“I know.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
Sue wasn’t surprised. “Why not?”
“It’s just too…messy.”
She’d give him that.
“I’ve got enough to deal with with my ex and her fiancé, and seeing Kaitlin, and now my dad in town….”
“I understand.” Sort of.
“I was hoping you’d talk to your cousin. Get her to quit calling my dad.”
“She’s your cousin, too,” Sue repeated. And then relented. “So your dad doesn’t want anything to do with us, either?”
“I never said I didn’t want anything to do with you.”
“You didn’t have to say it.”
“Look, Sue, I—”
“No, I’m sorry I pushed, Joe. I’m just surprised at your dad. I’d have thought, with his coming back to make amends and all, finding out he has more family than he expected would be a good thing. My mom’s his sister. His full sister. She really wants to get to know him.”
“He wants to know her, too,” Joe said with obvious reluctance. “He just won’t go to any meetings without me.”
Aha. She got it.
“Put the shoe on the other foot, Sue,” he said. “If your mother was in town, trying to get all buddy-buddy with you, you’d balk. And she’s a great mother!”
He was right. Of course.
“I guess we have some family resemblance,” he continued.
“Oh?” She thought she heard a car. Rick? If so, he was half an hour early. His niece was still in her crib, asleep.
And Sue hadn’t yet changed out of her banana-smeared T-shirt.
“We’re emotionally distant. Kind of like the old man, fathering two children with another woman and then leaving her to struggle alone and to live with the secret of her children’s parentage.”
“I’m a bit angry with him myself,” Sue said. “How could he have raised my mother and never once held her close and told her he was her real father?”
“Because, as I said, he was emotionally detached. Just like you are. And I am.”
“He loved us all. From afar,” Sue said slowly. And that’s what she did. What she’d always done.
Except once. And that time, that mistake, would go with her to her grave.
RICK HAD NO IDEA what to expect out of Monday’s visit. He’d seen Sue three nights over the weekend, held her, made love to her, and though she’d been passionate and generous in his arms, she’d also been distant.
They’d talked, but not about anything that really mattered. Not about his mother. Or Carrie. Or the future.
He remembered the previous night, just before he’d gotten up to leave. “I could spend the rest of my life right here,” he’d said.
“Don’t get too attached, Kraynick.” The warning had been couched with teasing, but he’d caught it loud and clear.
“No worries,” he’d assured her. But it was already too late.