AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Our chatting eases up for a minute while we eat, and I let my eyes wander. I’ve never been to this place before, but it’s obviously a popular spot. It was busy when we got here and it’s even busier now; couples, families, groups of friends, and singles are all over, talking and laughing and playing on their phones.
A few tables away from ours, a small family is enjoying their dinner. The parents have their phones on the table, but they’re off—the young son holds their attention, makes them laugh, keeps them talking. Even as the man puts his arm around the woman, their eyes are on the boy, their smiles genuine. I can tell they love him.
And I wonder…how do people do that? How do they keep that balance between what they want and what their child needs?
My gaze drifts to Landon, who glances up from his fries to flash me a smile.
His grandparents did it, too, didn’t they? They took care of himtogether, shaped him into the remarkable man he is, didn’t mess him up.
I look at the little family again, at how the dad is patiently cleaning up the kid’s newly-spilled drink, at how the mom is offering her own drink to him. He takes it with an audible, “Thank you!” She grins at him and helps clean up the rest of the spill.
Another family across the restaurant looks similar. They have more children, so they look more tired than the other people, but they’re still…whole.It’s obvious.
As I swing my eyes back to Landon, I blurt out curiously, “How do two people raise children without letting their relationship get in the way? How did Lolly and Pop do that?”
His chewing halts as he looks at me with curiosity of his own. Then his expression softens and he finishes his bite. “Love.”
I blink.
Is it really that simple?
Momentarily, I ask, “That’s—that’s it?”
He nods, burger in hand, eyes drifting over me. “Yeah.” He shrugs. “I mean, you always hear love isn’t enough to make a marriage or a family work, but I don’t think that’s exactly right. I’m sure some people struggle more than others, but at the end of the day, it’s like…the things you need to make relationships work are already there when you love somebody. You need to be patient and supportive, and being those things comes naturally when you love somebody. You need to compromise, and you want to as it is when you’re in love because you want the other person to be happy. You need trust, and that’s there when you fall in love—someone trusts you with all the little things they are and you do it right back. You know?”
That makes a world of sense to me.
“Yeah,” I murmur.
He gives me a long look in the eyes before he goes on. “People who aren’t able to love properly are the ones who do damage to those around them. People like your mom and your sister and my parents. Maybe they just don’t care, or maybe they don’t knowhowto care.” Another long look of a pause, and then, more softly, “Not everyone is that broken.”
My chest feels funny.
Not in a bad way like something is going wrong with my body. It’s just…odd.
I don’t know what to do other than offer him a smile, so I go with that.
He returns it and then asks, “What got you thinking about that?”
I gesture at the couple with the boy. “That little family. Started watching them on accident while I was eating and I just wondered….”
“Mmm.” He looks back at them for a couple seconds, then turns to me again, chuckling. “Yeah, they’re sweet.”
As he draws a slow breath, something unreadable moves through his expression. Then it’s gone and he’s finishing off his burger, resuming teasing me about talking with my mouth full.
As embarrassing as that was, I have to laugh all over again. I throw a fry at him and he throws one back, joining me in laughing.
We finish up before long and go on a hunt for pumpkin beer. As he said, though, it’s a popular fall beverage, so we have no trouble snagging a six-pack.
“Ohmy God,” I say in his kitchen as I stare at the bottle I just took a drink from. “This is delicious!”
“It is!” he agrees. “I love pumpkin pie, too. Before Lolly had to leave home, she made the daylights out of desserts like that for holidays.”
“Aw. Maybe we can make her one for Thanksgiving.”
His eyes light up. “Yeah! And Rae could make her some turkey crafts!”
“Yeah!” I take another drink. “Mmm, mmm, mmm.”
