Why couldn’t she understand it had nothing to do with her?
“I’m sorry about tonight,” she said. “I had no idea Momma was planning this…ambush.”
“It was a nice dinner.” It felt like a lame thing to say, except dinner had been nice. Until the end when Claire had dropped that little bombshell. He took the seat next to her.
“That’s mighty generous of you.” She paused. “You know, the whole town knows we had sex Saturday night. Including my own mother. That’s what dinner was really about. She thinks we’re back together.”
“I figured that.”
“Apparently you’re also her new golden child.”
“As opposed to the bastard who got her princess pregnant?”
“Well, I’m not sure she ever worded it quite that way. But close.”
He smiled, but instead of smiling back, she grew somber and took another sip of her wine. “At least you got a decent meal out of it.” She eyed him briefly. “I’ve been worried that you’ve been eating too much fast food. You’re not, are you?”
“Actually, I’m eating okay,” he said evasively.
“I swear to you, I didn’t say anything to Momma about your father.”
He braced himself for the inevitable anger he always felt whenever anyone mentioned Sam Grant. It was there, smoldering away somewhere in the pit of his stomach, but he was too caught up in her sad mood to let it do more than sizzle for a few seconds before it eventually died down.
“I never thought you had.”
“It was creepy, the way she brought that up so randomly. It’s like she can read my mind.”
“It wasn’t so random,” he said. “We were talking about Allie’s wedding. It’s a natural topic to bring up.”
She let out a long sigh and stared out into the grass. Zeke wasn’t sure but he thought he heard a sniffle.
“I’m supposed to tell you thanks for all the cookies and stuff you brought to headquarters this morning. Everyone loved it. Especially Rusty.”
That made her smile. “I made those magical coconut bars just for him, you know?”
“Should I be jealous?”
“I don’t know. Are you?”
Now that was more like the old Mimi. Only he knew her well enough to know it was her way of evading what he’d come out here to talk to her about.
He shifted in his chair. “Don’t take it personal, baby. She’s just a kid.”
She sniffled again and this time he could see how shiny her eyes were. Aw, shit. She was crying. In Zeke’s eyes there was nothing worse in the whole world than seeing his wife cry. It made him want to punch a wall or run until he couldn’t breathe anymore.
“It’s not that I’m disappointed or anything. I mean, I’m sad for her because, obviously, she has to be sad about this. I just…why didn’t Claire tell me she didn’t get into FSU? I’m her mother.”
“She’s always been a private person, Mimi. It’s just part of her personality,” he said quietly.
“Not like this. She used to be happy, Zeke. She used to come home from school and tell me about her classes and her teachers and her friends, and…we’d laugh. We’d go shopping and watch movies together. Now, it’s like I’m a fucking pariah and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with me. What have I done? Am I that horrible of a mother?”
He leaned forward and placed his hands on her knees. The urge to pull her onto his lap and hold her, to wipe away her tears was overwhelming. But since their fight Saturday morning, an invisible wall had come up between them. He wished now that he hadn’t walked out on her. He should have stayed until they fought it out and cleared up this mess.
“You’re the best mother in the world. It’s not you, it’s Claire. It’s just normal teenage girl stuff.”
“It doesn’t feel normal.” Then he heard her hiccup and he realized the tears were coming faster now.
Fuck the invisible wall.