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Landon is the reason.
He is the only wrench in the wheels of this new family functioning like a well-oiled machine.
Landon nods, holding his father’s gaze. Then he turns around and comes back down the stairs. “All right. I’m out of here,” he says, snatching the bag without stopping.
“You’re not driving,” Hayden states before he can make it far. “You’re grounded. That means no car. And you’ve been drinking. I’ll drive you.”
“I’d rather walk,” Landon states.
My stomach is in knots. I have a really stupid urge to go after him, but I’m afraid of him making things worse.
Hayden sighs, watching his son leave.
It’s probably a little bit on purpose, but as soon as Landon is out the door, I remember his school bag.
“Wait, his school stuff is in his car,” I say, already inching toward the dish where Landon drops his keys. “I’ll just run out real quick and tell him in case he forgets.”
“Parker,” Mom calls after me, clearly objecting.
“I’ll only be a minute.”
I rush out before either of them can stop me.
My heart pounds as I head down the steps to the driveway. “Landon, wait.”
He looks back over his shoulder. His steps slow, but he doesn’t stop.
I have to jog to catch up to him. “I… I’m the one that packed your bag, and I couldn’t find your school stuff. Your dad thought it might be in your car, but you got here before we could check, so…” I hold out his keys. “You may want to grab it.”
He doesn’t take the keys. Doesn’t even look at them. Instead, he stares at me. “Youpacked my bag.”
It feels like an accusation of betrayal, and it makes my stomach bottom out. “Your dad asked me to.”
“You always do everything he tells you to?” he asks snidely.
I don’t know what to say. I can understand Hayden’s frustration with his son, but I can also understand how Landon is feeling. The things he said to his dad just now further cement my theory about why he has such a problem with my mom.
It’s not her, personally.
It’s his dad he really has the problem with, and the issues between them have built up for so many years… we just came into a mess. They probably need therapy or something to truly untangle it all.
And when I was younger I didn’t get it, I just thought Landon was cruel, but now that I’m older, he reminds me of something I read once. I don’t remember the exact phrasing, but it was something like, “sometimes the people who need love most ask for it in the most unloving ways.”
Landon probably does need discipline, but it needs to be tempered with love and compassion. I think he still needs what I tried to offer him years ago. He pushed it away then, and I expect he will again because the old wounds never healed.
Lucky for him, I’m not fragile anymore. I can weather his rejection and cruelty without being as wounded by it as I was back then because I understand where it comes from now. I didn’t before.
“I think it sucks that he’s making you leave. Even if it is just for a couple of days. I think it sucks.”
Landon’s eyes narrow skeptically.
“I know you don’t like having us here. I’m sure it’s weird to have to share your space and your dad with other people after not having to for so long, but I really wish you’d give us a chance. You’re coming at it with this me vs. them mindset, and it doesn’t have to be that way. We want you to be apartof our family. We want to be part of yours. Things between you and your dad seem rough, but I don’t think it has to be that way. If you both gave each other a little more grace, maybe—”
Before I can finish, Landon grabs my hips and walks me back until I’m pressed against his car. “I don’t need your help mending my relationship with my daddy,” he says a touch mockingly.
My heart does a somersault. It’s not his words, but the way he’s looking at me that triggers it. I’ve never been more aware of anything than his hand on my hip. A strange tension starts in my lower abdomen as his fingers flex, his grip tightening in preparation of me trying to get away.
I swallow. “I was just trying to—”
