Page 67 of Roll With The Punches
Emma did not look convinced. She kept her arms crossed over her chest. “How can I believe anything you say after the past couple of years? Especially after what happened at the swim meet? Or Pat not letting me leave your house?”
“I know, sweetheart. I don’t expect you to trust me now. I hope I can work to regain it, one day.”
Emma continued to stare at her for another long, uncomfortable moment. “No contact with him once the divorce is done?”
“I promise. Everything goes through my attorney.”
“I’mreallymad at you.”
“I understand.”
“I’ve nevernottrusted Dad, or Jeff and Stuart. Do you know that? I have more trust in Dad’s husbands, who I’ve only known for about ayear, than I do inyou. They’re my dads. Pat never was. He never eventriedto be.”
Both Jeff and Stuart visibly puffed up a little in pride over that statement. Sometimes it still took him by surprise, in good ways, when Emma referred to Jeff and Stuart as his husbands or her dads.
“I know, sweetheart,” Tracey said. “I understand. I don’t blame you. I deserve that, too.”
“Do you have any idea not only how much it hurt to know you picked Pat over me, but howhumiliatedI was over his stupid stunt at the pool?”
Tracey nodded.
“It’s not like I didn’t try to get along with him. He’s supposed to be an adult and can’t act like one. I consider myself free of any blame here.”
“I know, sweetheart,” Tracey said. “You were right.”
Brandon crossed his arms over his chest and waited to see what else Emma might blast her with, but his daughter surprised him. “If you want to eat dinner with us,” Emma finally said, “there’s enough.”
Brandon didn’t know who was more shocked by that invitation, Tracey or himself.
To her credit, Tracey looked to him first, to see if it was okay.
Brandon shrugged. “We can set another place at the table.” He looked at Jeff and Stuart and gave them a silent head tip to go do it.
“Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that.”
When Tracey left about an hour later, Brandon was convinced she’d definitely changed, but he wasn’t sure Emma was.
It was not his job to convince Emma how to feel about her, either. Not anymore.
When the three men went to bed, Jeff said it first.
“Do we believe her?”
“Tracey?”
“Yeah.”
Brandon sighed, staring up at the ceiling. “I think so, but I’m not going to tell Em that and risk being wrong. For now, Tracey needs to rebuild trust with all of us. If she follows through what she says she’s doing, then maybe.”
“I still can’t believe Grace growled at the pool that night,” Stuart said.
Jeff snorted. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t been standing right there and heard it myself.”
“Talk about being savage as fuck,” Stuart joked. “She’s a little stealth savage.”
Brandon, in the middle, held up both fists for bumps from them, which they returned.
