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“I know, Dad,” he says with a bit of annoyance in his voice.
“Do you? Do you understand what you did? You could have ruined your entire future by acting before thinking. Why couldn’t you have just left well enough alone?”
“You mean if someone had assaulted Mom at a party, and when you got to her she had a red mark on her face from him hitting her and was crying, that you’d ‘just leave well enough alone’ and walk away? Screw that. That’s such bullshit, Dad, and you know it!”
“Hey, watch your mouth. And no, that’s not what I mean. I wouldn’t just walk away, but beating him to a pulp isn’t the answer either. You could have pulled Bri away from the situation, away from Dawson…”
“Right. Just pulled her away from that prick and never said a word. Never even defended her? Do you realize what he could have done to her if I hadn’t stepped in? What it looked like he planned to do?” His voice is pained, and I wish I could take away what he clearly keeps seeing in his eyes, his memories not fading away in the slightest.
“Grady, sweetie, what your dad is trying to say is there’s always another option. Fighting isn’t the be-all-end-all. I get that you were upset,” she says but is interrupted by Grady’s scoff, indicating he is a little more than upset. “But…” she says and gives him the eye, “…the main focus needed to be getting Bri away from Dawson.”
“Yeah, I did that. I made sure she was safe. I put her in my car and had her girlfriends with her. I tried to get Brandon to stay with her, too, but he wasn’t having it. He saw the whole thing go down, too, Mom. The prick got what was coming to him. I’m sorry you guys feel that I should have just walked away, but you have no idea what it was like there. No. Idea. He hurt her. He hurt my Bri. And yeah, I know exactly how that sounds, but screw it. I’m tired of not being honest about my feelings for her and, on that note, I’m not sorry that I hit him. There’s not a chance in hell I’m going to apologize to the douche nozzle after what he did,” he says with absolute certainty. He stands up, angrily shoves his chair back into the table, and storms off down to the basement.
We sit in silence, trying to fully understand what just happened. Grady seemed calm and relaxed and suddenly he stormed off. Damn teenagers and their hormonal ways.
Chapter Eleven
Tess
The rest of the day is just as crappy as it began. Between the constant slamming doors by Grady, being graced with Eric, Dawson’s horrible father’s presence, the visit from Coach, and Bri not answering Grady’s phone calls for some reason, we’ve had all the fun we can handle. Cole tried his best to be Switzerland. If he wasn’t trying to stand up for Grady, he was trying to get him to understand our point of view.
The day goes back and forth from wonderful to crap and back to wonderful again.
Dawson’s dad hadn’t been told the entire story, no shocker there. When we politely informed him of the truth, he was less than impressed with his son’s actions. Of course, he didn’t believe us at first, but after a few phone calls, he got the picture, especially when he saw a picture of Bri and what his son had a hand in.
I should be used to the love I have for my husband, but seeing him stand toe to toe with that horrible man, standing up for our son — and for Bri — not backing down an inch, only made him even sexier, and I fell for him all over again. Something about my man going to bat for our children… it’s just hot: his shoulders broad and strong, his square chiseled jaw clenched, those bright hazel eyes dark and stormy. My goodness, if the situation wasn’t so serious, I would knock him down and straddle him right then.
When Maggie and Harper came home after their sleepovers, they were beyond excited to see Cole home. Harper jumped into his arms and has been clinging to him like a spider monkey since. Maggie hasn’t left his side either, which means that all four of our kids have been stuck like glue to one another all day long, since Cole hasn’t separated from Grady since they woke up this morning.
Grady called Maggie and explained everything to her, but we kept the details from Harper, only telling her what she needed to know, that her big brother stuck up for his best friend. She’s not old enough to understand all of what has happened, and she adores Bri like a sister, so we didn’t want her to worry. Grady wanted Maggie to hear it from him, not only knowing how much Bri means to Maggie, but also because word will be around school on Monday, and probably sooner, thanks to social media.
