The Good Father

HE’D HAVE PREFERRED to wait until the wine had had time to make his job easier, but as soon as he’d seen Ella cross the restaurant floor, he’d known he had to present his proposal and leave.

He had some inane response to the woman. Like an allergic reaction. Quite irritating.

“I stopped in Palm Desert last night and saw Jeff,” he said as soon as the waiter had poured and departed.

He had his mental agenda prepared.

“After speaking with him, I believe we need to take action to resolve this issue.”

Ella gave him her full attention. But the way her fingers were caressing the stem of her wineglass was distracting.

He should have stuck to iced tea. And taken his chances with her mood.

“What does that mean, take action? What kind of action? You aren’t suggesting that we turn him over to the authorities, are you? Because that’s not what this is about, Brett. The whole point here is early intervention. To help him before it gets that far.”

He’d been right about her irascibility. In a past life, at home after a hard day like hers obviously had been, he would have suggested that she drink some more wine, the words accompanied by a grin, and followed up with a kiss, to which she would have responded with all of the tension inside her and they’d have made love hard, followed by a softer, slower coupling.

They might or might not have made it to the kitchen for dinner...

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

The apology drew him out of his mental fog. And made him aware of his lack of response in what was only a business conversation.

“No apology necessary,” he said, pushing everything away but that meeting’s agenda. “And no, I’m not suggesting we call in the authorities. Nothing along those lines. On the contrary, I’m not convinced that the root of Jeff and Chloe’s problem is Jeff.”

Ella blinked. “What?”

A woman from the next table looked over.

“How can you not think the problem is Jeff?” She leaned forward, her voice quieter, but no less intense. “He’s been verbally abusive and now has escalated to pushing and shoving and restraining. You know as well as I do what the next step in that progression will be.”

“Jeff admitted to taking out his work frustration on her,” Brett said. “Much like you’re doing with me now.” He had a talent for gettin

g to the point.

Sitting back, Ella took a sip of her wine, watching him.

He withstood her scrutiny with ease. He was a professional at the boardroom table.

“I asked Chloe about Jeff’s behavior,” he continued. “When you took Cody to play in the sandbox. She said pretty much the same thing he did. That he snapped at her, said things he’d give anything to be able to take back, simply out of frustration. That he apologized. Bad days are a part of life. Husbands and wives fight. People say things they don’t mean. None of that equals abuse.”

“I had a feeling she downplayed things for you,” Ella said, her tone equally professional now. Equally serious, too. “She wants your help. And she thinks, as I do, that you’re our only real hope in getting Jeff to see that he needs help before things get completely out of control. But she’s also a bit intimidated by the fact that you’re the founder of a women’s shelter. She’s afraid that you’re going to turn Jeff in, and she most definitely doesn’t want that.”

Should he be straight with her? Let her know that he was working with a different set of facts? That he wasn’t attempting to get Jeff to admit that he had anger issues that needed attention? “Jeff thinks that Chloe is going through some kind of emotional blip. Similar to the postpartum depression she suffered from after Cody was born.”

“I know what Jeff thinks. We need to change his thinking. He has to be able to see that this is his problem, and if he keeps blaming someone else, he could very well lose his family and maybe even end up in jail.”

“But what if he isn’t wrong?”

“You think this is all Chloe? That she’s making up the incidents of verbal abuse? The shoves and pushes? Of slamming Cody into a chair so hard he screamed?”

“I’m just suggesting that maybe she’s embellished them in the retelling to you because she’s slowly losing parts of herself by always putting Jeff and Cody first and is struggling with a way to understand herself and be happy.”

He knew when Ella took a long breath that she was considering his words. One of the things he’d loved so much about her was her ability to take a step back and look at both sides of a situation.

With one exception. She hadn’t been able to see the possibility that he could one day turn violent. Something that had, at least partially, ended their marriage.

He lost faith in her ability to hear his truth. She knew about his upbringing, of course. Understood and sympathized. And was completely certain he only suffered from abuse-based fear, not from the same latent violent tendencies that had struck his dad.