His mom made that littlehmphsound that meant he was full of beans (as she’d say). “Well, I hope they’ll do it anyway. Have you and Sienna spoken lately?”
“Not much. She’s keeping it strictly to stuff about the kids.”
“That’s not a good sign.”
“I’m aware of that, Mom,” he answered, opening the box that contained a new blender.
“Is she letting you move back home next month? You do remember your lease is coming up.”
“Of course I do, but I don’t know what’s going to happen. She hasn’t made a decision yet.”
“I was hoping she’d let you move back home.”
Not as much as Zane was. “Same, but she said she wasn’t ready yet, which I’m taking as a good sign.”
His mom clucked her teeth, then said, “I suppose so. Not ready yet is better than ‘it’s never going to happen, bucko.’”
“Yup. And at this point, I’ll take what I can get.”
“You don’t have much choice.”
Zane set his jaw and scowled, glad his mother wasn’t inthe same room to see it. He hated not having much choice in anything, especially his marriage. Instead of letting that thought escape his brain, he went with a mature response. “I need to be patient.”
“But the longer you’re out, the less chance you’ll have to get back in.”
“Well, I do have one Hail Mary play left,” he told her. “I’m going to ask her to come to the concert. The kids too.”
His mom made a pleasant littlehmmsound that meant she approved of the idea. “That could be very special for you all.”
“I think so too. And I think I can get her to agree to it. She loved Mike. And I know if I can just get some time with her—some real time, not these awful tense conversations when we’re handing off the kids—she’ll want me to come home.”
“I’ll pray she says yes.”
“Thanks, Mom,” said Zane, who normally rolled his eyes at her prayer offers. “I can use all the help I can get.” He felt immediately guilty for accepting prayers from a woman he was lying to, and not about something small. About a grandson she didn’t know she had. If cheating and lying didn’t send him to hell, accepting ill-gotten prayers certainly would.
“Speaking of help, you know Pete and Allie next door?”
“Umm, yup.” He didn’t remember them at all, even though he had been to visit his mother there four times since she moved to Palm Springs. But to be fair, all the people in her complex were pretty much the same to him—old, wrinkly people with visors and BluBlocker sunglasses.
“I was telling them about your situation, and they told me they used to do something called Marriage Encounter. It’s put on by the Catholic Church. Allie said when they’dget back from one of those weekends, they’d be all over each other for months.”
Awesome. “We’re not Catholic, Mom. And I don’t think Sienna would exactly be willing to try out a religious couples’ weekend with me right now.”
“Suit yourself. Allie told me to tell you about it.”
“Okay, tell her thanks. Anyway, I better run. I need to get everything ready for when the girls come over. Sienna’s dropping them off on her way out of town.”
“All right. I suppose I should feel lucky that you even answered. You’ve been doing that more lately.”
“I’m trying to be a better family man.”
“Well, kudos to you.”
“It wouldn’t take much for me to be better than I was, right?”
“I didn’t say that. You did.”
“It’s what you meant,” he answered. “Which is fine. I know that. I should’ve been there for Sienna more than I was. The kids too.”
