Page 6 of Two Wrongs

I laughed for the first time in days. “How about you go grab this kitty and let’s pick her out a proper name.”

“She’s in my car. I checked out of the motel I hid out in over the weekend.”

It only took one trip to the car to grab the few things I grabbed when I left. I let the small calico cat out of her carrier and the disposable litter box I’d picked up over the weekend.

Dolores moves to the sofa and is immediately graced with feline affection. “Aren’t you just a little love,” she coos.

“What do you think of the name Patches?” I ask her.

She shrugs. “It doesn’t matter what I think, dearie. What our friend thinks is the real question.”

She turns to the kitten. “Do you like the name Patches?”

The kitten stretches out and starts making biscuits on Dolores’s lap. “I think she’s fond of it.”

I nod. “That’s settled then.” I scoop up the kitty and hold her to my cheek. “You’ve got a name and a forever home now girl.”

“And so do you,” Dolores says to me.

“Thank you,” I whisper through a tight throat.

“No thanks necessary. You and I need each other, and together we’ll see you through this.”

3

Griffin

“Where have you been for the last couple days?”

My son jumps at the sound of my voice. “I’ve been thinking.”

“A little late for that. Maybe you should have tried that before you fucked around on your wife.”

“What do you care? You’ve never liked Wren anyway. You said from the beginning I was too young, that I’d regret settling down so early. Didn’t you say I needed to know what was out there before I committed to one woman? Well, congratulations, dad, you were right.”

“Don’t lay this on me. No matter what I said to you, that doesn’t excuse cheating on your wife. That isn’t the kind of man I raised you to be.”

He rolls his eyes. “When did you raise me? You’ve spent your life under the hood of a car. I raised myself.”

“I’ve done the best I could with you, but you know what? I’m going to let you go ahead and claim responsibility for the man you have become, because I sure as shit wouldn’t have raised a fucking cheater.”

As for the accusation that I’ve never liked Wren, well, I wish that were true. I didn’t notice her much when they started dating in high school. She was a child, and I didn’t expect a high school relationship to last.

When her parents were in a fatal car accident right before the beginning of her senior year, we all rallied around to help her cope. I watched my son spend more and more time with her. She seemed good for him, and I hoped he was good for her. She transformed overnight from a young girl to a woman with adult problems.

Her parents weren’t wealthy people, and the mortgage on their house was too much for an eighteen year old student to maintain, so the house was sold, and the small profit from the sale let her finish school without worrying about bills. She handled every obstacle with her head held high, and she never buckled under the weight of her grief.

In truth, I’ve admired her for a long time. I know Liam lets on that he wanted to play college football, and probably let her think he gave it up for her. Perhaps, if she hadn’t been so grief stricken, she might have noticed the fact he had no interest in sitting on the bench on a college team. In her eyes Liam was always larger than life.

I know he told her he failed his classes at the community college because of her needing him that first year. I should have stopped it then. He used her guilt to convince her to stay with him and give up her scholarship. I do believe he loves her, in his own selfish way, but if he really loved her the way she deserved, he would have convinced her to take the scholarship she earned.

Now I can see the anger I carried was directed in the wrong place. She believes I don’t think she’s good enough for my son, when the opposite is true. That’s a hard pill to swallow, resenting your own child. Seeing what he has, and wanting it for yourself. Knowing neither of us were good for her, and still wanting to be the one to care for her.

I can’t be that for her. Not that she sees me that way. I’m her asshole father-in-law and nothing more. I can’t ever be anything more. Still, I couldn’t help trying to push her down the path she needed to follow. Wren Parker is too good for this town, and far too good for the two of us.

If I thought my son would follow her to school, encourage her rather than hold her back, I would have celebrated their relationship. Lust and love aren’t the same thing. I’m old enough to know that.

Caring about Wren doesn’t mean I’m in love with her. I’ve gone down that road before, and I’ll never be vulnerable like that again. But lust, yeah, I feel that. No heterosexual man can look at her and not want her.

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