Barrett left for about an hour today to get Grady’s screen replaced. While he was at the cell store, he was informed that we could upgrade our phones. I think he needed the break away from the house and all the drama, clear his head, so I told him to go ahead and switch ours over to the newer versions, knowing it would give him more time away from the house. Of course, no doubt because of our old age senility, we messed things up during setup and now somehow keep receiving each other’s texts. We’re both way too technically challenged, as is obvious by our texting issues. I’m sure Grady or Maggie can figure out how to get our phones back to normal, but for today I’m just too wiped out to care, and we both need to focus on the family. Besides, it’s not like either of us have anything to hide, so receiving each other’s texts isn’t that big of a deal. Stupid Cloud. Who understands it anyway?
This evening we’re having a family night. A much-needed, long-overdue family night. We order pizza, grab a bunch of snacks and some soda, and head into the family room, where Harper and Maggie have already picked out a couple of movies for us to watch. Barrett sits down on the large, dark brown sectional in one of the seats that doubles as a recliner. Maggie saddles up next to him while the boys stretch out in the other recliners. Harper makes herself comfortable on Cole’s lap, still not letting the poor guy out of her sight for more than a few minutes at a time, and I sit on one of the corner seats. Barrett and I are nowhere near each other. Again.
The first of the two movies comes to a close, and Harper didn’t make it to the ending credits before falling asleep. She’s dead on her feet, so Cole picks her up and carries her to her bedroom. Barrett glances over at me with raised eyebrows and says, “See how easy that is?”
Is it right to want to gut check your husband? Probably not but that’s my initial reaction. I’m sure he didn’t mean it to be rude or hurtful, but hurt doesn’t even begin to describe what those five words do to me. I don’t even know why. It’s true. It’s not hard to bring Harper to her room. What hurts is that he acts as if it’s all on me.
Just last night we were back to ourselves, and now it’s like we took a hundred steps backward. How can we go from forgiving and loving toward each other to this? The day has been a bundle of stress, but that’s when we should lean on each other, not pick each other apart.
“Didyousee how easy that is?” I smart back.
I notice Maggie and Grady are looking back and forth between us and can see the concern flashing in their eyes. We know the kids need to see a real marriage, which includes disagreements, but what they don’t need to see is their parents being plain nasty to each other, so before it can escalate into something far worse than those few words, I turn my attention toward the TV and try to focus on whatever family movie the girls chose for round two.
After we’ve finished watching the movies, the entire family stands up to head to their rooms. I know Grady will flip his top if Bri doesn’t answer the phone soon, so am not surprised in the least when he asks if it’s okay if he and Cole head out to check on her. Maggie says she’s tired and heads to bed, and Barrett says he’s going to let the dogs out, leaving me to clean up the empty pizza boxes, chip bags, soda cans, water glasses, and all the paper plates and napkins. Apparently no one had a single thought of possibly helping good old mom out.
I finish cleaning up, check the coffeepot to get it ready for the next morning, and shuffle my way to bed, only to be greeted by Barrett’s light snoring. Just great.
I get ready for bed, which takes way longer than it used to. Some nights I’m so tired and dread the thought of all that it entails to get ready: washing my face, brushing my teeth, applying ointments and creams and lotions. It’s like a strange science experiment I have to conduct on my face every night. In the middle of my bedtime regimen, I hear my phone chirp with an incoming text, so before I settle into bed for the night, I check my phone, only for my heart to nearly stop.
Thanks to somehow goofing up our sending and receiving of texts, I received one of Barrett’s. Only I’m fairly positive this one I’m not meant to read. So much for neither of us having anything to hide.
Keri Office:Thought you’d like to see what you were missing tonight.
Followed by a picture of who I assume is Keri, since I’ve never actually met her. But now I’ve seen her. Naked. Well, basically naked. It’s of her with no top on, her one arm stretched over her chest barely covering her perky bits. Her slim, toned stomach on full display, and I’m sure if the camera view would have allowed it, I’d have gotten a good look at her southern region too. Yay.
I stare, dumbfounded. My eyes well with tears before I can stop them. A loud sob erupts from my throat that I don’t even try to catch. With shaky hands, I put my phone down and stare at it.
