Page 42 of Remembering You
Ronnie held her hands out as if displaying the hospital room. “Well… I’ve got nothing better to do. At least not until Live with Kelly and Ryan comes on and we’ve got at least thirty minutes until then.”
Marty pushed a breath through tight lips. “Fine. It’s not that exciting though. I found out he resigned from his previous job for dating a surgical intern… which basically means his last girlfriend was younger thanyou. And then when he asked me out, he went to our supervisor without talking to me first to disclose the date.” Man, this was weird confiding in her own daughter with man problems. For decades, Marty was the one her kids leaned on. The sounding board for problems. And Marty had Elsa… and Jim of course. At least for a little while. She couldn’t remember a time in her history that she talked with one of her kids like this. Then again, she’d never dated anyone in all these years, either.
Ronnie’s eyes widened momentarily. “Wow.” Then, she carefully added, “Okay. Is that all?”
“Is thatall?” Marty hissed. “Do I needmore?”
“No, geez, Mom.” Ronnie gave an exacerbated chuckle. “I’m just making sure I have the whole picture.”
“Well, that’s it. That’s what happened.”
“But… otherwise, the date was good?”
Marty swallowed, remembering their dinner last night. The way her cheeks would flush every time she caught his eye from above the menu. And the crooked smile he sent her way. The jokes. The butterflies. “Yeah… the date itself was good.”
“What upsets you more? The fact that he went to the supervisor without you? Or that he dated a younger woman before you?”
Glancing down at Ronnie’s chart, Marty avoided eye contact with her daughter while she tried to figure out the answer to that question. “I think… I think I’m most upset that I didn’t hear it from him. On one hand, maybe he was going to tell me. Maybe he would have told me he dated an intern. On the other… I’ll never know.”
When Marty glanced up, her daughter’s gaze had softened and she was nodding her head. “That makes sense.”
“And yes,” Marty sighed, “I’ll admit it makes me feel really insecure that while I’ve spent the last eighteen years celibate and raising kids, he was out dating a woman half my age.”Literally.
Ronnie chuckled. “That would make me uncomfortable, too.”
“It would?” Suddenly, Marty didn’t feel so silly anymore.
“Of course,” Ronnie shrugged. “I don’t think there’s a woman in the world who wouldn’t feel at least a little insecure knowing that. But it’s not really fair to punish him for a past relationship, right? Just like if you had chosen to get over Dad by having some mid-life crisis frat boytoy, no one should blame you for that, either.”
Marty snorted and rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah. Can you just imagine that?Uh, here, dude. Hold my four-year old and I’ll do that beerbong.”
Ronnie laughed and winced, placing her palm over her stomach. “Oh, ouch, it hurts to laugh.”
Marty reached over and took her daughter’s other hand. Ronnie shook her head as the chuckles faded. “I know you’re kidding, but five kids aside, I totally could imagine you dating a younger guy. You’re a cougar, Mom! Do you know how many of my college guy friends would tell me that my mom was a MILF? So many of them!”
Heat bloomed across Marty’s cheeks. “Oh, dear God…”
Ronnie shrugged. “Take it for what it is, but it’s true. If you had wanted a twenty-something guy, you could have had one.”
“Yeah, but Ididn’twant one. I didn’t need that rebound or that self-assurance.”
Ronnie smiled. “I know… it’s one of the things I’ve always admired about you. You know who you are. You’re confident in who you are and you’ve never needed a man—be it Dad or someone you were dating—to feel whole. But not everyone is as confident or lucky as you. And… I don’t know this guy’s situation, but you and Dad had a loving, wonderful marriage… at least as far as any of us could tell. Maybe this guy didn’t have that. He was searching for something. Some validation that he never got from his previous wife or relationship?”
Marty swallowed. “I don’t know… I didn’t ask him. Or rather… I didn’t really give him time to explain.”
Ronnie shrugged. “Maybe you should.”
Marty sighed, her head swimming. “Thisis not what you should be worrying about right now. Your thoughts should be on rest and healing.”
Ronnie rolled her eyes and her head fell back on her pillow. “Mom, I’m going to go nuts if people keep treating me like a porcelain doll. At least talking about Dr. Foster keeps my mind off of the fact that we almost lost these babies last night.” Ronnie ran her palm over her belly.
Marty squeezed Ronnie’s hand tighter. “You didnotalmost lose those babies last night. Dr. Foster and Dr. Fitzgerald are both brilliant surgeons and if they had to, they would have delivered the twins safely during your surgery last night. It’s why Dr. Foster was there in the first place.”
Ronnie’s cheek fell to her shoulder and she leveled her mother with a single look. “Mom. I know you didn’t think we were listening all those years ago, but I heard those horror stories you would tell Dad when I was kid about your prenatal surgeries.”
Marty swallowed the tight knot at the base of her throat. “You heard some of that, huh?”
Ronnie shrugged. “Some nights it was hard not to. You’d be upset… understandably. But don’t sit there and sugar coat the truth for me. We could have lost the babies last night.”
