Page 85 of Bonus Daddy
For the next hour, Jas fired off question after question, asking about our drive, the girls, my jobs, and the relocation request.
When the air got crisp, Josh slid a small blanket off the back of his chair and held it out to me.
The softness of the yarn in my hands brought back a powerful memory. One of my mom, rocking in this very chair, crocheting. Even after a long day of work and raising four kids, she still couldn’t keep her hands still. Josh had clearly inherited that from her.
Every child born in this town had a blanket custom made byMaryann Lawrence, and she’d donated thousands of hats to the maternity ward at the county hospital over her lifetime.
As I sat here with my siblings, the ache of losing her filled me. There was so much I wanted to tell her. And, selfishly, I craved the way she would have looked at me with pride after I’d freed myself from a bad marriage. She’d never said a bad word about Kenneth, but she had never been particularly warm toward him either.
“Did Mom hate Kenneth?” I asked, interrupting the silence.
The three of them froze.
Jasper, with a roasted potato halfway to his mouth, went wide-eyed. “Um.”
Josh gave Jenn a pointed look, and she sighed, her shoulders slumping.
“Yes,” Jenn said. “She despised the man. She swore he was a covert narcissist, insisting that no one had realized it yet.”
I pressed my lips together, considering, trying to recall a memory of any kind of comment like that she’d ever made to me. But I came up empty.
Jenn gave me a sympathetic smile. “But she loved you and wanted you to be happy.”
“She’d always rant about how you could do better,” Josh added. “How you needed a man who really saw you, who made you feel safe enough to be yourself. Who appreciated your quirks.”
“Yes.” Jenn added, “like that sweet guy you dated in college.”
My heart lurched, and I stopped rocking. The move was apparently violent enough to draw everyone’s attention, because suddenly, all eyes were on me.
“What?” Jenn asked.
Josh raised his eyebrows at me, ok I guess I had to tell her.
I fiddled with the blanket on my lap while I worked to school my features. I wasn’t ashamed of hooking up with Brian, but it wasn’t the sort of thing I wanted to admit at the moment. Especially given my track record with men.
“It’s just funny that you mentioned Brian. My college boyfriend,” I clarified. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment.
“Why?”
“Funny story.” I peeked one eye open, then the other. “He’s actually my lawyer now.”
“Brian? Tall redhead with the goofy smile?” Jenn asked.
“His hair is auburn,” I corrected. “But yes. He’s a hotshot attorney now. One of his partners has been coming into my studio for the last several months. He and his girlfriend convinced me that Brian could help me secure the court order to relocate to Vermont.”
“And he did it,” Josh said, rocking back.
I nodded, a smile breaking through. “He did. He’s one of the best.”
“Small world.” Jasper shoveled another potato into his mouth, eyeing me with suspicion.
With a sigh, thankful the conversation was over, I scanned the horizon.
“What aren’t you telling us?” Jenn asked, bursting the peaceful bubble I’d slipped into.
My stomach twisted, but I kept my expression neutral. “Nothing.”
“Nope. Don’t buy it.” She grasped her armrests. “When you said his name, you broke into a dopey smile.”
