Page 8 of Coming Home for Fall 6
“It’s a twisted web for sure,” he agreed. “But I was just now thinking that we must’ve busted your dad getting home from a date the other night.”
“Huh?”
James glanced at her with a quick smile. “When we walked back to your house and we saw your dad getting out of someone’s car. I bet the person driving was the woman he’s been seeing. You said he mentioned having a girlfriend, right?”
“He didn’t use the wordgirlfriend,I don’t think,” Mallory said. “But now that you mention it, you’re right. He was acting so strange when I asked him where he’d been, and I told you he gave me a different story than the one he told my siblings.” She shook her head. “I was going to say it all makes sense now, but that’s not true at all. Nothing makes sense to me. How could they keep a secret like this for so long? What were they thinking?”
“I assume you asked them that,” he said. The light changed and he eased into the intersection. Mallory took note of what a careful driver he was, which she couldn’t help but find endearing. “What was their explanation? Did they give you one?”
“Sort of. They said they were trying to protect us,” she replied. “Oh, and get this! Both my siblings ended up taking their side. I’m not that surprised that Ariel did, she’s always been quick to forgive and forget, but Taylor? I thought for sure he was going to feel the same way I did. Or that he’d even be angrier.”
“That probably made it even harder,” James said. “Feeling like you weren’t supported by anyone.”
“It did,” she said, a little surprised at how well he was able to pinpoint what she’d been feeling. Her thoughts and emotionswere all over the place, but still, James seemed to justget it.“The worst part was what Taylor said. He told me that I should understand their choice to lie to us because I was the one who really idealized their relationship. Can you believe that? Using my own dreams against me like that.”
James raised a brow and shot her a curious look. “Your dreams?”
“Of having a relationship like theirs,” she said without really thinking. “I’ve always wanted to find someone I cared about as much as I thought my parents cared about each other. It’s something I looked up to my entire life, something I’ve held onto when everything else felt uncertain. And now I find out it was all a lie! And they kept saying that they still love each other, but how can they say that when they aren’t even together?”
James tilted his head and scrunched his face; Mallory recognized it as a sign of disagreement. “Okay, c’mon. Spit it out,” she said after a while.
“What?”
“I know you’ve got something to say, so say it. I swear, I won’t be mad. I’m very curious to know what you think about all this. It’d be good to get someone’s perspective on this who isn’t a part of my family. We’re all a little too close to it, obviously, and you’re the only one I trust to give me a thoughtful answer.”
James drove for almost an entire block before he cleared his throat and spoke.
“I guess, I just think that what the two of them decided to do, and the friendship they’ve kept up over the years...” James said in a slow, cautious cadence. He was clearly not used to challenging someone in this way, but Mallory was genuine in wanting to hear his thoughts. “That’s a sign of love. That’s a sign of deep respect and care for one another. They didn’t have an ugly divorce. They didn’t let their differences tear the family apart. Instead, they just found a new way to navigate lifetogether so they could both be happy.” He shrugged. “There’s something kind of selfless and beautiful about that, don’t you think?”
Mallory pushed her shoulders back into the passenger seat and stared ahead through the wet windshield.
“I’m sorry,” James whispered a few seconds later. “I shouldn’t have said any of that. This is your family, not mine, and I don’t know what I’m talking about. I crossed a line, didn’t I?”
“No,” she said, with a slight shake of her head. “No, you didn’t. I’m glad you told me what you were thinking. I’m just mad because I didn’t expect you to make such a good point.”
He laughed. “Oh. Well, if you want, I can try to come up with something else. Something that paints your parents in a much less favorable light.”
“No, that’s okay.” Mallory laughed along with him. “I asked for your honest opinion, and I appreciate you giving me a new perspective. I’m just frustrated, and I didn’t exactly take the high road when I was back home with my family. I didn’t show my best colors. In fact, I was acting like a child.”
“You had a good reason to be upset,” he said. “They just dropped this on you without any warning, right?”
“Yeah, I guess… Really, though, I have no one to blame except myself for how this all turned out. I was jumping down Sasha’s throat even though I’d promised my siblings I wasn’t going to confront her until we talked to our parents. I don’t even know what came over me. I saw her looking at my dad’s phone, and I just lost it. I kept feeling like everyone was lying to me, and I couldn’t just sit on my hands anymore and wait for the right time to bring everything up. It was driving me crazy.”
“And you were right,” he added.
“I was?”
“You felt like everyone was lying to you, and they were,” James said. “They weren’t lying to you in the ways you thought, but they were still keeping secrets and dodging your questions. It makes sense you were on edge.”
Mallory could’ve kissed him. She couldn’t even put into words how grateful she was for what James had said. That validation, she realized, was all she really needed. At the next red light, he caught her staring at him. “What?”
“Nothing,” she said, smiling.
“It doesn’t seem like nothing.”
She chuckled and put her hand on his arm. “I’m just feeling a lot better now, that’s all. I have no idea how to thank you, but you’ve made all of this seem a whole lot easier for me to face.”
“Does that mean you want me to take you home?”
