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“Oh my God,” Elise said as she burst out laughing. “I wish I could have been in there to hear you say that. You never say anything like that. That would have been something I’d say. What was his reaction?”
“He frowned and then nodded his head and said nothing else.”
“Wuss,” Elise said. “He can’t even defend his own wife.”
“Why would he if he didn’t think it was right?” he asked.
“Because you stand up for the person you love,” Elise said. “Even if they are wrong, you talk about it in private, but you put a united front up to others.”
His sister was right. People in love should do that.
Something his father did for his mother but his mother never did for his father.
“He didn’t say a word and maybe that was his way of offering an olive branch for the shit we had to deal with today. We’re good for a solid year now,” he said.
“I hope so. She made a big enough fuss for us to go there this year and then treated us exactly the way we both felt. You’d think she’d realize that is why we don’t visit or call.”
“Mom never thinks she does anything wrong. It’s beyond us now and we can enjoy the rest of the day with Dad.”
“Yeah,” Elise said. “Dad’s great. He’s always upfront and honest. He never knocks us down and he stands up for us all the time.”
“He does,” he said softly. He wasn’t ready to let his sister know that their father wasn’t always upfront and honest and had something up his sleeve.
He supposed in the grand scheme of things, trying to set his son up with a woman wasn’t a horrible idea, but to Royce, he was frustrated because he felt like Elise did, that their father had always been there for them and now he wasn’t so sure what to think.
10
Times Are Different
“How is work going?” Chloe’s mother asked her on Christmas morning.
“It’s good,” she said. “Busy as always, but I love it.”
“You need to find time to have a personal life,” her father said. “You aren’t getting any younger.”
She kept her smile in place when she wanted to growl. It was the holiday after all and her niece and nephew witnessed this. No reason to upset Tiffani and Tyler.
“Thank you for that, Dad. I almost forgot.”
Her brother Dane laughed and looked away. “What about you, Dane?” her mother asked. “How is your job going?”
Her brother was a pediatrician. He’d gotten married in med school, had his kids while he finished his residency and fellowships and then six months after he was officially practicing, his ex filed for divorce citing he was never there for her and the kids.
She’d been pissed for her brother. She’d been in his corner helping the whole time.
Her ex-sister-in-law, Melanie, was only in it for the potential of being married to a doctor. She’d always felt that way.
Melanie pushed for the kids when Dane was focused on his career, but Melanie insisted she could handle it.
Chloe had seen the writing on the wall but could only be there for Dane through it all.
He’d been divorced about a year now, almost. He had shared custody of the kids and when he was at work, her parents picked them up from daycare or school until Dane was done.
He was making it work the best he could with the hand he was dealt.
“Going great,” Dane said. “I get to make babies cry all the time.”
“You don’t make me cry, Daddy,” Tiffani said. At five years old she had her daddy wrapped around her little finger.
