Mom smiled at the woman. I knew we would never hear from them. Aiden wouldn’t allow it. Maybe on some level Mom knew that too and that’s why she offered. She knew he wouldn’t take her up on it either. “Come on Abby. Gotta run.”
I limped beside my mother who now pushed the cart.
“Why did you do that?” I asked.
“What?” Mom asked looking sideways at me.
“Offer to help them?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do,” she answered as if it were that simple.
“He hurt me Friday night and jammed that cart into me on purpose.”
She nodded. Her voice was soft when she responded. “I know Abby, but two wrongs don’t make it right.”
I hated it when she said that besides my foot hurt and I wasn’t feeling charitable right now.
“Abby, you said his father gave him that black eye. His mother doesn’t even know what is happening to him. Don’t you think he’s in pain?”
“I have a hard time feeling sorry for him, Mom.” I rolled my eyes at her back.
I helped her unload our groceries from the cart into the trunk in Mom’s expensive SUV. It spoke that we had money like Dad’s vehicle, our house. Our clothes. The things inside it and for once I was paying attention and I was embarrassed.
Looking at our life versus what I had seen of the Cooper’s life. Aiden’s life. Maybe even Luke’s life although I didn’t know much about him.
We had the material things that Dad’s success could buy but we didn’t have him any more than the Cooper’s had Daniel Cooper. At least his job was for God and country. He had a selfless position in this world. Dad worked for himself to better himself. To gain glory for himself to line his bank account.
I began to look at my dad in a different light, not that I didn’t love him, but his career also took precedence over everything including us.
“Mom,” I said when we were buckled in and heading out of the parking lot, “do you ever wish Dad did something else?”
She shot me a quick look. “Like what?”
“Something that didn’t take up all his time,” I said. “He’s home Friday night for Ty’s game. Then only on Sunday. Even then he’s answering email’s during commercials and halftime.”
She laughed at me. “Abby, I knew what I was getting into when I married him. He’s always been an overachiever. He had lofty goals at eighteen.”
I nodded and stared out the window. “But wouldn’t you like to see him more?” I asked.
“I see him every night at ten o’clock sometimes ten-thirty. We wind down together every evening before I close my eyes. I get a good night kiss and a good morning kiss. I’m content.”
I wanted so much more than to be content. I wanted more than charity events and tennis lessons to occupy my time while my husband worked sixteen hours a day, six days a week except when his son had football games on Friday night.
I wanted dinner with my husband and family every night at six o’clock or seven. In today’s world dinner seemed to be later and later but I wanted that. All of us, together, eating every night or as many as we could not just one night, on Sundays.
