Switch

stunned at the vehemence in his tone. 'Hate Dad?'

Jeremy lifted watery eyes to me. 'Yeah. Don't you?'

I had absolutely no idea what any of this was about, but I

kept my voice gentle. 'Why, Jeremy? Do you?'

He ducked his head again. Twelve was tough. Not a kid

anymore, not a teen. I'd given my mom her first gray hairs

when I was twelve.

'He always tels us family is so important.' He spat the last word and I heard the snurfle of snot.

I grabbed a couple tissues from the box on the counter

behind me and passed them over. Jeremy grabbed them

and tucked them against his face, stil bent into the circle of

his arms. I drank some soda while I thought of what to

say.

'Family is important,' was al I could come up with.

Jeremy looked at me again, though his tears had to be

embarrassing. 'He was married before my mom.'

'Yeah. I know. To Gretchen and Steven's mom. But that

was before you were born, guy.'

'But not,' Jeremy said in a voice laced thick with disgust,

'before you were born.'

He'd only just now figured it al out. Wel, I'd known it

younger than twelve and it hadn't made it any easier for me

to know my father had been married to another woman

when he had me. I was three before my dad realy started

making an effort to see me, his first marriage already over.

He was dating Stela by then. I never realy knew him with

anyone else.

'My mom…' Jeremy shuddered and swiped at angry

tears. 'She's the reason he got divorced from Gretchen

and Steve's mom. Isn't she?'

'I don't know, Jeremy. I never asked. It's not my business.

And, realy, not yours.' I didn't want to come off hard on

him. I understood. But I also knew it wouldn't change

anything for him to be angry over it.

'If family is so important, why did he do that?'

I sighed, at a loss. 'I don't know.'

Jeremy scrubbed at his face, the tears gone. His bright

eyes were shaped like Stela's though they were my dad's

color, and he looked like her when he frowned that way.

'He cheated on his first wife and had another baby, and

then he did it again!

That's not putting family first. That's not treating them like

they're important!'

Of al my dad's kids I'd thought Gretchen or Steven might

have had the most to bitch about. After al, their lives had

been turned upside down and torn apart by their dad's

infidelity. Mine hadn't been al strawberries and cream, but

it had been al I'd ever known. Jeremy and Tyler had lived

the lives of princes from birth.