Leandra
While this afternoon couldn’t have gone more perfectly, the weight of my mother’s visit was still bearing heavily on me. She’d been awful, and though Dalton had handled her expertly, was it really fair to ask him to put up with the likes of her venom for the rest of his life?
After Dalton had left to go handle his business, Ms. Elena and I had gossiped a bit more before I’d had no choice but to take a shower and begin the rest of my day.
Of course, before getting on with the plans for the pedicures, I had called Rya to tell her everything about last night, and we had squealed in delight like a couple of high school girls.
Now, being my best friend, I had overshared to the point where she had begged me to stop, but it’d been all in good fun.
Dalton and I were finally in a good place, and no one was happier for us than Rya; I knew this.
At any rate, after the pedicures and dinner with Ms. Elena and Ruben, we were now at Dalton’s because he’d said that he wanted his sheets to smell like me, and I wasn’t sure how, but he just kept making my heart swoon with all the things that kept coming out of his mouth.
I also finally understood why Rya had defended him so much. She’d always known the Dalton that I was just now meeting, and so I could see why she hadn’t wanted to take sides. Dalton really was a good guy when he wasn’t being a jackass.
Watching him with Ms. Elena and Ruben had also been something else.
He’d been so sweet and patient with them, and nothing made older people feel more valued than someone actually paying attention to what they had to say, and Dalton had been the perfect conversationalist. Of course, according to Rya, Dalton adored his grandparents, so that could have had a lot to do with it.
Nevertheless, I was still giving him credit for the kindness that he had shown to two people whom he’d just met today.
“Are you sure that you got enough to eat?” Dalton asked as he walked back into the living room after grabbing us a couple of beers.
“Yes,” I answered, chuckling a bit. “And don’t do that.”
“Do what?” he asked as he handed me my beer before taking a seat next to me on the couch.
“Try to feed me all the time,” I answered. “My frame will gain weight really quickly if I’m not careful.”
“Well, for the record, I’d rather see you chubby and happy than skinny and miserable,” he said, surprising me since I’d never seen him go home with anything less than perfection.
“Really?” I asked, genuinely curious. “But...but the women that I’ve always seen you with-”
“Were women that hit on me, not the other way around,” he pointed out. “In all the years that you’ve known me, have you ever seen me hit on a woman?”
As I thought about it, he was right. “Well...no.”
Then, as casually as could be, he reached for the remote control as he said, “Call it crazy, but I always felt like that’d be going too far in front of you.”
I didn’t say anything as he automatically switched the current channel to Investigation Discovery, and this must be what it felt like to be cherished. I knew that Dalton had no interest in this channel, but it was easy enough for him to appreciate my interests with no questions asked.
Suddenly, it made me feel more awful.
“Dalton?”
“Yeah, baby?” he asked as he turned away from the television to look back at me.
“I...I want to...to apologize for my mother this morning-”
“Whoa,” he quickly rushed out. “Let me stop you there, Leandra. You do not need to apologize for that woman.”
“Yes, I do,” I argued. “She had no right to talk to you like that, and I...I should have done a better job of stopping her. I should have-”
“Leandra, baby,” he said, interrupting my guilt-filled rant. “It’s not your fault that your mother is an awful person. It was not you who raised her, so you are not responsible for what she does or says.”
“Yeah, but is that something that you want to deal with for the rest of your life?” I asked, my heart sinking a bit from how serious I was about giving him an option.
His head reared back a bit. “Who in the hell says that I’m going to have to deal with her for the rest of my life?”
That stopped me.
I mean, what about all the things that he’d said last night?
“Oh...I just...okay,” I stammered, trying to wrap my mind around what’d just happened.
Reading me correctly, Dalton set his beer on the coffee table, then took mine out of my hand to do the same, and I didn’t say anything as he pulled me into his lap, his arms wrapped tightly around me.
“I think I should clarify that statement,” he said, and the grin on his face had me feeling like an insecure nitwit.
“I just meant that it’d be no problem for me to avoid her, Leandra.
Lots of people feel as if they’re forced to deal with toxic family members, but I don’t feel that way.
I have no problem cutting off people who mess with my mental peace. ”
“I just don’t know how to do that yet,” I admitted.
“There’s been lots of times when I’ve wanted to, and there are even times when I think that I will, but.
..but then I think about how that will affect my dad, and I can only imagine what kind of hell she’d create for him with her complaining, and I just..
.” I let out a heavy sigh because I really didn’t know what the right thing to do was when it came to my mother. “I just don’t know what to do.”
“I get that,” he said as his dark gaze regarded me carefully. “I really do, and I’ll never pressure you on that, baby. Not only is it not my place, but I’m the last person to comment on someone’s relationship with their parents.”
Now, while I didn’t know the details, I knew that Dalton had been raised by his grandparents and that his parents had become a non-factor once he’d gone to live with Mr. and Mrs. Summit.
I knew that his parents had been drug addicts and neglectful, but I had no idea of the intimate details of Dalton’s young life.
Nevertheless, I could respect how he didn’t want to give advice on a topic that he wasn’t familiar with.
Most people liked handing out useless platitudes without any real experience with the topic at hand, and it was bullshit a lot of the time.
“That being said, your mother will not be welcomed in our home if she can’t keep a civil tongue in her mouth,” he went on. “Her hate has no effect on me, but I’ll be damned if I’ll allow her to mistreat you while I’m in the room.”
“I can do that,” I assured him. “I mean, refusing to let her come over is hardly cutting her off completely, right?”
Dalton didn’t say anything to that for a bit, but when he finally spoke, I felt torn and elated all at the same time.
“No, it’s not. However, you’re really going to have to give your relationship some serious consideration once we have children, Leandra.
I will not have that woman poisoning their upbringing. ”
“You still want to have children with me after that mess this morning?” I asked, half-joking.
Dalton’s arms re-adjusted around my hips. “Baby, I can dislike your mother and still love you at the same time.”
My heart started fluttering in my chest as I was desperately not trying to read too much into what he’d just said. After all, he hadn’t said that he loved me. He had just hinted that he would in the future, and that my mother would have no impact on his feelings for me.
Right?
“Besides, once you have children of your own, I think you’ll find it easy to put their best interest ahead of your mother’s feelings,” he went on. “Children have a way of changing everything.’
“But...but your parents didn’t,” I pointed out, feeling hollow as I’d said the words.
Instead of getting offended, he said, “No, but they were addicts. Being addicted to something is a lot different than just having a shitty personality.”
“I don’t know,” I drawled out. “Some people are addicted to misery.”
“True,” Dalton chuckled. “Still, your mother has control over what comes out of her mouth, whereas most addicts aren’t in control of anything.”
After a few seconds of silence, I said, “You’re too good to me.”
“Nah, baby,” he said as he shook his head. “I just think that you’re mistaken in believing that your mother has more power over you than she actually does.”
“I think you might be right,” I sighed regretfully. “But you have definitely given me a reason to fight that fight a little harder.”
“Well, I’m here for whatever you need,” he assured me. “No matter what happens, you do not have to handle that viper on your own anymore.”
That got a laugh out of me. “She really is awful, isn’t she?”
“She is,” he grinned. “Which makes me wonder if you’re secretly adopted.”
“Now there’s a thought,” I laughed.
“We can only hope, baby.”