“Baby . . . ” Lily’s hands fist by her sides. She and my mother never got along, likely because they are total opposites. Where Lily is warm, kind, tolerant, and understanding, my mother is vain, selfish, narrow-minded, and opinionated. She refused to attend our wedding because she didn’t think Lily was good enough for me. She said I had failed her yet again by marrying a woman without any money, society connections, or even a college degree.
“You have a college degree. You were a successful accountant. It wasn’t your fault the company downsized.” Her eyes flash fire. “Now, you’re doing something that you enjoy, building beautiful things just like your dad. You have his gift. Mike wouldn’t have offered you a job if he didn’t think you had talent.”
Damn.This coat . . . Thinking of my mother . . . The humiliation of having to admit I couldn’t provide for my wife . . . Asking Mike for a job because we’d run through our savings and couldn’t pay the mortgage . . . It hits me all at once.
Yanked out of the fantasy, I tear off the coat and stethoscope and throw them on the floor. “Your brother had to give me a fucking job because I couldn’t support you. What kind of man has to rely on handouts? My mother was right. I failed her. I failed you. I’m almost glad my dad isn’t alive to see me now.”
I expect her to shut down as she has time and again over the last year, but something is different tonight. Something changed when we opened that box. Lily folds her arms and glares at me. “I’ve never once felt like you let me down, and I’ve never thought of you as less of a man because of something that isn’t your fault. Your dad would have been proud of you no matter what you did. Your mother has messed you up almost as badly as my dad messed me up, but she was right about one thing. Accounting wasn’t your calling. You’re happy working with your hands. You just can’t accept it.”
“You don’t understand anything.” I pull on my T-shirt, regretting my decision to let Aiden get involved. “Pack that stuff up and give it back to Aiden. We’re never going to use it.”
I slipped up with the name—he has only ever been Dr. Steadman to us—but Lily doesn’t seem to notice. Her face falls, and I regret taking her down this road to nowhere. Feeling hope and then losing it all again is the worst kind of pain.