Page 25 of It's Always Sonny

Panic zips through me like an electric shock “Dad? Why isn’t he at work?”

“He took the day off.”

“Dad did? My dad?”

“Yes, and he wants to talk to you. Why are you so surprised?”

Where do I begin? Fortunately, Jane comes through the front door of the cabin, smiling and ready to help me with the check-in process. I smile back.

“I’m sorry, Mom, but I have to go. I need to work.”

“But Parker, your father—”

“I’ll have to call him another time. Bye, Mom.”

“We love you!” she blurts just as I hang up the phone.

They love me?

I don’t remember the last time either of them said that.

Ever.

It doesn’t fill me with emotion as much as niggling discomfort. Why would she say that now? I frown at my phone and set it on the table.

“Hey there,” Jane says. “How are your parents?”

“Same as ever,” I say. “I’m a failure, have squandered all my talent, and I’ve embarrassed my family by watching Gilmore Girls again last night.”

Jane laughed. “You didn’t tell them you watched Gilmore Girls.”

“She could sense it,” I say.

Jane sits next to me at the table. “Isn’t it weird how parents can come across so differently to people who aren’t their actual child? When your parents took us all out to dinner sophomore year, your mother raved about you when you went to the bathroom. Everything you touched turned to gold.”

“She had to save face. I’m a reflection of her.”

“I believe you,” Jane says, and I appreciate her belief more than I can express.

I also appreciate that she doesn’t try to one-up me. Because if “Bad Mom” were a competition, Jane’s mom would win the gold … and steal the silver and bronze just because. My mom is hard. Her mom is the worst.

I’ve never talked a lot about how I was raised to my friends because on the surface my life looks perfect. Under the surface, on the other hand …

But a year ago, Jane took a massive account—the Sugar Maple Farms rebrand—without telling any of us. Because we already had commitments to other jobs, the rest of us stayed behind while Jane flew out to start on the job. Although the biggest thing to come out of it for Jane was getting married to Tripp, something big came out of it for me, too.

I was furious when Jane took the account without telling us. Not just furious, but hurt. It felt like a direct rejection of my efforts and me. I’m the CFO, for heaven’s sake, and she took the job to try to save the company I was failing to save. I froze her out. For months, I only said the bare minimum to her.

Then one day, it all came out, and I unloaded.

And you know what? I felt a lot better. Being honest and vulnerable didn’t lead to more rejection. It brought Jane and me closer. Since then, I’ve opened up about my family mostly to Jane, but to the Janes at large, too. It was terrifying telling them about how my parents rejected me (after all, if my own parents rejected me, then what did they know that my friends didn’t know?). But instead of pushing them away, it’s bonded us. And my friends have opened up more, too.

A metric ton of therapy has also helped.

Jane and I review the itinerary, which she can’t stop raving over, and soon, it’s twelve o’clock, straight up. Time for check in. Jane and I sit and wait eagerly.

They don’t show.

Thirty minutes later, they still aren’t here.

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