Chapter Twenty-Five
JOE
“I don't care,” Joey said, blinking rapidly as he stared at me. His tone was mulish, and his cheeks were blotchy, which meant he was about to cry.
“Joey, it's important that you respect Thea. She cares about you.”
“She's not my mom. She's never going to be my mom!” he burst out.
“She knows that, and so do I. Tell me what's going on here. When I told you I wanted to marry her, you were excited. Now, you don't want her to visit, and you don’t want me to marry her. I love her. She is going to be a part of our lives.”
Joey burst into tears and spun away. As he dashed down the hall, his feet thumped loudly on the hardwood flooring. He had a lightweight door, so it didn't slam very effectively, but he sure tried.
I stood, smoothing my hands over my jeans. Thea was right. This was a conversation I had needed to have with him privately. It still went straight to hell. I contemplated following him to his room but decided to give him a little space.
“What do you mean you're not coming?”
“With Joey with you full-time right now and his mom gone, I think it's all adding up to a bit much for him with me being there every weekend. He needs some time with you,” Thea explained as I adjusted the phone between my ear and shoulder.
“He gets time with me. He's with me all the time right now, except when I'm at work.”
“I know, I just… Joe, I don't know how to explain it, but I, I think we should take a few weeks off.”
“What do you mean a few weeks off? Like a vacation,” I practically growled.
Her sigh filtered through the phone line. “The past few weekends I've been there, you know he gets emotional. It turns into a thing every time, and I feel like my presence is exacerbating the situation.”
“Yeah, and he's a kid. That’s gonna happen. He needs to be able to deal with you in my life. I can't put us on pause. It's gonna be okay. I just think—”
She cut in. “I don't even really know what's going on with his mom. I respect that she asked you to keep it private, but maybe he doesn't know either. Maybe that's part of the problem.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too. Let's take a few weekends off and regroup.”
“Thea, I don't like this,” I insisted. Tension coiled in a band around my chest, and I didn’t like the uneasiness sliding through me.
“Look, this is hard for me too. It’s confusing for me that you don't understand where I'm coming from. I'm thinking about Joey. He needs to come first.”
“He always comes first,” I practically snapped. “Maybe it’s best if we stick with our routine.”
“Joe, please. I love you. I'll talk to you tomorrow night, but I'm not coming up there.”
“Thea—” I began.
“I love you,” she repeated right before I heard the click that ended our call.