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She frowned at him. “Why do you have to bring that up?”
“Because it’s like you said. They are there and won’t go away. You can say you’re good, but I’m not always sure you are.”
“I don’t know what I can do to get you to believe me,” she said.
“It’s going to take time. Time for us both. Thank you for the way you were with my mother tonight.”
Max started to splash his hands around the tub, sending water toward Zara’s face. That had her laughing and wiping it away with her hand. He handed her a towel. “What way is that?”
“The way you always used to be. I’m not sure anyone has told her she looks good. At least in a long time. Not even me.”
“Then shame on you and everyone else. Your mother looks wonderful. She’s the same sweet lady she always was to me. Why wouldn’t I treat her the same as I did back then?”
“Guess you put me in my place.”
“There are no places here, Ren. We both have some bottled up feelings. We can talk them out as much as we want, but the other is going to have to trust what we say is the truth.”
“I don’t think you’re lying.”
The last thing he wanted to do was start a fight. Not when it seemed they were making up so much ground.
“You just don’t think I’m telling you everything? Is it because you aren’t telling me everything?”
“I’m not keeping anything from you. You’ve always known about my relationship with my father. You know everything there is about Rachelle and how Max came into my life. You know how I’m fumbling my way through raising him. Hell, one week here and I lost track of time and picked him up late.”
“Which happens to pretty much every parent on this planet. We all forget things in life and in our jobs. Parenting is a job. No one is perfect,” she said.
He’d always thought she was. Even now she was trying to make him feel better about his shortcomings. She did that all the time.
As kids she’d found those that needed the boost and gave it to them.
Her sunny nature had many smiling and other boys jealous of him that he’d had her on his arm.
He threw it away as she said because he was stupid.
He had to remind himself that she’d speak up when she wanted to and to stop looking for roadblocks in their way.
Max splashed some more water at Zara. “My kid isn’t perfect. He’s being a little stinkpot right now on top of it. Let me get him out and in his pajamas.”
“Want me to get his bottle ready?”
“If you could, thanks. A little bit of cereal too. Maybe if he’s stuffed he’ll sleep better. Not that I want to rush dinner, bath and bedtime together every night, but we’ll see what happens.”
“I’m sure he’ll sleep fine,” she said and walked out of the bathroom.
He picked Max up out of the tub and set him on the towel on the floor and dried him off to the sounds of deep belly laughter. He’d never grow tired of that.
“Is everything ready?” he asked a few minutes later when he put Max in his seat for his cereal.
“It is. I’ll feed him if you want. You get to do this all the time. I miss it at night when it’s one on one. I loved it with Willow.”
He stopped himself from making a comment about her doing it all the time. She’d pointed out more than once she didn’t and he was starting to wonder how much she wished she had her own child in life. Not one that she shared time with during the day and was paid for it.
Something he’d have to put in the back of his mind for now.
“Sure,” he said.
After the last gulp was gone from the bottle and a loud burp, Max was rubbing his eyes, so Ren brought him to his room and put him to bed.
