Page 87 of Family Bonds: Carson & Laine

NOT AN ANSWER

Today was going better than she thought it would.

Carson was getting along great with her father. When her mother arrived, Stewart easily slipped into the conversation.

Laine sat back and watched all the men in her life.

Her father. Her stepfather. Her boyfriend.

They were all talking and pretty much ignoring her.

It was great!

“Look at you smiling,” her mother said.

“You don’t know how happy I am that I’m not the center of attention right now.”

“Which is funny since you normally are.”

“Not that I try to be,” she argued. “It just happens.”

She didn’t normally let it bother her. She just lived in the moment and most didn’t. If they followed along after she started it off, great. If not, not her problem.

But when it came to men, the last few she dated, they all but swallowed her whole when they were meeting her father.

It’s like they had to prove how much they cared for her and wanted to be with her.

Carson didn’t feel like he had to show her father and Stewart how much in love they were. She appreciated that much more.

“The story of your life,” her mother said.

She turned her head to follow her mother’s gaze. First on her father, then to Stewart. There was the same love in both glances. She caught her father looking at her mother the same. Stewart still talking to Carson.

“Does Stewart know?” she asked her mother quietly.

“Know what?” her mother asked.

“Mom,” she said, sighing. “Let’s go for a walk.”

The two of them stood up. “It’s girl talk,” her mother said. “We’ll return in a bit. Does anyone want another drink when we return?”

“I’m good,” her father said. He was drinking scotch with Carson and Stewart.

“The same,” Carson said. “Have fun.”

Stewart laughed and shook his head no and the men went back to talking. She heard bits and pieces of her father asking Carson some medical questions. Not in regard to health as much as a product idea he had.

When her mother and she were outside and walking the gardens, her mother asked, “What is it you wanted to know if Stewart knew?”

“That you still love Dad,” she said.

“Laine. You know it’s complicated.”

“That’s not an answer,” she said.

She wondered why she’d never talked about this before. Maybe it had more to do with the fact she finally found someone that she was positive she could love as strongly as her parents did. And the fact if it didn’t work out, she wasn’t sure she could be in the same room with him. Not like her parents were all the time.

It just made no sense now that she was a grown adult. She supposed she expected them to have gone about their lives more. When she was in college at eighteen, her mother was still only thirty-eight. Close to thirty-nine. Still young enough to have another child and start her life with Stewart. But it never happened.

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