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“I have new friends,” she tells Mack, which irritates me. Her tone reminds me of Aubrey, and I don’t like it.
“Why don’t you go take your shower,” I tell her. She waves bye to Mack and heads toward the bathroom. “About me coming home. I have to wait for a few things to become final here and then I’ll be back. Do you want to come here for the summer? I know your mom misses you.”
“Does she?” he asks. “She never calls. I talk to you every day.”
“I’m sorry, bud.”
Mack shrugs. “Liam said he’d take me to look at some colleges this summer. Besides, I’m mad at mom.”
Me too.
“She didn’t need to go back there. If she wanted a job she could’ve worked here.”
“I know. But this is where she grew up and her parents are here.”
“Yeah, the grandparents that never call. I wonder where she learned that habit from.”
I don’t say anything. He’s entitled to be angry with his mother and grandparents. Hell, I am. They don’t call Amelie either and when they were in town, she was here. Aubrey never thought to switch weeks. When I asked her about it, she didn’t see what the big deal was. Sometimes it’s hard to understand why people are different. Being a grandparent is supposed to be the highlight of your life, your achievement for raising your own kids. My parents adore the kids and are extremely pissed off at me for allowing Amelie to move here. If only it was that easy. I get that they’re angry. So am I. But being stuck between a rock and a hard place isn’t fun either.
“How are your grades?” I ask, trying to change the subject, even though I know he’s a straight A student.
“Good. I’m ready for school to be over.”
“I used to feel the same way. And then summer wasn’t ever long enough.”
“Nope.” The puppy comes into view, kissing Mack’s face.
“He’s really cute.”
“If you were here, I’d ask if we could get a dog.”
“Yeah, we kind of talked about it for a bit but never really did anything about it. I guess in hindsight that’s a good thing.”
“I guess. I gotta go. I told Mr. Powell I’d mow the lawn and I still need to work on some commands with this fluff ball. Say hi to your Uncle Nick,” Mack says in a baby voice. “Noah’s been here a lot too.”
“That’s good. Are you spending a lot of time with him?”
Mack nods. “He did say I could go to his place for the summer if I wanted. He said his dad can be kind of annoying, but I don’t think he is. Liam’s helped me a lot.”
“That’s good. I’m happy.”
“Yeah, all right. Love ya, Dad.”
“Love ya too, bud.” Only Mack doesn’t hear me because he’s ended the call.
I sit there and stew until Amelie’s out of the shower. After tucking her in, I head for the kitchen and grab a beer from the refrigerator. When I first moved out, I made sure to keep any alcohol out of the house, out of fear Aubrey would use it against me. At this point, I don’t care. And it’s not like Amelie is awake to tell her mother, and I’m definitely not getting black out drunk.
After a couple of swigs, I pick up the phone and call Aubrey. She picks up on the third ring, sounding out of breath. Gee can’t imagine what she’s doing.
“Busy?”
“No,” she says, but I can tell she’s lying.
“Why aren’t you calling Mack?”
“Excuse me?”
“I didn’t stumble over my words, Aubrey. Mack says you haven’t spoken in a while, what gives?”
