Chapter January #3
His mom made a pleasant little hmm sound that meant she approved of the idea. “That could be very special for you all.”
“I think so too. And I think I can get her to agree to it. She loved Mike. And I know if I can just get some time with her—some real time, not these awful tense conversations when we’re handing off the kids—she’ll want me to come home.”
“I’ll pray she says yes.”
“Thanks, Mom,” said Zane, who normally rolled his eyes at her prayer offers.
“I can use all the help I can get.” He felt immediately guilty for accepting prayers from a woman he was lying to, and not about something small.
About a grandson she didn’t know she had.
If cheating and lying didn’t send him to hell, accepting ill-gotten prayers certainly would.
“Speaking of help, you know Pete and Allie next door?”
“Umm, yup.” He didn’t remember them at all, even though he had been to visit his mother there four times since she moved to Palm Springs. But to be fair, all the people in her complex were pretty much the same to him—old, wrinkly people with visors and BluBlocker sunglasses.
“I was telling them about your situation, and they told me they used to do something called Marriage Encounter. It’s put on by the Catholic Church. Allie said when they’d get back from one of those weekends, they’d be all over each other for months.”
Awesome. “We’re not Catholic, Mom. And I don’t think Sienna would exactly be willing to try out a religious couples’ weekend with me right now.”
“Suit yourself. Allie told me to tell you about it.”
“Okay, tell her thanks. Anyway, I better run. I need to get everything ready for when the girls come over. Sienna’s dropping them off on her way out of town.”
“All right. I suppose I should feel lucky that you even answered. You’ve been doing that more lately.”
“I’m trying to be a better family man.”
“Well, kudos to you.”
“It wouldn’t take much for me to be better than I was, right?”
“I didn’t say that. You did.”
“It’s what you meant,” he answered. “Which is fine. I know that. I should’ve been there for Sienna more than I was. The kids too.”
“They say admitting you have a problem is the first step.”
“Yup. I suppose it is,” Zane agreed. “Okay, I really better run. Talk to you next week, Mom.”
“Give my love to the kids and save a little for yourself.”
“Love you, too.”
Zane hung up, then stretched his neck, which was sore from holding it at such an awkward angle.
He stood in the kitchen, staring at the mess from opening the blender.
Little bits of Styrofoam stuck to the countertop.
He wiped them onto the terracotta tile floor, only to realize that all he’d done was shift the problem.
His new housekeeper wasn’t coming again until Monday, so he’d have to deal with this himself.
He went in search of the vacuum, then dragged the heavy appliance from the hall closet to the kitchen, banging it into the wall as he rounded the corner, gouging the drywall.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered, staring at the damage.
Ten minutes later, he shut off the vacuum, having finally cleaned up the mess.
The doorbell rang, and he dropped the hose and ran to the door. When he swung it open, he saw Sienna and Ivy, both of whom looked thoroughly pissed off, and Poppy, who looked like she was trying not to cry.
“Hey, you guys,” he said in a gentle voice. “I hope you haven’t been here long.”
“We have,” Ivy told him.
“We were about to leave,” Sienna added.
“I thought for sure you forgot about us,” Poppy said.
He reached out and ruffled her hair. “I could never forget about you, my little Poppy Seed. I was vacuuming.”
Sienna’s eyes widened. “Vacuuming?”
Nodding, he smiled modestly. “I made a bit of a mess in the kitchen, and I wanted everything to be perfect for the girls’ visit.” He gave her a meaningful look. “I’m learning how to be a better husband.”
Ivy wrinkled up her nose as she walked past him into the house. “Geez, Dad, shouldn’t cleaning up your own mess be the bare minimum?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yes, yes it should. I think I got behind on… some of the more normal things adults do.”
“You mean like keeping your wedding vows?” Sienna asked in a tight voice while Poppy jumped through the doorway with both feet.
Zane’s smile faded. “Exactly like that.”
She pursed her lips, then glanced away for a second. “Okay, well, we’ll be back on Sunday by seven at the latest. If he gets knocked out early, we might be here as early as three.”
Zane looked at the car and saw his son’s silhouette against the darkening sky. “Do you think he’d mind if I wish him good luck?”
Shrugging, Sienna said, “You can do it. He may not answer.” She poked her head in the door. “Okay, my girls. Have a wonderful time with your dad. Love you to bits.”
Poppy hurried over for hugs and kisses, while Zane made his way down the cold, wet sidewalk in his bare feet. His heart thumped as he reached out and opened the passenger door.
