All I know is Rae’s voice is in my head, reminding me that relationships take work. That includes my relationship with my father.
Sarah invited him over to family dinner, because she wants him in her life. In her kids’ lives. Who am I to stand in the way of that?
Maybe I should take a page out of Rae’s book and forgive. Try. Bridge the gap and meet my father where he is.
Wiping my hands on my pants, I exit my truck and make my way up the tidy pathway to the big double doors. A brass knocker hangs in the center of the door.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The sound echoes in my chest cavity, cranking my nerves tighter. I almost turn around. What am I even doing here?
But before I can run away, the door opens.
A girl, probably ten or twelve years old, opens. “Hello?”
I clear my throat. “Hi. Uh…Is your dad here?”
A woman’s voice calls out behind her, and the door opens wider. A woman, about ten years younger than my father, appears behind the little girl. She’s got short, chin-length hair that’s been dyed honey-brown. A half-inch of gray pokes out near the roots.
When she sees me, her eyes widen.
My heart thumps.
I’ve always refused to meet Gail, no matter how many times my father tried to introduce us. Why would I need a stepmother? Why would I want to meet anyone in his life?
But her face breaks into a smile, and she calls out my father’s name. “Come in, Benji. Come in.” She puts her hand on the girl’s shoulder to pull her aside, flashing a brilliant smile at me. “It’s nice of you to finally come by.”
Her eyes are kind. Her smile is genuine.
When my father appears at the end of the hall, I suck in a breath. He walks up to me and shakes my hand before putting one arm around Gail and a hand on his daughter’s shoulder.
Suddenly, I feel like an asshole, because I don’t even know my half-sister’s name. Emotion slams into my gut, and I realize I was wrong.
Wrong to push him away. Wrong to not forgive him. Wrong to not accept his money, because it was the only thing he knew how to give. I judged him, just as I judged Rae. I let my own ego and my own anger cloud my judgment.
Taking a deep breath, I gather my courage. “I just wanted to come by…” I clear my throat, looking between him and his wife. “I was wondering if you’d like to come to Sarah’s birthday party. It’s a surprise party for her thirtieth. Been planning it for a while, and I think she’d like to have you there.”
My throat tightens as my father’s eyes widen, but then his face morphs into a smile. He wraps his arms around me and holds me tight, squeezing until I can hardly breathe.
I haven’t let him hug me since I was a kid. It feels good.
When we pull apart, his eyes are misty. “We’d love to.” He shakes his head, sighing. “I never thought I’d see you walk through that door. What made you change your mind?”
I let out a dry chuckle, lifting a hand to rub the back of my neck. Finally, I meet my father’s eye.
“I met a girl,” I admit. “It’s making me think about things differently.”
22
Rae
Sawyer stands up, his chair clattering behind him.
“No.” He lifts a hand. “Absolutely not.”
“Why not?” I ask, my heart squeezing. “It’s been years, Sawyer. They’re not that bad.”
“Not that bad?” he scoffs, shaking his head. “Our parents threw Lucy out when she was pregnant with Roman. They gave me the choice to either step into Dad’s shoes or leave the family. They didn’t once try to reach out to me after I left. They are that bad, Rae. You need to get rid of your fantasies about having a happy, Brady-Bunch family, because it’s never going to happen. Our parents care only about themselves and money. Nothing else. Not you, not me, and definitely not Lucy and Roman. I don’t want anything to do with them.”
“I just thought if we invited them up here…”
“Do they know you’re here?” His eyes flash.
I suck in a breath, shaking my head. “I told them I was away on vacation. I took two months off work. I didn’t say where.”
“Good, because I like it here and I don’t exactly want to move.”
My heart constricts. Last night, Benji told me he invited his father, stepmother, and half-sister to Sarah’s surprise birthday party.
I’m not embarrassed to admit that I was jealous. Happy for him, of course—but still envious. That kind of reconciliation is exactly what I want for my family.
Maybe we won’t become the Brady Bunch—I’m not delusional—but we could at least talk to each other. Have some contact. Come to a middle ground.
I’m much happier in Woodvale than I was in Houston. I’d rather run a garage and a freelance landscape architecture business than be on an oil and gas corporation’s payroll.
Those things are true.
But what if we could still have a relationship with our mother and father? What if our parents could see us together, meet Roman, and understand? Didn’t Sawyer forgive me in an instant?
But my brother’s face turns to stone. He picks up the chair from the ground and shoves it back toward the table, turning to lean against the kitchen counter. He stares out at the backyard, where Lucy and Roman are playing. Turning his head over his shoulder, he glances at me.
“Don’t be naive, Rae.”
I let out a sigh. “You forgave me, Sawyer. You understood why I had to stay behind. What if Mom and Dad would understand, too? They’re older now. They’re retiring in a few months. They might have changed.”
“Why are you so obsessed with bringing the family back together?”
His words sting. They pierce my chest and slice my heart, and it’s all I can do to bite back my tears. Doesn’t he appreciate that I’m here? That I tried for
