Page 36 of Love In The Spotlight

“Mom, can you keep an eye on Penelope? Dad, you’re going to Walmart with me.” It was the closest place to get anything in these parts.

“You’re going to step foot in Walmart?” his father asked.

“With a baseball hat on. Unless you want to take my credit card.”

“No,” his father said. “I’m not touching it.”

“Then we are going together and getting what Lynn’s family needs for food and Christmas and anything else you think you need to give to others.”

“We don’t need your help,” his father said.

“Joseph,” his mother said sternly. “Spend time with your son and let him help the only way he knows how.”

Good way for him to get insulted for being generous.

Nothing ever changed and he wondered why he hoped that it would.

11

BAD DAD

“Why are you so quiet?” Janelle asked him on Christmas night when they were back home in New Jersey.

This morning Jamie had gone to his parents’ house with Penelope to open some gifts and have breakfast, then went straight to the airport and flew home. He’d left all his own gifts for Penelope here to open, along with the ones from Santa.

His daughter had been so excited and almost couldn’t wait to get home but did have fun opening gifts from her grandparents and aunt and uncle.

He didn’t think he went overboard on his gifts for everyone, but his father got his digs in anyway.

He bought practical stuff. Jackets, clothing, boots, toys for his sister’s kids. He got his mother a few things for her kitchen too because she did a lot of cooking and baking.

It was bad enough that his father almost shit himself over the two thousand dollars he’d spent at Walmart and donated to the church for toys and jackets and shoes.

He got a thank you, but it was almost forced out by his mother’s prodding.

“I’ve been talking most of the day,” he said. “I’m surprised your ears aren’t bleeding with Penelope’s chatter and us playing with pretty much everything she opened when we got home.”

Janelle laughed and sipped her tea. He was on his third beer.

He wasn’t sure the last time he had three beers in a night. Before Penelope was born that was for sure.

“She was excited over her playhouse. How did you manage to get that set up before we left so that it was here when we got home? She thinks Santa did it, but we left after you.”

“Randy came over and did it for me,” he said.

He figured he made enough money for his agent the least he could do was fill in in a bind. It’s not like it had to be done on Christmas Eve, but just any time after Janelle left on the twenty-third.

“It was nice of him,” Janelle said. “Just as nice as all the things you got me. You do too much as it is and this was more than enough.”

“You deserve a real vacation,” he said. “You keep talking about wanting to go somewhere warm.”

“I can’t wait. If it’s all the same to you, I’ll plan it once the season is done and you won’t be traveling or working. Are you sure about this?”

“Positive,” he said. “You haven’t had a full week off in a year.”

Janelle got a lot of days off during the week and weekends, but a full week away, nope.

He was grateful for it and wanted her to know.

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