Page 87 of Situationship
And that gave Teagan pause. Was she robbing her girls of the things that came with having a grandpa, all because she couldn’t put her own hurt aside?
Maddison opened her mouth, then snapped it shut. “Your turn.”
“Did you choose NYU over UCLA because you want to give your mom another chance?”
“Kind of. I want her in my life, and I guess I wonder if she might be around more if I lived closer,” she admitted. Teagan was surprised at how candid Maddison was being. “I mean, I get it. She’s super busy with work. She works for a fashion magazine, which is cool since I get free samples. But my stepbrother is taking a gap year from college and moved back home with her, so there’s that.”
“Are you guys close?” she asked.
Maddison just shrugged. Teagan might not know what it was like to have an absent mom, but she knew the pain that came with abandonment. Colin said that Amanda had remarried ten years ago and yet Maddison didn’t have a relationship with her mom’s new family. That must hurt more than being the child left behind.
“You know, you might want to tell your dad why you’re going so he doesn’t think you’re leaving to get away from him.”
“He knows.”
Teagan looked over at the girl. “You know, I made the same mistake years back when I mistook your dad’s generous heart, compassion, and understanding.”
“What happened?”
“I hurt him badly, and I would give anything to go back and change the way things went down. He looks tough, but he’s not invincible.”
Maddison seemed to consider this for a long moment, so long Teagan was convinced she was going to hand back the mug and say, “It’s been real.” But instead she said, “How do you know Gabriel, I mean Truck Guy, isn’t good for me?” While it wasn’tconversation over, it clarified that questions about her parents were off-limits.
“I know that he asked you to sneak out and I’m guessing he also asked you to keep your time together on the DL.”
“Only old people say DL,” Maddison explained as if she were the keeper of all things old and all things older. “Did my dad know you’re married?”
“Divorced.” She looked at Maddison. “Do you really think I’d bring your dad into something so wrong?” Maddison shrugged. Teagan clearly had a long road to prove herself to Colin’s family. “For the record, I’m not a cheater. I would never date someone while I was with someone else. And I’m not a fan of keeping my family in the dark.”
“You mean, like me?”
“From my experience, secrets can tear families apart.”
“So honesty’s the best policy? Kind of ironic since you and my dad were sleeping together behind everyone’s back.”
And . . .Maddison was back to being angry. Not at Teagan, but at the fact that she’d snuck out, and now she had to admit it to her dad.
“It wasn’t everyone’s business,” Teagan said, sidestepping a question that Colin should answer. “And awkward discovery or not, we’re two consenting adults who had—”
“Gross.” Maddison covered her ears. “Can we not.”
“I’m good with that.” She laughed and Maddison laughed with her, sounding more like a teenager than a girl about to sneak into a truck with a virtual stranger. “So how do you want to play this?”
“Any way that doesn’t end in me being grounded more.”
“The way I see it, you have two choices. Wake your dad now and spill or join me for breakfast on the deck and we come clean together?”
“Do you think he’d come clean with me? About tonight?” Maddison didn’t have to say she wanted clarity on the whole naked woman in her dad’s bed situation.
“Maybe if you give him a chance.”
Maddison snorted. “He barely even told me what went down with my mom. He isn’t going to talk about you.”
Teagan thought back on how her mom had sheltered Teagan from so much disappointment, which reminded her of what Harley had said earlier. What her sister’s life must have been like with a parent who had zero filter. “Sometimes parents forget that their desire to protect their kids from harm might be misconstrued as being controlling.”
A statement Teagan would have to thoroughly explore later. Perhaps in her desire to keep her girls safe, she was denying them the chance to experience some of the best parts of childhood. Like playing in the front yard without an onlooking adult, riding bikes around town, walking to school with their friends. Not that Poppy and Lily were old enough for some of those things. But when they were age-appropriate, how would Teagan react?
“I’m not misconstruing anything. His helicopter ways are real,” Maddison said. “I’m leaving for college soon, and he still treats me like I’m a kid.”
