Page 28 of A Chance for Us
I lean back in my chair, rubbing my chin like a villain. “We shall see if I do that.”
She tosses the napkin at me.
“I’m kidding. Look, I’ll go along with this and do my best for you and for your dad.”
She smiles softly, tucking her long blonde hair behind her ear. “Thanks. You are really just . . . you are an amazing man.”
So amazing that I’m still single and have been dumped by two women I wanted to marry. Yeah, I’m totally fucking great.
“Well, good thing that I was here when you needed me.”
“It is, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m clearly out of my mind.”
I take her hand, squeezing. “Maybe you are, but you’re following your heart.”
“If you ask anyone who works with me, I don’t have a heart.”
“Anyone who has ever met you knows that’s not true. If you didn’t, I wouldn’t be sitting here with you.”
Heartless people don’t fake weddings for their dying fathers. Just a fact.
“Well, it’s all for him.”
I can see she’s uncomfortable so I change the topic back to safer grounds. “Tell me about your childhood, the things your fiancé should know.”
“You remember my mom died when I was little?”
I nod. Her mother was killed by a drunk driver while she was on her way home from work. It was truly horrific and something that really shaped her life. Maren was always the designated driver and wasn’t above stealing someone’s keys to keep them from driving if they had been drinking.
“After that, he was my everything, my best friend. I was all he had left of her, so we clung to each other. We were a team, you know? Still, it was like I was so afraid to do something stupid or get hurt and break his heart that I wouldn’t dare come close to taking risks. Then he married Linda, and I felt like I lost him.” She squeezes my hand again, reminding me that her palm is pressed to mine, but when I move to pull away, she tightens her grip. “It was slow at first, but he changed. He was still overly protective and didn’t want me out of his sight, but it felt like he never wanted Linda to think she was left out, does that make sense?”
“It does, but didn’t you tell me he didn’t want you to go to college so far away? That doesn’t sound like a father who doesn’t care.”
“Oh, yeah, that was a huge fight. He begged me not to go.”
I remember her struggling a lot with being away. “Why did you?”
Maren shrugs. “I needed to, otherwise I never would have figured out who I was outside of being his daughter. My leaving was what allowed him to be aroundonlyLinda.”
The way she says her name is almost a sneer. “I take it you don’t get along?”
“How’d you guess?”
“Oh, I don’t know . . . just a hunch.”
Maren grins. “She was wonderful in the beginning of the relationship. She never pushed me to think of her like a mother or overstepped. My father got sick shortly after they got married, and even then, she was so great. Dad would’ve died if it weren’t for her. I’m sure of it.”
I clear my throat. “Then what changed?”
“Time, I guess. He got better, and they seemed happy, so it took me a long time to notice that something was off. She controlled everything. What he ate, where he went, who he talked to, and how often they spoke. She became the gatekeeper of him.”
“I’m sorry. That had to be really hard for you, to be cut off from your best friend.”
I’m not sure I would have ever noticed if my father stopped calling me when I was in college or if I would have even cared. Even back then, I despised him.
She lifts her shoulders and then drops them on a sigh. “He’s not the same, and I don’t entirely blame him. I’ve changed too. Now, I play her games because, if I don’t, I won’t have access to him. She’s already cut off my uncle Jim because he basically called her out on being controlling.”
“How big is your family?”
