Page 78 of A Baby for the Firefighter
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Griffin
Please, everyone just get along.
The weekend after our camping trip, my father was finally ready to be released from the hospital. Eli, my mother and I drove up to the hospital with his car. From there we were going to collect Dad and take our parents to our aunt's cottage a short drive outside of the town. She'd promised that it was well stocked and they would find everything they needed there. I only hoped that was true. As much as I enjoyed this chance to reconnect with my parents, things were still tense. Especially when my brother was around.
Honestly, it surprised me that he'd decided to come with us today.
“I want to be a better person than they were,” he’d said simply when I asked him about it.
Still, the air in the car was thick, no matter how much my mom tried to lighten the mood with her chattering about whatever went through her mind as we drove.
Part of me was glad to reach the hospital. Part of me knew things weren't going to get better once we added my Dad to the mix.
My fears were confirmed once we stepped into his room. He'd expected me and Mom to show up, but Eli was a surprise to him, and it clearly showed on his features. For the first minute or two, nobody said anything while the two of them stared at each other, and I was frantically searching my mind for things to say to break the silence.
My mom was faster than me, though. It was her I got my tendency to talk like a waterfall from, and she was still better at it than me. “Aren't you glad to get out of here today, dear? Look who's come to celebrate the special occasion! Say hi to our sons. Wasn't it nice of them to come today? They're going to drive us to the cottage.” She whirled around the room collecting Dad's things as if we were any other regular family and this meeting wasn't tense whatsoever.
“Very nice,” Dad mumbled finally. “Hello, Griffin. Elias. You look like you've been doing well.”
Eli opened his mouth, then closed it again, as if swallowing some sort of insult that lay on the tip of his tongue. “Thank you,” he said instead. He was really trying to keep things civil, if not friendly. I was grateful for that. “I’m doing okay.”
“Your mother tells me you’re married now?”
“I am,” Eli confirmed, absentmindedly playing with the ring on his finger.
“Good, good.” Our father nodded, then he laughed gruffly. “It’s almost like you’re doing what I’ve been telling you to do all along. Marry the father of your children. It’s only good sense, really. I don’t know why this caused all this family drama.”
Ouch. Couldn’t he have kept that thought to himself?
Eli’s lips turned into a thin line. “I married him because I love him, not because he got me pregnant ten years ago. And not because anyone told me to, either.”
My dad waved his hand. “Things turned out the way they were supposed to. We should just be happy for that instead of arguing. And now you’re pursuing a degree too. That’s good, really good, even if you were delayed for a few years.”
Eli took a deep breath. “It is good.”
I admired the patience my brother displayed that day, but I also knew that it wasn’t going to last much longer if this line of conversation kept up.
“Now, now, Declan.” My mother approached my father. “What have we been talking about?”
My father took a deep breath and turned to Eli again. “I am very sorry for all the misunderstandings we had.”
Misunderstandings?It seemed Eli took offense to that word too.
“What are you talking about?” he burst out, his veneer of calm finally dissolving. “We didn't have misunderstandings. You threw me out.”
“I didn't throw you out. I gave you a choice.”
Eli shook his head, a look of disbelief on his face. “That wasn't any kind of choice. You wanted me to give up Jake.”
“Ortell us who his father was so we could approach the guy. Was that so unreasonable? I don't think so, but no, you decided to pack your bags and leave like the stubborn child you've always been.”
“It was you who said not to come back if I was leaving,” Eli said, his voice taking on a bitter sound. “I couldn't give up Jake, and I couldn't tell you who his father was. Not back then.”
I watched the two of them anxiously. Part of me wanted to interfere in this conversation. Part of me thought maybe it needed to be had. After all these years, didn’t they need to talk this out?
My mother looked as if the same thoughts were going through her head as well, and she kept her mouth shut the same as me.
