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“Just relaxed it.” He’d certainly had no idea about the ice cream, but he didn’t care about it at the moment. He was more concerned with whether Diana had left Faith unscathed. “What did you do?”
Her eyes widened, all innocence. “What makes you think I’d be anything other than perfectly cordial?”
He shook his head, disgusted with her and with himself. He hated these conversations that were effectively tennis matches with parried questions and evasive answers. Give him good old-fashioned bluntness any day.
“Just go.”
She frowned. “Aren’t you going to thank me?”
Shane clutched the fraying ends of his patience. “For what?”
She seemed surprised by his confusion. “For taking Dylan out and spending time with him.”
That cemented it. She was a terrible mother.
“No, I’m not going to thank you for doing something any mother should do. You’re lucky to get the chance to be around him, not the other way around.”
With a huff, she swung around, and the moment her feet passed over the threshold, he shut the door behind her and locked it. Then he ran a hand through his hair, wondering whether he needed to call Faith to apologize—again—or if it was more urgent to check in with Dylan and make sure Diana hadn’t gotten into his head, as she was so talented at doing. Deciding Dylan was more vulnerable than Faith, he went to his son’s room and knocked.
“Yeah?” Dylan called.
Shane cracked the door open. “Can I come in?”
“If you want.”
He opened it further. Dylan sat on the edge of his bed with his arms crossed, scowling. Shane joined him, leaving enough space between them so that Dylan wouldn’t feel crowded.
“How was dinner with your mum?”
“Fine.”
Ah, so that’s how this was going to go. “I heard you got ice cream too.”
Dylan still didn’t look at him. “Yeah, and?”
“Was it good?”
This seemed to catch him off guard. “Yeah. The Shack makes the best ice cream.” He meant that Faith makes the best ice cream, but he didn’t want to use her name. Sighing, Shane wondered whether Diana had tried to poison Dylan against her, or if this was all coming from him.
Dylan scuffed his foot on the floor. “Mum says she might come back permanently if she was allowed to move home.”
A sharp pain stabbed Shane in the chest. How dare she get their son’s hopes up like that? She was manipulating him to get what she wanted. Diana would never live here full-time. She loved stardom too much. But she had no problem toying with Dylan’s emotions in order to screw with Shane. Hesitantly, he rested a hand on his son’s skinny knee.
“She’s welcome to move back to the bay,” he said, hoping he wasn’t about to screw up monumentally. No one had ever prepared him for the myriad ways he could mess up his children. “I hope she does because you deserve to have her around, but there’s something you need to understand. Your mother and I are never getting back together. No ifs, buts, or maybes. We’re just not.”
Dylan yanked his leg from beneath Shane’s hand and stood, then marched to the other side of the room and sunk to the floor, where he drew his knees to his chest.
“Is it because of Faith?”
Ugh. Shane winced. Dylan really had a hang-up where she was concerned. Was it resolvable?
“No, buddy, it’s not. Even before Faith and I started spending time together, I wouldn’t have invited Diana back into our house. It’s not where she belongs.”
“But she’s our family,” he insisted. “Caleb’s parents got back together after his dad’s girlfriend left, so why can’t Mum come back if Faith leaves?”
“Family wouldn’t run away to America and leave us behind,” Shane reminded him softly. “That’s something your mother did before I even knew Faith. I’m sorry, but just because Caleb’s parents worked it out doesn’t mean we can. It’s a completely different situation.”
Dylan’s eyes welled with tears, but whether they were of sadness or frustration, he couldn’t tell. “Why does it have to be?” he demanded. “She came back.”
