Brielle.
Definitely not Dad.
Dad.
“Don’t let those noodles get too mushy, son.” Dad came up behind me and looked down into the pan. Then his attention swung to my phone. “Is that your mom?”
“Uh—yeah,” I nodded.
“Let me talk to her.” Dad took the phone from me, and I gave it up.
“Evelyn?” Dad turned and walked to the patio doors, where he stood, looking out as he talked. “Yes. Yes, Brooks told me. Of course. I mean, if baseball is what he wants—fine. When are you coming home?”
I listened closely.Please, Mom.Come home.
Dad cleared his throat. “Well, I don’t see why—” A pause. “No, I’m not telling you what to do.” Another pause. “Evelyn, we need to think about what that means for—no, that’s not what I’m saying.”
I stirred the macaroni in the boiling water.
Great.
Let another argument commence.
Dad left the room—with my phone—and I was scooping macaroni and cheese into my bowl when he came back and slid my phone across the counter toward me.
“Guess your mom is staying another week.”
I grunted.
“She said you made the team?” Dad broached the subject that carried the most tension between us—aside from mom.
“Yep.” I shook some salt on my pasta.
“Well. I’ll go ahead and cancel vacation plans for May.”
I looked at my dad. He sounded disappointed. As though I’d ruined something.
He looked back at me through his glasses. “I’d been planning on taking you and your mom to Florida.”
In May? Try in January, when it was frigid outside. But all I said was “Oh.” I mean, I guess Dad was trying. But now I felt like crud, making the team and ruining his plans. I was probably ruining their marriage.
See? Kidsdofeel like marriage trouble is ultimately their fault.
“You want me to quit?” I asked because I felt like I was supposed to.
Dad heaved a sigh and moved to the stove to get his own macaroni and cheese. We ate like kings when Mom wasn’t here. “No. No, I’m not saying that.”
He sounded irritated.
“Well, you make it sound like I ruined your spring.” I couldn’t help myself.
“I never said that,” Dad shot back. “I just get a bit sick of how sports dominate the American household.”
This again.
I scooped a mouthful of noodles into my mouth so I didn’t have to talk.
“Whatever happened to the pursuit of education? Of higher learning? Of stretching one’s mind and pursuing skills you can actuallydosomething with in life?”
