Page 97 of Mr. Frosty Pants
Jonathan smiled bitterly. “I had eyes. And a parent knows their child, even when they don’t know them at all.”
Joel frowned but didn’t push it with questions.
“When he was twelve, I put the belt away, and I never used it again. Do you know why?”
“No.”
“Because I realized that every time I used the belt, I lost. It just drove Casey farther from me and from what I wanted for him.” His shoulders slumped, and he turned back to the window. “The threats I made the other night are just another belt. I know that. I felt it when I was saying the words. I love my son. I truly do. But some part of me won’t easily accept that I can’t force him to be the man I want him to be.”
Joel stared at the back of Jonathan’s blond head. It wasn’t an apology, and it wasn’t a promise, but it was close enough, maybe. Bittersweet pain washed over him. He’d never see his own father in a moment of self-reflection like this one. The closest he’d ever get would be the dark ruminations of regret when his father wished him never born. Casey’s father was an asshole, but he didn’t seem to be an irredeemable one. Not yet anyway.
“So, Joel,” Jonathan said, turning back around, the backlighting from the window hiding the exact expression on his face. “You can have your way. We’ll let this thing go on naturally. I don’t think I have any choice in the matter really, between my son and my wife. But I want you to make a bet with me.”
He frowned, rising from his seat to meet Jonathan’s gaze better. “What’s that?”
“If you’re still around by next Christmas, you’ll come to me and apologize for having so little faith in him.”
Joel’s throat tightened, confusion churning in his chest. “And if I’m right? If he does leave?”Shh, he soothed himself internally,Casey loves you.
“Then I’ll send a note with my condolences and a very nice Christmas bonus.”
Joel shook his head. “No money.”
Jonathan shrugged. “We’ll see.” He put out his hand. “Do we have an agreement?”
Joel studied his face, seeing the tired lines around his eyes and mouth and the resignation in his expression. “Yes. It’s a deal.”
They shook on it.
As Joel left the office, he wondered how it was that he’d come to bet against Casey, and that Jonathan, who made no bones about his disapproval, had come to bet on their relationship actually succeeding.
His heart quivered with hope and desperate love. He’d never wanted to lose a bet so much.
“Casey?” Deanna askedthrough the closed bedroom door. “Can we talk?”
He’d arrived earlier than his father’s expected return from work for the express purpose of feeling out his mother. Now that she was here, though, returned from taking Courtney to the airport, he wasn’t sure he was ready to talk with her.
Casey took a slow, deep breath and remembered what Ann had said about standing his ground. He opened the door and gestured for her to come in. She wore a pair of soft jeans and a flowing, crushed-velvet shirt with long, bell-shaped sleeves. Her hair wasn’t styled with product, and she looked as tired as Casey felt, but not nearly as wild.
Deanna sighed, smoothing down her hair as she sat gingerly on the side of the guest room bed. He continued to sort and pack up what he’d brought. He bit the side of his cheek rather than ask what he should do about all the stuff in his apartment in New York if they weren’t paying for it anymore. He guessed he could ask his landlord to deal with it, but that would be pricey and… Well, he just didn’t know what was going to happen now.
“Joel isn’t my first choice for you,” his mother said softly, her eyes filling with tears. “But I don’t agree with what your father said the other night either. I don’t think cutting you off and kicking you out of our lives is the right way to handle this.”
“Me either,” Casey agreed, stopping what he was doing to turn the desk chair around and have a seat, willing to listen.
“Courtney is furious with him.”
“I’m not too happy with him either.”
“And I imagine Joel must feel…” She shook her head. “I’m sorry for how he must have taken all of this.”
“Dad made him feel like the scum of the earth, like he wasn’t worthy of sharing the ground we walk on. And frankly, you weren’t much better. Couldn’t you have been a little more welcoming? A little more understanding?”
His mother’s shoulders drew up tight. “What aboutyou? You couldn’t have, oh, I don’t know, been honest with me? Letting me believe you were just friends with him when all along—”
“Not all along. This is brand new. We were just friends back in high school, and I hadn’t talked to him for years until I came home on this trip.”
“Regardless, you didn’t even tell me what was happening. Instead you just let me find out there with everyone watching when he showed up on our doorstep.”
