Page 37 of A Baby for the Firefighter
Eli’s lips curled, as if the endearment insulted him, but he kept his mouth shut. I guess even he knew this wasn’t the time or place to start an argument. “I think I’ll excuse myself then. Very sorry for the trouble you went through. Give him my best wishes when he wakes up.” He looked at me as he pushed himself off the wall. “Griff?”
Obviously, he wanted to know whether I was coming along. He was my ride, after all.
I looked at my dad, then at my mom, who returned my gaze with something nearly pleading in her eyes, as if asking me not to leave so soon. Not now.
I gave a little sigh as I broke. She’d done some bad things, but she was still my mom. “I think I’m going to stay for a little bit.”
Eli raised an eyebrow at that, but didn’t criticize my decision.
“I’ll get a ride from Dean later,” I said to reassure him that it was okay for him to go. He probably wanted to be back with his husband and kids to process this. “I’ll call you when I’m home.”
“Okay.” My brother uncrossed his arms and turned to leave.
“Thank you for coming,” Mom said before he could close the door behind himself.
“Thank you for calling,” he returned, and with that, he was gone, leaving me alone with our parents.
There was another chair by the wall, so I grabbed it and dragged it over to where my mother was sitting. Then I sat, and didn’t really know what to say. What did you say to someone you were close to once but hadn’t talked to in nearly ten years?
Fortunately, my mom started talking before I had a chance to start my nervous blabbering. “How have you been?” she asked. “Are you still doing photography? You were always so fond of that.” She smiled sadly, as if she regretted the years we’d lost just as much as I did.
“I am,” I said. “That’s how I make my money.”
“Really?” Her smile turned bright. “That’s good. That’s really good.”
“Yeah.” I grinned. I didn’tneedmy mom to be proud of me, but it was still nice to know that she was. Okay, maybe I needed it a little bit. But sitting here and grinning, I almost felt like I was betraying my brother, even though I knew that was ridiculous and that he wasn’t upset with me for staying. He wasn’t, was he?
“How are the children?” my mom asked.
I bit my lower lip.
My mother sighed. “I’m sorry. I guess I really don’t have any right to ask about them, do I? But how long should this silence continue? I’ve tried to apologize a hundred times. Though I know it’s not something that’s easy to forgive.”
“You need to talk to Eli about that.”
“Don’t you think I’ve tried? He won’t listen. Most of the time, he doesn’t even answer the phone anymore.”
“I had no idea you’d tried to contact him. Recently?” I remembered there’d been the occasional call the first one or two years, but they’d stopped eventually and almost faded from memory.
She shook her head, and she looked tired now. “I tried to contact you too.”
I cringed. Vaguely, I remembered letting a call or two go to voice mail and thinking that I might call back at a later time. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright, dear. At least you came. That means a lot. I’m sure your father would agree.”
Glancing at my father’s still form, I wondered if that was true. My parents were both betas, but it had always been my dad who called the shots at home. I was pretty sure that kicking Eli out had been his idea as well, even if my mom was just as guilty for going along with it. And I couldn’t just forgive her, not like that, not after everything.
“The kids are fine,” I said eventually, if only because I needed to say something. “Livvy’s super cute and Jake… well, he’s Jake,” I said as if she would understand, but how could she when she didn’t know the boy?
My family was really messed up.
I got up from my chair. “I… uh… need to make a phone call.”
My mother nodded. She looked a bit like she was wondering whether I was going to run, but I wasn’t running.
I just really, really needed to talk to someone who wasn’t related to me.
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