Page 35 of Father of the Bride
“I’m good,” he said as he plopped down on the bed. "Are you okay? You're limping a little. Did you hurt yourself?"
She couldn't even look at him as she said, "Kind of. Stretched a little too far, that's all."
His eyes narrowed.
“Anyway, talk to me. What are you having second thoughts about?”
“Getting married,” he said matter of factly. “I just feel like…what’s the point?”
She dropped into the desk chair with a heavy sigh. “The point is you’re in love and you wanna spend the rest of your life with that lovely young lady. And she loves you, too. Nothing else matters.”
“I disagree,” he said. “That ‘rest of your life’ part matters a whole lot.”
That old familiar ache radiated in her chest. She first felt it when she decided to leave Orion, and it had been popping up ever since.
“Baby, I know why you feel the way you do,” she said, her voice sounding tired. “But just becausemymarriage wasn’t perfect doesn’t mean—“
“Respectfully, Mama, I don’t wanna hear that right now.”
She waited a beat. “Well what do you want me to say? You called this meeting, Dav.”
“I guess I want you to…” he trailed off, shaking his head as if the words were too heavy for him to say.
Sunny’s eyes filled with tears. The collateral damage her divorce had caused was even worse than she thought.
The ache intensified.
Part of her wondered if she made a mistake. If maybe she should have just stuck it out until all of her sons made it down the aisle. Especially given the fact that she was still sleeping with the man.
“I want you to tell me it was worth it,” he said, finding his voice. “That, if you could go back to when he asked you to marry him, knowing how it would all turn out, would you have said yes? Be honest.”
Defeated, she exhaled until she couldn’t anymore. “My honest answer is that I really don’t know. You and your brothers are the best thing that ever happened to me. If I’d said no, I wouldn’t have you. So—“
“But the marriage part. You andhim. That’s what I wanna know.”
“Dav. That’s…I just—“
“Welp.” He nodded slowly. “That tells me what I needed to know.”
“Hold on.” Sunny inhaled deeply, getting her bearings. “Okay, you blame him. I understand that. But I wasn’t the perfect wife, either. No divorce is one-hundred percent on one person.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m not gonna get into details, but just understand there were issues on both sides.” She swallowed hard, crossing her arms in front of her. “He just chose to handle his issues in the worst possible way.”
“Yeah. He did. So, again, what’s the point?” Dav demanded. “I’m sure you never thought it would get to that point until it did. And the family I thought was forever is broken now. Who’s to say mine won’t end up the same way?”
“Listen to me, Dav. Nobody can say. All you can do is hope and pray for the best and then do your best every day. No, it’s not easy, but you do it. And if it all breaks down one day, baby, life will go on.”
He eyed her curiously. “But…look at you.”
“What about me?”
“You’re going on, but are youhappy?”
She sat in silence.
He raised his eyebrows. “You think I don’t know you’re struggling?”
