“I’m just giving you a hard time,” he apologized. “Hey, uhm…maybe when things are final, do you think you would want to come back home for a visit? I hate to ask, but I haven’t seen you since the wedding.”
On the other end of the call, Wyatt sighed. “Maybe.”
“Or I could come see you,” he offered.
“It’s easier for me to travel.”
“Is it?”
Wyatt laughed. “I’m younger and in better shape.”
Adam frowned about his gray hairs. “You wound me.”
“I’ll think about it, Dad,” Wyatt conceded. “I’ll talk to you soon and let you know.”
“Alright,” he said. “And you call me if you want to talk about Mike, okay?”
“You got it.”
“I love you, Wyatt,” Adam said.
“Love you, too. Bye, Dad.”
Adam disconnected the call and finished fixing his hair, then he grabbed his play bag out of the closet and ventured out of his room in search of Grant.
“How’s Wyatt?” Grant asked, sitting at the dining room table with a can of sparkling water in his hand.
“The home stretch,” he said, dropping his bag at Grant’s feet.
Grant’s stare dragged down to the duffel and he offered up a cockeyed smile. “Are you playing tonight?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I didn’t want to rule out the opportunity if it came up.”
“How adventurous of you.”
“And to further answer your question, Wyatt is taking it much better than he was a year ago.” Adam took the can out of Grant’s hand and took a drink, grimacing as he swallowed. He had no idea why Grant continued to drink the disgusting bubble water. “They’re down to signatures and then days.”
“It’s shit.” Grant took the can back. “I hate that for him. Wyatt’s a good kid.”
“A good man,” Adam corrected, kicking the duffel bag toward the door. “He’s almost thirty now.”
“It feels like he was just here getting ready to leave for college.”
“You’re telling me.”
The summer before Wyatt left for college was the most time Adam had spent with him in two decades. And now, with a country between them, it was hard to make time. Wyatt had gotten a job straight out of college and stayed in New York, quickly falling into the city kind of life, which had never suited Adam. Three years after college, Wyatt had called Adam with a wedding invitation.
Mike was a few years older than Wyatt, a little bit wiser, and a lot richer. His family came from old money and he’d wooed Wyatt with big words, expensive things, and an unbeatable penthouse view. Not to say Mike didn’t love Wyatt. Adam was sure he did, just as he was sure Wyatt loved Mike back, but the pairing had always felt off to Adam in a way he couldn’t quite put his finger on. It wasn’t something Wyatt ever wanted to talk with him about, and much like Wyatt’s entire life, Adam didn’t push.
Then a year ago Wyatt called, distressed and drunk, talking about divorce and years of unhappiness that had finally started to weigh too much. Adam hated that Wyatt hadn’t found a happily ever after, but he also knew that divorce wasn’t ever the end of things. He and Eileen had been divorced for most of their lives, and both of them had found happiness again.
Or Eileen had. She and Clark had been married since Wyatt was pre-pubescent, and they’d been traveling the world together for nearly ten years. As for Adam, he didn’t have anyone special, but he wasn’t unhappy. He dated, he had friends, and he kept himself as entertained as he could manage. His life was fine. It was enough.
“He asked me to come see him,” Adam said.
“In New York?”
He nodded.
