Page 28 of Learning to Run

Glad I could make the nosy Dom happy, I had to laugh eventhough the subject wasn’t very pleasant in itself. “Good, Gareth wouldn’t wantyou to get stressed if he wasn’t here to fix it for you.”

That got another wicked laugh from Bates before he settledback in his seat, barely caressing the tips of my fingers. “You took care ofhim a lot, didn’t you?”

It wasn’t where I thought he’d start, but I nodded. “Yeah,my mom wasn’t as bad as his but neither of them really wanted to be parents. Itwas more about playing house and his mother just seemed to be the type to puther doll down and walk off.”

Bates winced. “That’s…”

As bad as he was imagining.

“One of my earliest memories is Gareth coming over to playand him saying his mom had left him alone. We weren’t even in kindergartenyet.” I had a vague memory of her running errands but it might not have beenconnected. “She and my mom wanted to do everything together, so she’d gottenpregnant too. She just didn’t know what to do with him after he was born. So mydad raised us like brothers.”

I couldn’t give him a lot of credit because he’d checked outonce we were old enough to take care of ourselves, but that seemed to be moreabout the issues in his marriage than us. “And I took care of Gareth and hetook care of me. He describes it as me being the parent, but it wasn’t likethat. If I had problems with homework or something like that he’d help, and ifhe needed help, I was there.”

It’d all worked out in the end.

“And so when college came around you did that together too.”Bates hadn’t actually asked a question, but I nodded.

“Yeah, however, a big part of that was because we both gotscholarships here.” I was pretty sure our essays had something to do with it,but I wasn’t going to apologize for telling the truth. “It made sense to gotogether even if Gareth hadn’t been adamant that we weren’t going to beseparated.”

Trying to sound a bit less weird, I kept going. “We had atherapist our freshman year who was worried we were codependent, but she’dmostly decided we were just weird.” She’d dressed it up nicer but that was whatit’d boiled down to. “Gareth couldn’t figure out why she was so worried, andeventually I just stopped making him go.”

I wasn’t sure it was the right decision but she’d beentrying to give him issues where he didn’t have any, and missing the ones Ithought he had.

“You made him go to begin with, didn’t you?” Bates didn’tseem surprised when I nodded, giving me a slightly bemused smile. “Why?”

“Um, well, I’d started taking a psychology class andrealized how fucked up we could’ve been.” Even after a few years, I couldn’tdecide if it’d been the right decision or not. “People always say to gettherapy for your shit and ours seemed like it was piled up around us, but shejust confused Gareth, and I didn’t like that she wanted to push us apart.”

As his eyes widened, I nodded. “We might be codependent oneach other but I’m not bad for him.”

That sentence sounded weird, but it had Bates shaking hishead. “No, I don’t think that describes your relationship at all.”

Settling into a thinking expression, he sighed and lookedlike he wanted to keep the headshaking going. “You’re family. Yes, you kept himsane and happy and probably fed, but you didn’t stop him from living his life.You supported him when he was dating stupid people, and nothing I’ve seen saysyou’ve been controlling his life.”

Yeah, I’d even supported his football passion in high schooland hadn’t made him quit even when I’d realized how dangerous it was.

“Well, I control the groceries or he comes home with weirdstuff, but when he wanted to be a history professor, I didn’t try to stop him.”I still wasn’t sure it was a completely logical goal, but with my financedegree, I knew I could support us if it came down to that.

Thankfully, when my mother had been in her doting on thebabies phase, she’d made both families set up college funds. It’d beentrendy or something in their women’s group, which I was very grateful forbecause Gareth and I were both pretty well set even if he wanted to get his master’s.

Bates chuckled, finally giving me a happy smile again. “Ithink between that and the mythology minor, it explains a lot.”

I was pretty sure Gareth just saw the world a littledifferently, but as crappy as his parents were, I thought he had a lot of funto make up for.

“We’re probably odd but it doesn’t seem to hurt anything andhe’s happy.” And I was a lot less stressed lately, so I was happy too. “Butsometimes I worry that I should’ve pushed him to stay in therapy.”

I felt better when Bates snorted. “No. She doesn’t soundlike she understood either of you at all. I would tell you if I thought heneeded therapy or if I thought he wasn’t capable of making decisions. He is. Hejust knows when you do it better.”

Bates grinned when I rolled my eyes. “Like keeping thefamily budget in order and picking out dinner. Every family member hasdifferent strengths.”

And Gareth felt loved when I did things for him.

“He can go grocery shopping on his own for the most part orwith Brady’s mom, and he helps me set up the budget and we pick out recipestogether. He’s a functional adult. Just not a dominant one.” Or always alogical one.

Bates must’ve been thinking the same thing by the way hegrinned, but he nodded and didn’t get distracted by whatever randomness floatedthrough his head. “I agree…and you’ve had to take care of Brady.”

“Yeah, that felt like a project sometimes.” I shrugged asBates started snickering. “As cranky as Jude is, I was really glad when Bradyfell in love with a functional Daddy who could handle him and his family.Jude’s nuts, but he’s the right kind of nuts for Brady.”

I just wished he was a bit less intense when it cameto me and Gareth.

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