“Me too. Listen ... what’s up with Dad?”
Diane frowned. “What do you mean?”
“He called and texted today.”
O-kay. That was unexpected.
“What did he want?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t answer the call, and he didn’t leave a message. All he said in his text was, ‘Can we talk?’ Did you ask him to call me? Because he hasn’t tried to contact me in months.”
“No.”
“Have you been in touch with him since you left?”
A bird fluttered onto the feeder Anna had filled, as if it hadbeen waiting and watching for her kind gesture. “I didn’t initiate anything, but he stopped by my place Friday night.”
“Did you talk to him?”
“He did most of the talking.”
Lucas snorted. “Surprise, surprise. What did he want?”
“He tried to convince me to come home.”
“Was he ticked off when you didn’t cave?”
“I don’t think he was happy, but he didn’t seem angry, either. And he promised to make some changes if I came back. One of those was reaching out to you. That may have prompted his call and text today.”
A few seconds ticked by.
“In other words, it was all part of his plan to get you back. It wasn’t about me.” Once again, there was a subtle hurt in his inflection that no one but a mother would detect.
Much as she’d like to assure him he was wrong, who knew what motivated Martin these days?
But her husband’s ego wasn’t the only one at stake in this situation, and she wasn’t going to put any more nicks in Lucas’s.
“Despite what you may think, your dad loves you. That’s why he took your side in the past even when you were wrong. Why he tried to compensate for all the hours he spent at the mill by buying you expensive presents.”
“I didn’t need stuff, Mom. I never did.” He blew out a breath. “You know all that stupid acting out I did in high school? I think maybe it was my way of trying to get him to notice me.”
Her son had grown up.
She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “I agree. And it’s possible your dad realizes that too. Maybe if he had a second chance, he’d do things differently. That could be what he wants to talk to you about.”
“Right.” He didn’t attempt to hide his sarcasm. “He just wants you to think he’s trying to reconnect with me.”
“What if he really is?”
A beat ticked by, and when Lucas spoke again, there was a note of caution in his voice. “Why are you taking his side after all the stuff he’s done?”
Whoops.
Better dial it back before she lost any of the ground she’d gained with him.
“I’m not taking his side. I’m trying to keep an open mind. People who want to changecanchange. You did.”
“Being thrown into detention made me realize I didn’t want to wreck my whole life. Dad’s already successful, and he’s too set in his ways to change.” His tone brooked no room for argument.
