“I knew Melanie when she was young, and she was far from spoiled,” Logan said. “But one thing I always liked about her was that she knew how she wanted to be treated, and she expected nothing less.”
Tilly looked up. “Whatever.”
The lazy reply was meant to antagonize him, but he’d raised a teenager of his own, so he wasn’t easily put off with these things.
“What do you want to order, Mel?” he asked, turning his attention toward her.
“The burgers look good. But so does the baked onion soup,” she said. “What about you?”
“I’m going for the chicken pasta,” he said. “I’ve had it. It’s really good.”
He dropped his gaze to the menu again.
“Any plans to see your father again?” Melanie asked, and he looked up.
“I was considering getting my brother to come with me,” he said, then sighed. “Maybe this isn’t about just me and my father anymore. Maybe it’s more of a family dynamic.”
Melanie raised her eyebrows. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“We always did have our quirks,” Logan said. “But I tried to connect with Dad, and Junior and I avoided each other. Maybe it’s time to just be a family. Dad seems to like talking about him, anyway. Maybe it’s time for us to connect, just the guys. With no one to answer to.”
“I think it’s a good idea,” she agreed.
He hoped so. The idea had occurred to him last night, and today, watching Melanie and Tilly together, he was struck by how much of their dynamic had involved the whole family. A marriage might start things off, but kids turned a marriage into a family—with all the connection and warmth, as well as the revealing teasing.
Tilly pulled out her phone and started typing. Melanie’s gaze turned toward her stepdaughter, and she pursed her lips.
“Not your business, Melanie,” Tilly said without even looking up.
“Do you always talk to her like that?” Logan asked.
Tilly glanced up in Logan’s direction. “I’m busy. I’m talking to someone. Okay? Give me a break.”
“Melanie deserves more respect than that,” Logan said, keeping his voice low. “She doesn’t have to open her home to you, but she has because she loves you. She deserves to be spoken to with respect.” He paused, unsure of how that was going to land. “And so do you, for the record.”
Tilly rolled her eyes and dropped her phone back into her lap. “Sorry, Mel. Jeez. He’s got a pea under his chair, too.”
Tilly’s phone rang and she picked it up again, and suddenly her expression changed. From attitude and insolence, there was suddenly a look that could only be described as “little girl.”
“It’s my dad,” she said, picking up the call. She plugged her other ear and stood up. “I’m going to take this.”
Logan watched as Tilly made her way out of the dining room, and he looked back at Melanie. She was watching Tilly go, her eyes filled with unnameable emotion.
“I’m glad he’s called her,” Melanie said after a moment. “She needs her father, not me.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” he replied. “I mean, I agree that she needs her dad, but you factor in, too.”
“Maybe more than I might like,” she agreed. “I had a bit of an epiphany last night.”
“Oh?”
“She watched her father cheat on me for years—”
“She knew?” he asked with a frown.
“They all did. I only just found that out. But if she spent her formative years watching her stepmother being cheated on and disrespected, then it explains a lot about how the kids saw me. I was never going to be someone to respect. I wasn’t worthy of their father’s fidelity, and I wasn’t going to get their respect, either.”
“Does it explain Tilly’s choice in boyfriend?” Logan asked softly. That would have messed up more than just Melanie’s relationship with them; it would have done some real damage to the children watching that dysfunction up close.
“It very well might,” Melanie replied with tears in her eyes. “I was the woman in the house, and I was the example of how women were treated by their husbands. And Tilly adored her father. She thought the sun rose and set with him. He was her example of what a man was supposed to be. Wouldn’t it be heartbreaking if she is putting up with Simon’s bad behavior because she watched her father cheating on me?”
IT WASN’T THAT Melanie blamed herself, exactly. She hadn’t known that Adam was cheating. As far as she knew, he was moody sometimes. Maybe he was less than doting when he got really busy, but he made up for it other times. He always took her somewhere tropical for their anniversary, and other gifting occasions always came with beautiful jewelry and kind words. No relationship was perfect, was it?
The waiter checked in, then retreated since Tilly was away from the table.
“Is it the boyfriend who she was texting with before?” Logan asked.
“Probably,” Melanie replied.
But what was she supposed to do? Tilly was old enough to make some bad choices of her own.
“Is that what it was like in your home?” Logan asked. “The teasing, the disrespect...”
“Not always.” She shook her head. “Sure, there were times I felt a little picked on, but everyone got their turn for that. And as for Adam, he wasn’t like that all the time. But after that many years together, a couple gets a sort of shorthand. You must know what I mean. You don’t necessarily keep up with the sweet-talking.”
“I guess so,” Logan replied. “I did try to keep up with some basic manners, though.”
“Well, you seem special in that,” she said with a smile.
“And while you might get more comfortable with each other, the stuff Tilly talked about sounded mean to me.”
Melanie nodded. “I know.”
“I’m sorry it was like that, Mel. You really did deserve a lot better.”
“I guess I have a chance for that now,” she said, trying to force a smile.
“So what’s the plan?” he asked. “Going forward, I mean.”
“Tilly asked if I’m
