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When I reach him, I say, "Hey, kid."
"Hi." He kicks some dirt on the ground but doesn't look up at me. "I'm sorry I stormed off like that."
"It's alright. Just wanted to come make sure you were okay."
"I'm fine."
"Do you want to talk about what made you snap?"
Still no eye contact. "Not really."
"Okay," I move next to him. "Look, I know your dad can be a bit much sometimes."
He interrupts. "You don't know the half of it."
"No, I guess not. But you just have to learn to pick your battles."
That gets him to look at me. "And what battles do you actually pick?"
"Chris," I say, sternly.
"Just don't," he says. "Let's just go watch the rest of the game."
But as we are walking back, Alex comes towards us. "Where were you?! You missed my goal!"
Great.
Anybody else I want to piss off or disappoint today?
Chapter Twenty-eight
Tanner
"Youlookgorgeous,"Itell Erin as I look over at her sitting in the passenger's seat.
"Thanks," she says, looking down at her sundress. "I wasn't sure exactly how fancy this wedding was going to be."
I chuckle. "Knowing Duke, not fancy at all. When you meet him, you'll see that Duke is the epitome of a simple man."
"Do you think your mom is going to be mean to me?" She asks nervously.
Grabbing her hand, I link my fingers with hers. "Not on my watch, she's not. And after spending five minutes with you, they'll all fall in love—just like I did."
A small smile tugs at her lips, but I can tell she's still anxious. That's further proven when she raises her other hand to her mouth and starts biting her nubby fingernails.
The past few days between us have been more than a little tense. The other night when she stopped me from going to Alex's game, my feelings were hurt. I probably shouldn't have reacted as harshly as I did. Afterwards, I tried putting myself in Erin's position, and no matter which way I thought about it there was never an easy answer.
The next day, I went out of town for work. John now has me just checking on completed jobs and giving the final okay so that we can move on to the next one. Instead of being gone for almost two weeks at a time, I'm maybe gone one or two days out of those two weeks. It's definitely been a lot easier, but it's still hard to head out of town when you feel like there's something hanging over the two of you.
Since I didn't get home until late, this is the first time that we've seen each other since. I'm sure it also doesn't help matters that we haven't gotten anysexytime since the bar incident. And even then, things were tense. Between having the kids and navigating our schedules, it's been hard to find the time to get down and dirty. I find that sometimes, when neither one of you knows the right thing to say, a long, hard fuck can help diffuse the tension.
Maybe it's not the healthiest way to deal with things, but I can only assume it's better than ignoring the problem.
What the hell do I know? I'm no therapist.
Hopefully, today, we can try to get back to where we were. The kids are with Judd, so she and I have the whole weekend together—assuming she wants me around that long.
When I first picked her up, she was walking on eggshells like she was terrified that I was still mad. Clearly, when Judd got mad about things, hestayedmad about things. I don't want to be that guy, and I don't want Erin ever thinking that she needs to be scared around me. The damage that has been done to her over the years runs deep.
