AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Tim,” Andrea said. “That isn’t true and you know it. Jasmine has been here for years and loves her job and is settled. Dahlia the same. Ivy is getting there.”
“We were married and had a family by their ages,” Tim said.
Wesley lifted an eyebrow and looked at Jasmine. She was frowning and it wasn’t the reaction he wanted. Would she rebel against the words her father was saying when here he was thinking they were moving in the right direction?
“Times are different,” his mother said. “Women have careers that they are putting first. I’m guilty of that myself.”
“My bosses are all older than me,” Jasmine said. “They’ve built their business from the ground up. Lily just had her first child a few weeks ago and has been married for a year. Poppy got married in the spring and Rose is getting married next month.”
“See, Tim, I told you. We are so used to other cultures that we’ve lost track of how things are done where our children are living. That doesn’t mean what they are doing is wrong. Many wouldn’t agree with our lifestyle.”
“My daughters included,” Tim said, grinning.
“It had its moments,” Jasmine said. “I guess, looking back, it wasn’t as horrible as I’d thought.”
“Yes, it was,” Dahlia said. “Come on. We all hated it.”
“Hate is a strong word,” Jasmine said. He didn’t know where this was coming from.
“You told me plenty of times you wished we didn’t live the way we did,” her mother said.
“You’re right. I wish we didn’t. But it made us who we are. Maybe we are all a little broken or awkward from it. I don’t know. But I do know I’ve got a better appreciation for my family in this room now. That is one thing I took away from the way we were raised. I do appreciate what I’ve got and what is important in life.”
“Jasmine is right,” Ivy said. “But I did hate it. I’m not blaming anyone for anything, but it’s been hard to live here. It would have been hard to live anywhere permanently because we never knew any life long enough.”
“It’s not easy on your father and me either,” Andrea said. “But we made choices in our lives and we’ve accepted them. We won’t always do this and will come back to America to settle down at some point.”
“When?” Jasmine asked.
“Not for years,” Tim said. “This is my calling. You all need to find yours and then you’ll understand.”
Wesley wasn’t sure he liked hearing that. It was selfish in his eyes, but it did remind him that he’d put his job first in his marriage too. Then Noelle did the same thing.
If he learned one thing from that and even from looking around this table, it was that there was more to life than work and a career.
There was family and there was love.
And it was time to tell the woman he’d fallen in love with how he felt.
32
Speak My Mind
“Thanks for tolerating my family tonight,” Jasmine said when they got back to his house.
“Not a problem,” he said. “They weren’t bad. Not even loud. And much better than my father was.”
“Really?” she asked. “Your father complimented you. My father doesn’t do that. I’m not sure if he is even aware of it, to be honest. I think he is just so used to being almost robotic in his job that he can’t shut it all off.”
She’d never realized that before as a kid, but tonight shed some light on it a little.
She saw him trying. She saw him being corrected by her mother and then a look of confusion that he didn’t know he’d done what he had. He’d even apologized a few times when he’d done it.
What surprised her the most was the fact that her father seemed more worried they weren’t all settled down in their lives.
“My father only sucks up when he wants something. Money. I’m sure he had a lot of choice words to say about me that weren’t complimentary in the least on the drive back to Florida.”
She giggled. “I think you might be right.”
