"Hitting it hard right out of the gate, I see." Parker leaned back in his chair and rotated his neck.
"You don't have to answer if you don't want to." I hated talking about my family, so I had no clue why I decided to start there of all places.
"No, it's okay. My childhood was . . ." I could see he was trying to find the right word. I had a feeling his wasn't much better than mine. I was tempted to stop him from what was probably a tough subject, but he started answering before I could. "No to any siblings. I'm not even sure my parents wantedto have me, but I think they felt obligated. They were the type of people who thought they needed to act a certain way to fit in with their social circle. Everyone else at their country club was having a child, so they did as well."
Okay, so not exactly like mine but similar in the sense that he grew up not being wanted.
"I don't know if I would call my parents happily married. They tolerated each other but did their own things. We rarely did anything as a family unless it looked good to their friends. My father spent his weekends with his golf buddies, and my mother used that time to gossip with the wives. I was left to fend for myself more often than not."
"I'm sorry you lived like that."
Parker merely shrugged. "I didn't know any different. My parents wanted me to hang out with their rich friends’ kids, but we had nothing in common despite how we grew up. My family was by no means rich, but my parents pretended to be. They spent far too much to keep up appearances instead of accepting they could've had a comfortable lifestyle if they just stopped comparing themselves to their friends."
"Is that why you joined the Army?"
I liked when Parker smiled. He had a nice one, but I could tell this was a bit forced instead of being genuine.
"Yes. I wanted to piss my parents off. They wanted me to attend an Ivy League school like their friends’ kids, but unlike them, I would've had to take out massive loans in order to go. I refused to start my life out in debt, so I enlisted instead. The last thing my parents told me was how much of a disappointment I was to them, and I haven't spoken to them since."
"That's awful."
Who was I kidding? I barely talked to my parents either. A yearly text to make sure I was still alive barely counted, but Iguess it was a little better. It showed my parents cared just a smidge.
"It is what it is. I was never close to them, so it was no skin off my back. The Army was my family after that. I would rather have them in my life than blood any day of the week."
Yup, I could relate.
"What about you? What's your family’s story?"
Here went nothing. "No siblings like you. My parents definitely didn't want me, and they were honest about that. My mother got knocked up at a young age, and my grandparents forced my parents to get married even though they didn't love each other. Despite not wanting me, I had an okay upbringing. They were there for things, but as soon as I graduated high school, they went their separate ways. Their marriage was nothing but a joke, considering they slept around on each other, or I guess had an open marriage as they liked to call it. They slept in separate bedrooms. Both of them dated and didn't hide it from me."
The look of horror on Parker's face was almost comical. "I don't even know what to say to that."
I chuckled. "There's nothing to say. It took me some time to realize it wasn't the norm for families. I would go to my friends’ houses and their parents were affectionate with each other. For the longest time, I was jealous of what my friends had, but as I got older, it made me wonder if those families were the exceptions."
"I don't think that's the case, but what do I know? I've never seen a healthy relationship until I watched Rhett, Graham, and my boss, Black, meet their soulmates."
Just thinking about Rhett and my best friend made me smile. Theirs was the kind of love story I wanted to have.
"What's that smile about?"
"Just thinking about our friends. Their love story is what every couple should strive for."
Parker grabbed my hand and laced our fingers together. "I know this marriage didn't start in the conventional sense, but that doesn't mean we can't have what our friends found in each other."
Splat!
Yup, that was the wall around my heart falling to pieces.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
PARKER
I was doing my best to try and concentrate on what Matthew––my team leader––was saying, but I kept going back to last night.
After we ate dinner, Molly and I moved into the living room where we continued to get to know each other while a movie played in the background. It was one of the nicest nights I've ever had, and I looked forward to doing it again.
I was so lost in my head that I didn't pay attention when a pen was thrown across the table until it hit me in the side of the head.
