Page 17 of Lyrical

“Hi, Dad.”

Daniel was coming towards the door, and my temper softened a bit. This guy who could be a total insensitive jerk was still Daniel’s father, and I had to remember that. Daniel loved him, and it didn’t matter how old my son was; I wasn’t going to badmouth Mike in front of him.

“Hey, my boy. Come here.” Mike held out his arms, bringing Daniel in for a giant hug. “Great to see you, buddy.”

“I’m just going to say goodbye to everyone, and then I’ll be ready to go.”

Mike nodded. “Sure thing.” Daniel went back to the kitchen. “That Frank’s lasagna I smell?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think I can—” Mike’s eyes suddenly narrowed, and at that moment I’d bet everything on why and end up disgustingly rich. He leaned closer to me. “What the fuck is he doing here?” he said quietly through clenched teeth.

“Eating dinner with the rest of the family.”

“Can I speak to you outside a minute?”

I was about to say no, then realized if it weren't now, it’d be another time. I couldn’t avoid it forever. I grabbed my coat from the front closet.

“I’ll be on the porch,” I yelled out.

I opened the door to Mr. Freeze’s breath in my face and lowered my head. At least it’d stopped snowing. I stuck my hands in my pockets and waited for Mike to shut the door.

“I am seriously questioning your judgment right now, Jillian.”

“Did you think I was going to keep Chase a secret? Daniel needed to meet him sometime. And it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. I thought about it a lot before I decided that time should be sooner rather than later.”

“And you didn’t bother to ask my opinion?”

“No. What would that accomplish? I know how you feel, and I disagree with it.”

“This is very irresponsible of you, Jillian. Parading your boy toy around our son.”

I was gettingpissed. I bounced up and down, partly to warm up and partly to cool down. Whenever he insinuated that I had anything less than Daniel’s best interests at heart, I wanted to hurt him. Badly.

I took the cool route. “Let me ask you, Mike.” I stepped off the porch and peered around the walk, but I couldn’t see Mike’s car. He’d parked it too far off to the side. “Is Candace waiting in the car?”

I almost snorted at the thought of them back together. Mr. ‘She’s not the one for me and I’m never going back to her no matter what happens between us’ was probably groveling at her feet within the hour after I’d booted him out.

“No, she didn’t feel well. But that’s different. He already knows Candace. And they weren’t in diapers together.”

“Well, I guess you wouldn’t know since I’m the one who potty-trained our son, but he was completely out of diapers before he was three.”

“You know what I mean. Close enough. Fuck, it’s messed up, and I thought you’d have come to your senses and ended your little spring fling before Daniel graduated.”

“I love Chase so get used to it. He’s not going anywhere.” And neither was this conversation. “If we’re only out here so you can give me a hard time, there’s nothing more to talk about.”

I put my hand on the doorknob but he stopped me. “Mark my words, Jillian. This little May-December thing you’re playing around with? It’s going to blow up in your face. Did you even ask Daniel how he feels about it?”

“He’s fine with it, Mike. There were no problems tonight. He’s acting like an adult, unlike you at the moment.”

“Are you sure about that? You think he’s truly fine with his mother dating someone his own age? You’d better think again. What I think is that he’s not making an issue of it because he loves you and that’s the kind of guy he is. Don’t take advantage of that.”

I was fucking livid. “Get your hand off me. We’re done here. This topic is closed. Permanently.”

“I’m not the one who needs to act like an adult here. Our son’s home now, so it’s time for you to get your shit together and stop thinking only of yourself.”

Holy. Fuck. I yanked away from him and thought about slamming the door into his head. Fuck him. He could wait outside and freeze his ass off until Daniel was ready. And fuck him for wanting some lasagna. Unless he wanted to choke on it, and even then he wasn’t good enough for it. And fuck him for throwing my insecurities back in my face.

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