Page 178 of Enthrall Ecstasy
“And your dad?”
“He left when I was twelve.” I shrugged. “We did okay.”
Cole had helped me work through my gnarly childhood where my father’s discipline was a fine edge between strictness and cruelty. It had nothing to do with me and everything to do with Dad’s own demons. That’s what I’d come to understand from the brief therapy sessions I’d had.
But wallowing in self-pity just wasn’t me.
“It was a happy time for the most part,” I added.
“Are you close to your mom?”
“Yes. I need to go see her. I owe her a visit. Work gets in the way.”
“Maybe we could take a drive down there?”
“She’d love that—she’d enjoy meeting you.”
“I love the San Diego Zoo.”
“I can take you there.”
Making plans with Rue felt natural.
“We had this framed print in the living room,” I began. “I couldn’t remember it not being there. With my first bonus check, I went out and actually bought the original painting for Mom one Christmas.”
“Really?”
“I went through Cameron’s art dealer.” I smiled. “It was my first time purchasing a piece.”
“Your mom must have been thrilled.”
“It didn’t exactly go as planned.”
“Why? What happened?”
“When she unwrapped it, she looked bewildered. I couldn’t understand why. She explained that my aunt had given the old print to her, and it was more about the memory of the day she’d been out with her sister than the painting itself.”
“Oh.”
I shook my head. “She ended up hanging the one I got her in the bedroom. She wanted to look at it before going to sleep.”
“Because it reminds her of you.”
“I’ve never been into owning things, you know. Don’t care for having a lot of stuff. I think it’s because when I served abroad, we had so little. I got used to being without. I like the freedom of being able to move around.”
“You’ll miss this place.”
“It’s going to be hard to leave it.”
“But it’s great you’re building your own home,” she said.
I stood and picked up our plates. “I’ll grab dessert.”
She didn’t need to know what was on my mind. That not everything worked out the way we want it to.
That piece of land had been a fun dream for a while.
But Rue…she was more important.