Parker was clearly startled to see his dad. For the briefest, most glorious of moments, he looked happy. Immediately, his expression morphed to anger again, and he turned to stare out the front window.
“Hey, champ, I just wanted to wish you good luck this weekend,” Zane said, controlling the impulse to put his hand on Parker’s shoulder. “I’ll be cheering you on from here.”
Zane could hear Sienna’s high-heeled boots clicking against the sidewalk as she approached, and he felt an urgent need to get his son to say something before she got in the driver’s seat.
Thanks. See you. Screw you. Anything at all would be better than this silence.
But Parker kept his stoic mask in place, and Zane knew that each time his son practiced this, he’d get better at it.
Waiting a beat, Zane added, “Love you, buddy. Take care of your mom.”
Without looking at him, Parker muttered, “Somebody has to.” His son reached out and tugged the door shut, leaving Zane out in the cold winter drizzle.
Sighing, Zane made his way back to the house. At least he’d have better luck with his daughters.
Or not. In fact, over the course of the evening, things went from bad to worse.
They’d already seen all the movies he rented (and how didn’t he know that they’d already seen Honey, I Shrunk the Kids?
He literally watched it with Ivy and Parker in the theater when it first came out).
He burned the bag of microwave popcorn, leaving the house with a horrible stench.
And his first attempt at Sienna’s famous chocolate milkshakes was a huge failure because he’d neglected to wash out the glass pitcher, which Ivy said was disgusting because all those people at the factory would’ve touched it and it must be full of germs. Poppy immediately agreed that the milkshakes were too gross to drink.
So he dumped them, scrubbed the blender with hot, soapy water (burning his hands), then dried it carefully, all the while trying to sound upbeat.
“So, how are your classes going this semester?” he asked Ivy.
“Fine. I want to drop calculus, but Mom won’t let me.”
“She’s probably right. You should give yourself every opportunity for success.”
Ivy rolled her eyes. “She could become a Satanist and say she was going to sacrifice Billie, and you’d agree with her.”
“That’s not true,” he said, although it was most definitely true. He would do anything, pay any price to have things back the way they were. (Also, he’d never been particularly fond of the dog.)
“Sure it is,” Ivy answered. “Not that our family believes in telling the truth anymore.”
There was no way to argue with her about that. He and Sienna turned them all into liars. So, he returned to scooping the ice cream into the pitcher.
He was digging around in the carton when he heard Poppy say, “Yuck.”
“What’s the matter, Poppy Seed? You don’t want ice cream in the milkshakes?”
“Why do you have pictures of that ugly baby?”
Zane’s heart stalled. He’d forgotten to hide the framed pictures Claudia had mailed him of Elliott, along with a note that she ‘…hopes he’ll enjoy seeing his happy little guy.
Doesn’t he look exactly like you?’ Instead of putting them in his dresser drawer like he meant to do before they got here, he’d left them in a pile next to the other mail.
Ivy walked over and leaned down to get a look at her new baby brother. “Oh, nice, Dad. You’ve got pictures of him but none of us?”
“I didn’t take these. They were sent to me.”
“Well maybe you should’ve gotten some of us too. Mom has, like, a thousand of them all over the house.”
Zane scrubbed the back of his neck. “You’re right. I need to do that. I’m sorry.”
“Whatever,” Ivy answered with a roll of her eyes. She picked up the handwritten note from Claudia. “What an idiot. Writing a note like this. What if your housekeeper saw it and blabbed to the tabloids?”
“Good point.” Zane snatched the note out of her hands, ripped it up and threw it in the garbage. “Look, I know this is hard, girls. I do. It’s a horrible thing to ask you to keep a secret like this, but it really is the best for everyone. Especially you kids.”
Ivy gave him a glare. “I’d say it’s especially good for you.” She glanced down at the photos again, her jaw tightening. “He’s not very cute, is he?”
Oh crap. How was Zane supposed to answer that one? After all, Elliott was his son, too. Not some stranger’s child. “Do you think so? I thought he looked a lot like Parker at that age.”
“Parker was an ugly baby too,” Ivy said.
In his quest to carefully stand up for his youngest, Zane failed to notice that Poppy’s eyes were filled with tears and her little fists were balled up at her sides. “I hate you, ugly baby. I wish you would die like Uncle Mike!”
Zane gasped, his body heating up with instant rage. “Poppy June McCreight! That’s enough,” he said in the firm tone he normally saved for his older children.
“Oh my God, Dad! June is my middle name!” Ivy spat out.