Cool, we could go with that.
“Never change, big brother.” Chloe launched herself at me and smacked a kiss on my cheek, clinging to me like a koala—my Little Koala. No matter how old she got, Chloe was still my kid sister.
“Hey, kiddo. I thought you were coming by yourself.” I shot a wary look at Simon Lively, who extended his hand in greeting.
The young blond man was the son of my doctor, Krug Lively. It turned out, in addition to helping her process what Carter Nelson did to her,bringing Chloe in for therapy sessions with Dr. Lively had led her to the love of her life. Not that I had known a thing about him until just a year before.
“I’d say that your face looks more like that of a man who was interrupted in the midst of indulging himself with the woman he loves.” John stepped up and greeted me with a shoulder pat before shutting the door behind him. I sighed and gave him a speaking look. My father understood me better than almost anyone else.
Our relationship had changed a lot, and fortunately, it has improved. It wasn’t easy moving past the traumatic discoveries I made on the day of my graduation. I still hadn’t been able to forgive my mother for lying for so long.
I probably never would.
Mia was still with Matt, and they lived in the same ostentatious mansion, and despite the poor relationship I had with her, I hadn’t stopped her from being a grandmother to Nicole. She was free to visit Nicole whenever she wanted, though I usually tried to be at work when she came, and we rarely encountered each other.
Selene was the one who convinced me to let Mia have a chance to know her granddaughter. Only she was able to get me to put aside my pride like that—if it had been up to me, my mother would never have gotten near Nicole.
As for Matt, he was still an asshole. His relationships with me and Selene hadn’t really changed. He was an involved enough grandparent, though his prestigious career still took first place in his list of priorities.
“You’re here already! It’s so nice to see you…” Selene greeted the guests with a hint of strain in her face that did not escape my notice.
She said hello to everyone with her usual graciousness and touched Janel’s baby bump admiringly. The two of them immediately started talking about onesies, diapers, and all the other baby minutiae I didn’t care much about.
What I did care about was the way she stood so stiffly and refused to meet my eyes, even incidentally.
That wasn’t like her.
We communicated as much with our eyes as we did with our words—probably more, in fact. The disquiet I read in her expression worried me.
Something was wrong.
* * *
An hour later, the women were laying out the table in the backyard while the men, predictably, all gathered around the grill. My father and Logan were usually in charge of cooking the sausages and hot dogs, though my brother often ended up cussing himself out as he overcooked them.
While we waited for the sausages, John watched me carefully like he was gearing up to give me another one of his irritating speeches.
“Son, is everything okay with Selene?” he asked finally. The question also caught Logan’s attention. I anxiously lit up a Winston and shot Selene a curious glance. She was hovering around the table with the women, holding Nicole in her arms. Finally, after ignoring me for so long, she looked at me. Her ocean eyes shimmered, crystalline in the reflected sunlight, but I didn’t like what I read in them: They were a storm-tossed sea.
Those eyes were screaming that she was disappointed and angry.
But why? What had I done?
Maybe she was upset that I was smoking?
“Sure, why do you ask?” I turned my attention back to my father, pretending that all was well, but he and Logan just gave me skeptical looks. Apparently they had also noticed that Selene had barely said a word to me.
Usually, Babygirl would be all over me. Cuddling me, sitting on my lap, and giving me kisses without the slightest concern for who might be looking. Today, however, she ignored me completely, save for the occasional disdainful glance.
“I think you should go and have a chat with her. She’s obviously upset about something, and I’m sure that confronting you will do her a lot of good.” My father pulled the cigarette out from between my lips and snuffed it out in an ashtray. “And this crap isn’t helping,” he muttered with a displeased expression. I knew that he was right, but I was an awfully proud man. It was a personality defect that I’d been carrying around with me my entire life, and it frequently caused misunderstandings with Selene.
I always waited for her to talk to me or open a discussion. I hated interpersonal problems. I had too many of them already, and arguing was the part of our relationship that irritated me the most.
We did have a lot of long conversations, but that was all due to Selene. I remained the same close-mouthed man I’d always been. The same Boy who preferred to close himself off in a world of his own and protect himself with a wall of silence rather than show any vulnerability.
Despite the renewal I had experienced since Nicole, I was still afraid of breaking into pieces or completely self-destructing.
“Look, Selene is the sweetest woman I know,” Logan interjected, placing the cooked sausages on a platter. “And you two are an incredible couple, but you can be a real shit. Talk to her; try to figure out what’s wrong. Sure, you might get into an argument, but at least you’ll have a chance to get rid of her worries. You two have faced so many obstacles; there’s nothing left that could possibly destroy your relationship. All you can do is make it better.” I was amazed by the pup’s wisdom. Logan had grown so much; he was now a well-respected IT manager who handled the entire technical infrastructure of a company, and soon he would be a father himself. Unlike me, he was planning to marry Janel shortly, and I knew that had made Selene a bit sad.
