Page 117 of Contentious

“Is that safe?”

“He said it was fine.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I, but what can we do? It’s not like he’d listen to us.”

Corbin put his arm around her and guided her to the sofa in the sunroom at her place in Santa Barbara. With their nerves shot from the trauma of the past week, they’d come up the night before, after visiting Carson in the hospital and learning he was due to be released.

“He seems quite taken with Cresley,” Kate said.

“And Julian with Isla. These are big developments for our commitment-averse children.”

“I overheard something when we were at the hospital that I’ve been wanting to tell you when we had a minute to catch our breath.”

“What’s that?” Corbin asked.

“I think Griffin has a daughter with an ex-girlfriend.”

His shocked expression was priceless. “What? No way. I would’ve heard about that.”

“Not necessarily. You know how secretive our children are.”

“So that would make us…”

“I believe ‘grandparents’ is the term most commonly used.”

“Haha. No way. I’m not ready for that.”

“Ready or not…”

Corbin blew out a deep sigh. “What’re we going to do about the kids, Katie?”

“I don’t know. They’ll barely even look at us since TMZ outed us, not that I blame them.”

“I’ve gotten emails from all the Hollywood shows wanting us for an exclusive interview. Some of them are even offering big payouts.”

“I’ve gotten the same messages.”

“Maybe we ought to go that route to tell our side of the story.”

Kate curled her hand around his, which gave him a warm feeling of homecoming with the only woman he’d ever loved.

“The kids wouldn’t appreciate us bringing more attention to the story than we’ve already gotten,” she said.

“They haven’t given us much choice since they refuse to engage with us.”

“It’s a bad idea, Corb. We’re already on extremely thin ice with them. Things have been very tense with the girls at the office.”

“Same for me with the boys. They’re mostly ignoring me, which can’t go on forever.”

“We need to have some patience with them,” Kate said, “and give them time to get used to seeing us together, and perhaps eventually, they’ll want to understand what brought us back to each other.”

“That might be wishful thinking.”

“Despite our many failings, we were decent parents. Surely that has to count for something.”

“No, we weren’t, Katie. I fucked up royally, and all of you suffered as a result.”