Page 31 of Other Side Of Never
The first year he failed to remember, I brought my hurt feelings to him.
“Bridget, really?”Flinging his arm toward our dining room where the children and his ex-wife had gathered, he continued, “You’re an adult, he’s only a child.Can you not let him have this?A day to celebrate with his mom and his dad and his stepmom all together in the same room?”
Shame near buried me.“Of course,” I murmured, ducking my face away.“I don’t want to take anything away from any of the children.”
He held his hands out to his sides helplessly.“Then what do you want?I don’t understand.”
I shook me head.“Nothing.Please forget I said anything.”
He regarded me with suspicion, his face pinched.
Tears choked me but shame forced them to retreat.Conflicting feelings whipped my emotions into a frenzy, intertwining them to the point I couldn’t make sense of any of them.
The distress was too much to bear, so I pushed it aside and nodded briskly.“You’re right.We need to focus on the children.”
His face softened as he drew me into his arms.“Thank you.”
I clung to him, nodding against his chest.“Should we get back out there?”
He nodded and drew back, his brow furrowed.Lips twisting to the side, he asked, “We’re low on ice cream, do you think you could run out and pick some up?”
I blinked, surprised by the surge of anger threatening to disrupt our freshly smoothed over surface.Instead of giving into it, I nodded.
He squeezed my arms.“Thank you.”Looking behind him he yelled to ask his ex-wife, “Lucy!What flavor do you want?”
I drew back numbly.
Turned away to take my purse off the hook in the hall.
Bent to put on first one shoe, then the other.
And picked up my keys off the hutch.
“Maple walnut, okay, Bridge?”
I paused, nodded, then opened the door.
Driving away from the house, in the safety of the car, I tightened my hold on the steering wheel and screamed, the echo shockingly loud, strangely validating, and releasing enough of my fury to allow me to breathe without spitting fire.
The following year, Gary took the children to his ex-wife’s house, telling me I should have a night to relax.
It was, after all, my birthday.
He’d waited an entire year to exact his revenge for that misstep.That was the day I realized I’d truly lost Jakey.
For one reason or another, he no longer invited me to participate in family events.Always, of course, for my benefit.
Not so long after that, he stopped taking me with him to corporate events.
The roar of the lawn mower starting next door grounded me back into the present.I gave my head a shake, shoving the memory back into the bowels of the past where it belonged.
I knocked briskly on Kian’s door, his cake balanced on my palm, the gifts I bought for him and Isaiah in a bag dangling off my wrist.
Kian deserved to celebrate his birthday.
Kian deserved his family to be celebrate with him.
He deserved a lot of things he wasn’t getting.
