The Good Father

“I was a kid. I grew up.”

“You walled yourself off.” She’d thought, at first, that it had been his way of dealing with the constant disappointment. She’d had to steel herself from the worst of the pain, too, in order to be able to try again. It wasn’t until later, when she’d found out she was finally going to have a baby, that she’d realized how far apart they’d grown. When she realized they hadn’t really talked in far too long.

In some ways, he’d become someone she didn’t know at all.

Darkness wasn’t far off. She should be chilled. And wasn’t.

“I am a man who knows his limitations. Who accepts them and is accountable to them. I’m only sorry that I realized it too late. I should never have married you.”

If there’d been any emotion in his voice, any sign that he missed what they’d had in the beginning, she might have found more to say.

And she might have been a fool and started to hope that they could have something together again. Because the only limitations Brett had were the ones he put on himself. She’d lived with him long enough to know that.

And since she was never again going to go through the painful fertility treatments only to have a better-than-average chance of losing her baby, he wouldn’t have to worry about being a father.

But there was no emotion because Brett was Brett. He was the man his life had shaped him into being. Reticent. Closed off. Capable of seeing a divorce lawyer before he’d even told his pregnant wife he wanted time apart.

Capable of looking her in the eye and telling her he didn’t want anything to do with the child they’d taken years to conceive...

She no longer loved him. The road she was traveling down led nowhere...

Still, just because she was over him didn’t mean that it wouldn’t be nice to know that he had regrets. That she’d meant as much to him as she’d thought she had. Once.

“If we’re going to help with Jeff and Chloe, we need a plan.” His voice, the practicality of his words, put an end to her wayward thoughts.

“Okay.” Plans were good. Solid. But how did you make one when people’s lives and hearts were at stake? How did you plan to get someone out of denial?

Other than change his life so drastically he’d have no choice but to acknowledge he needed help?

Which was what they’d already done. The drastic life change—Chloe living with her—was in effect.

And from what she’d gleaned during the little bit she’d heard between Chloe and Brett when she’d returned from the sandbox with Cody, Jeff was still firmly in denial.

He’d admitted to the fights. Admitted that he’d started them. Because of tension from work. But he had no real idea why Chloe had left.

“A good plan starts with a goal, and I need to make certain that we’re on the same page here before we go on.”

That was why he’d wanted her to stay back and talk to him? She was relieved.

And disappointed, too.

Which only went to prove that hope died last.

“Am I to understand that your goal, like mine, is to see Chloe and Jeff back together in a healthy relationship?”

He sounded like a counselor in a classroom.

“Yes. Definitely. They love each other. I’ll do anything I can to help them save their marriage. But my primary goal, first and foremost, is to see that both of them get and/or stay h

ealthy.”

“Agreed.”

So...good. They shared a common goal. There was something in that.

“Do you know if Chloe’s had a checkup lately?” he asked.

“Medical, you mean?”