Page 51 of Love You
She hesitantly made her way around the sofa, mentally preparing herself for a lecture about Lewis.This has gone on long enough, Darcy.It’s been a year, it’s time to go home to your husband.
It didn’t matter that Lewis was her ex-husband. In her parents’ minds, she was simply on hiatus from her marriage, a short vacation from real life.
She sat, girding herself for the speech that was sure to come. Instead, he took her hand and sandwiched it between his much larger ones. Neither of her parents were particularly demonstrative so even that small gesture of affection surprised her. Darcy’s initial thought was the unthinkable. He’s dying and he’s come to say his final farewell.
Her heart stopped. “Dad?”
He didn’t say anything, letting the silence envelop them. Her imagination ran wild with all the terrible possibilities. What if it wasn’t her father but Geneva? What if she had cancer? What if it was Nana? No, Darcy would know if it was Nana.
“Your mother and I have filed for legal separation.”
She tried to grasp what he was saying. Of all the things it could’ve been, divorce hadn’t been one of them. Legal separation wasn’t necessarily divorce, she reminded herself.
“Why?” was all she could seem to manage.
He cleared his throat and maybe Darcy was seeing things but his eyes seemed to water. “Because we don’t love each other.”
As far as she knew they never had. Or it had been a strange love, filled with icy indifference. Their relationship had been nothing like Nana’s and Grandpa’s. Sweet, passionate, and enduring. Sometimes it was hard to believe Max Wallace was their son.
A thousand questions swirled in her head. She assumed because Max was here to deliver the news, the breakup was his idea. “Are you moving out?” That would kill her mother, to whom appearances were everything.
“I’m renting a condo. We’ll eventually sell the house.”
Another thing that would kill Geneva. As sterile and vulgar as it was, she loved that house.
“What does Mother say about this?” It explained her impromptu visit to Reno. Darcy had suspected that it had nothing to do with her alleged engagement to Win.
Max picked a piece of lint off his slacks. “She’s not happy about it.”
Because she didn’t want the divorce or because divorces were sad?
“Where will she live?” It was an inane question but Darcy was still parsing her father’s words. Her relationship with Max and Geneva was strained but they were still her parents. The idea of their being apart, separate units, was hard for her to wrap her head around.
“Ah, honey, we haven’t worked out those details.”
Honey?She couldn’t remember the last time her father had called her by an endearment. Possibly never until now. She looked around the house and it suddenly dawned on her that her grandmother wasn’t here.
“Where’s Nana?”
“She went to the store,” he said. “She wanted us to have time alone together.”
“Are you staying the night?”
“No.” He took a long pause. “I have to head back but I wanted to tell you in person.”
“What about Mother?” she asked, and he looked at her like he didn’t understand the question. “Why didn’t she tell me? She was here, you know?”
“I didn’t.” He wouldn’t meet her eyes and she wondered why. What was that about? “It was sudden and I suppose she’s still trying to collect herself.”
How sudden could it be if he already had a condo?
“Was it your idea?” Even though she suspected it was, she wanted to know for sure.
She could feel him squirm under her inspection, then he let out a breath.
“The separation was a mutual decision,” he finally said. “Perhaps tomorrow you could call your mother and lend her your support.”
She nodded, though she didn’t know what she could say that would make it better. She and Geneva weren’t exactly tight. And when Darcy had gone through her own divorce, her mother had pretended that it was a “phase.” That was the ridiculous word she’d used for it. A “phase.” God forbid she tell her friends that her daughter was no longer married to Lewis Snyder, the best a girl like her could hope for.
