Page 21 of Back in the Saddle

“Two days?”

Another shake.

“A week?”

“No.”

“Two weeks.”

“A bit more.”

“You’ve been looking after yourself all this time?”

“Yes.”

She swore and smoothed down my hair. “Let’s pack your suitcase. You can come home with me.”

My legs went weak. Her tight embrace saved me from falling.

“Be a good boy and she will come home soon.”

Soon meant nearlyfive weeks later. I was a good boy all those five weeks, because Mamo said if I was good Mam would come home. I must have been bad, and that’s why she’d left. I promised myself never to be bad again. I would do whatever I was told. I would help as much as I could. I wouldn’t make Mam tired. I tried so hard. But I must have been bad, a lot, because she left four more times after that.

I sighed. No point fretting on something that happened over thirty years ago.

I pulled up in my carport and walked to the house, not waiting for Callum and Isabelle.

Before I even got to the front door, Callum was beside me. His mouth, usually upturned in a smile, was drawn. “Dad, where are you going? Why do you need to pack?”

“I don’t want to discuss it right now. Your plan backfired.”

Their eyes widened and mouths went slack. As punishment, I think this was working out quite well.

“Dad.” Isabelle’s voice trembled; she was close to tears.

I swung around to face them, my expression as stern as I could muster. I couldn’t keep the charade going though, not when I saw how stricken they were. “I’m moving back in with you while Mamo is here.”

Isabelle closed her eyes and Callum let out a hasty breath. Then they shared a look as they tried to hide their smirks.

“I wouldn’t be so proud of yourselves. Just because I’m moving back, it doesn’t mean your mum and I are getting back together.”

Isabelle nodded in that infuriating way her mother does, where she thinks she knows exactly how it will play out, and it’s nothing like I think.

“And we’d prefer if Mamo doesn’t know about the separation.”

“We won’t say a word,” Isabelle said.

No matter how much you force two people together, you can’t make them reconcile, you know, leading a horse to water and all that. Especially if they have given up already. We set to work packing. It didn’t take long because I hadn’t brought much with me other than clothes. By the time we got home, Taylor and Lorraine were there. The kids hugged their grandmother tightly and Isabelle whispered something in her ear. Lorraine threw a glance my way and nodded.

I shook my head and went to our room. Taylor’s room now, but our room again for the next two weeks. Funny how the kids didn’t follow. I hated to think that they were together setting more plans in motion. I mean to ask their mamo to visit behind our backs, and pay for her airfare, was something I never thought they were capable of. They could have anything else planned.

I looked around. Nothing had changed since I’d moved out. My space in the wardrobe was empty. Taylor hadn’t taken over my spot. I put my clothes away. When I went into the bathroom, it was exactly the same. My side of the vanity was empty. Why had she left it all the same? Did she think I was coming home? Did she want me to?

I wouldn’t receive any answers staring at the spaces I’d just filled. I turned to go back out to the living area. I’d probably get no answers out there either. We didn’t talk about anything important anymore. We hadn’t spoken about our future in a very long time.

Lorraine was standing at the kitchen bench with Callum and Isabelle by her side, chopping onions and zucchini. I smiled, thinking back to when I first moved here and called it a courgette, and everyone thought I was weird.

“Nanna is making us lasagne,” Callum said.

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