AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But it wasn’t going to happen in the immediate future and he had to get that in his head for now.
“Hi, buddy,” she said when she answered the phone. “How are you doing?”
He didn’t hear the conversation. Not the whole one. He only saw Roni frowning but then saying all the right words and being positive. She was encouraging him to try harder and not get upset. Something had to be going on. Then she ground her teeth and he could have sworn she growled, but she moved the phone away so that Eli wouldn’t hear it.
After a few minutes she said she loved him and hung up.
“Do I want to know what is going on or don’t you want to share?”
She tossed her phone on the counter and went to the couch and sat down. “I don’t think you need to hear the drama I go through.”
“Roni,” he said, sitting next to her. “You’re my girlfriend. I care a great deal about you and you’re upset. Don’t always feel like you can’t tell me things. I’m not sure why you do.”
She turned to look at him and he figured he shouldn’t have said he cared for her. Maybe she wasn’t ready to hear those words.
Maybe she didn’t feel them either.
Good thing he didn’t let it slip that he thought he was falling in love with her.
Yeah, best not to go there anytime soon.
“There is no reason to bring it into our relationship.”
“Because you think I’m going to get turned off by it?” he asked. “I could easily have not asked and brushed it off, but I didn’t. You’re upset and don’t get that way often. Tell me what is going on.”
She turned to look at him, there were tears in her eyes and his heart broke. “It’s hard to hear Eli crying. More so when I’m not there to hug him or make him feel better.”
“Why was he crying? Is he hurt?”
“No,” she said. “He failed his spelling test he took last week. I make him study. I go through all his schoolwork with him every night. I look at what is coming up and make sure he’s ready for it.”
“How did he fail then?” he asked.
“Because he was at Jeff’s the night before the test. Eli said he asked his father for help and was told to do it on his own. That’s when Jeff got on the phone having heard Eli say that.”
“I’m sure he didn’t like getting his name thrown out like that.”
“Of course not. He got on to say that he was busy dealing with something for work and that it was not that he wasn’t on top of Eli’s work. He told Eli to study on his own and then said I need to stop doing everything and holding Eli’s hand. He has to learn to do those things on his own.”
“He’s seven,” Trent said angrily.
“I know,” she said. “We have different parenting opinions. I can’t say anything or do anything about it. Eli has said that Jeff asks him every night if his work is done or if there is anything he needs to sign or do.”
“That’s good,” he said.
“He does his job as a parent, but not as I would do it. He expects Eli to ask for help.”
“It sounds as if Eli did,” he pointed out.
“And Jeff didn’t do it. Eli got back on and said he did study, but it’s hard with spelling to do it on your own. It’s easier if someone asks him the word rather than him looking at the word and then writing it down.”
“It makes sense,” he said. “You just saw it to know the word so you could remember the spelling without actually thinking.”
“I’m sure that is part of it. He needs to study the way it’d be asked of him for the test,” she said.
“You said all the right things,” he said.
“I know. I can’t even get mad at Jeff. He’s probably going to lecture Eli for telling me that. And Eli was upset he failed. He doesn’t like to get bad grades. He tries and does his work. He’s one of these kids that doesn’t want to disappoint anyone and if he’s crying it’s serious in his eyes because he rarely cries.”
