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I stop walking. “Why are you relieved I’m miserable.”
“I’m relieved you’re coming to me about it.”
“So you know?”
From his profile, Dad eyeballs me and stops walking. “You think I should’ve tried to help?”
“Yeah!”
“Does it have to do with your wife?”
I blink. “Yeah.”
“Do you think you would’ve listened to me?”
“Of course I would’ve!”
Dad faces me. Crosses his arms. Waits. Aragorn strolls closer. Neighs for recognition. Neither of us move or even glance over.
My father, who’s always been the rock of the family, exhales through his nose, trying to contain his…who knows what he’s thinking? “See this stand-off? You think I wanted this earlier when I hardly even get to see you as it is, and you live within walking distance? I know how stubborn you are, Ben!” He steps closer, leaving only one foot between us. “Why do you think I ask you to help me around here when we both know I don’t need the help? Because when you come over I get to see that dark cloud you walk under, lift. It takes too much time, longer and longer, every day you showed up until you stopped saying yes.” We stare at each other a few heated seconds. “You think I needed to paint that barn twice in two years? Hell no! But it took me inventing something on a large enough scale for your wife not to make a stink about it.” He raises his eyebrows at how quickly mine just rose. “Oh, I know she wants to keep you over there all to herself. We both know, and your mother has begged me to talk to you, and to let her do if I won’t, but I told her that a man can’t hear bad words about his wife without raising his hackles. Until he’s ready and there’s a good enough reason. And there was, but we had to wait until you came to us. So your mom and I devised ways to get you over here with our grandson to help me fix the fences, extend the chicken coop, Rewire the milking stations. Deliver hay.” He cocks his head. “The delivery guy was available. I lied. And all of that because when we asked your family over for dinner, for lunch, even something that would take as little time as having a morning coffee, the answer was no.”
Feelings are foreign to me. Been numb for way too long. It’s a struggle to grunt, “Why didn’t you say something.”
“You’re pissed. But not at me. You’ll hear what I just said later.” Aragorn has walked off, instinctively knowing this isn’t time. And he neighs when Dad shouts, “Ben, if you ever need to talk, I’m here! You know that! You remember the time when I said, Ben, why don’t you all come over for dinner anymore? Ben! Are you happy? And your mom even said, If you and Jonny ever need a place to stay, we’re here. Remember how you reacted to that? Silence. Then you walked out.”
“I was tired of everyone giving me a hard time about Shelby!”
“You mean you were tired of everyone who loves you holding up a mirror to what you didn’t want to see.” He grabs my head with both hands, bringing our foreheads together, voice a rasp of pain. “I needed you to come to me. I needed you to want to. There was no other way you’d listen.”
Tears fight their way out, hovering. Dad hugs me and says, “Now tell me what you want to do.”
“I want out.”
“We’ll do whatever we can to help.”
TWO
Ben
Not Long Afterward…
After the game, Ethan and I are playing pool at their mansion, while his wife, Charlotte, is in the backyard with the kids. “I’m beating you worse than my son’s team beat yours today.”
Snatching one of the sandwiches Charlie left out for us, I smirk, “You’re a competitive sonofabitch, you know that?”
“Don’t talk about my mom like that.”
“I’ll talk about Aunt Drew any way I want.”
Ethan laughs and mutters, while aiming his pool stick for a 5-ball corner pocket move, “I dare you to say when my dad’s here.”
Thinking about the look on Uncle Jake’s face if he were here, having him react to me implying anything about his wife other than glowing testaments, explodes a laugh from my gut.
Ethan raises an eyebrow.
He hasn’t seen me laugh in years.
“I’m gonna have to try that,” I snort.
