Charlie is looking around the house like he’s trying to find the danger, then sees the look on my face, and he drops into the chair in front of me. Scott just stands in the doorway as if he’s waiting for orders.
“Fuck. I’ve been wondering when Liam being home would cause problems.” He jerks his head toward the door. “Go ahead and get ready. Take care of yourself for now, and I’ll go find Griffin. I’m pretty sure I know where he is anyway.”
Charlie jerks his thumb over his shoulder toward Scott. “The kid will take the little ones to school.”
“Sounds good,” I agree, mostly just happy to have someone take charge. This is all too much for me. It’s been seventeen years since my parents died, and I want my mom so bad right now, it’s like I just lost them.
“I’ll just go get the baby,” I continue.
Scott crosses the room and puts his hand on my shoulder. “I’ll get her. She can ride with me to take her sister and brothers to school.”
I want to argue with them. Tell them both that I’m not made of glass, and I have survived much worse, but I bite my tongue. It occurs to me that though I’ve endured the loss of my parents, my marriage to Liam, and even how big of an asshole Griffin used to be, I’m not sure I’ve healed from any of those things. I’m tired of just surviving. I want to thrive.
“Okay,” I agree, and grab my purse.
I’m in total disheveled mom mode. My hair looks like I’m housing birds, and I’m wearing oversized sweats and a large t-shirt. I’m too drained to care. “I know just where I need to go.”
Scott takes my purse from me. “Unless that place is upstairs to your bathroom, no, you don’t.”
Charlie nods his head several times. “Somewhere under all this—” he flaps his hands in front of me, “—bog wench, is the hot younger woman who holds my best friend by the short and curlies. How about you go and find her? You’ll feel a lot better when the sight of you doesn’t scare small children.”
My mouth falls open, and I look to Scott to see if he agrees with Charlie. He winces, not a great sign.
“I wouldn’t say you scare small children, exactly. Unless they’ve heard the story of Hansel and Gretel. Then maybe they’d be a bit leery of you.”
“I guess it is pretty early to go drop in on people,” I mumble.
“There you go. No need to wake someone up and scare them all in one go. Especially if I’m right and you’re going to see Dolores. You can’t frighten old people like that.”
“You are old people,” I grumble under my breath as I walk out of the room.
I think I say it quietly enough until I hear Scott snort a laugh. I’m sure Charlie will have some kind of payback for that.
Chapter Sixteen
Griffin - Present
Before I makeit out of town, I’m already beating myself up. I drive around for a couple of hours without a destination in mind, just a need to get the hell away from home. It’s the first time since Wren and I got together that I’ve actively avoided her. Not that she’s tried to call me. I have missed a lot of calls from Charlie, though.
I listened to one message, and he spent the entire length of the recording finding new and creative ways of calling me a dumbass. Amazing how time changes. When Wren and I first got together, he liked to tell me on a frequent basis that I was fucking up my life, Wren’s, and Liam’s by being with her. Now the tables have turned, and he’s telling me how much I’m screwing up by taking some time for myself.
He’s not really wrong this time, though. I knew the moment I left the city limits that I fucked up. Maybe if I’d told Wren thatI needed some time alone, she’d be fine, but instead I accused her of harboring feelings for my son. The really stupid part of what I said is that I haven’t believed she had feelings for him in a long time. After the twins were born, things settled down for all of us. Claudia and Wren became friends at least on the surface, and tension seemed to evaporate between Liam and Wren. I didn’t expect them to become best friends, but they were at least friendly.
Oddly, the more they fought, the more I feared they might still have a thing for each other, but when they were getting along, I found it hard to even remember that they were once romantically involved. I think most people found it hard to believe, considering they acted more like blood relatives than exes.
Then came this latest relapse, and once more, Wren’s all in her head over Liam. I don’t know what to feel, or how I’m supposed to see what is happening right in front of me. Hell, I’m not even sure I know what is happening right in front of me. All I know is that my wife has been withdrawn, moody, and generally sad. I don't think that I have done anything this time to make her feel that way.
These thoughts keep traveling around my mind while I drive around aimlessly. Or at least I think I’m driving around without a destination until I seem to snap out of a trance as I put the car in park. The miles of highway didn’t register, nor did the meandering streets through my hometown, but somehow I managed to drive straight to my old garage.
I still own the business and the building, but I haven’t been to this location very much in the last six months. Julio, once a part-time worker here for Charlie and me, has been promoted to manager of the Harriston shop. He’s had some innovative ideas. Not to the level of Wren’s with the café, but he has addeddetailing and some customization that Charlie and I didn’t think the local economy would support.
I guess with the advent of remote work, there have been some new people who have moved to town to take advantage of the lower cost of living here. That has, ironically, brought an influx of cash into the local economy and raised prices slightly. This isn’t the same town that we left almost a decade ago. There’s still a lot of poverty here, but not quite as bad as it was when I was growing up.
A knock on my window jolts me out of the random wandering of my thoughts. Julio stands there, giving me a curious look.
“What’s going on, boss? Did we have a meeting, or did you just want to check up on me?” he asks.
“Nothing quite so rational. I got in the truck, and just found myself here,” I admit.
