The Family Gathering (Sullivan's Crossing #3)(77)

Trace came up the walk, shirttails hanging out and shoes unlaced. He’d generally graze from the fridge, drink some water, make a quick change, grab his glove and bat and head for the park. Tom stood.

“You looking for my mom?” Trace asked.

“No, she’s working at Home Depot tonight. I was waiting for you. I was hoping we could talk for a few minutes.”

“Why?” Trace asked.

“I got the idea we have one or two things to work out,” Tom said. “Come on, give a guy a break. Sit down here.” He lifted one of two bottled waters on the small outdoor table that separated two chairs. “Here. You look a little dry. Take a load off.”

Trace, reluctantly, it seemed, sat down. Tom reclaimed his seat. “Let me start out by saying, I love your mom a lot but we’re not going to rush you. I can tell you’re pretty worried about us combining households. You’re probably wondering where you fit in if we turn into one big family. We don’t have to do that right away. We have lots of time. We want you to be ready.”

“You said fall,” Trace said. “When school starts...”

“That’s not carved in stone, Trace. If you’re not ready, we can wait.”

“But you want to live together.”

“Oh, yeah,” Tom said with a self-conscious laugh. “It’s amazing to love a woman like your mom and have her love me back. I never thought I could be this happy.”

“And everyone else is okay with this idea of all of us living in one house?”

“Some more than others,” Tom said. “Nikki wants to move to a dorm in Denver at the big campus and she is definitely not excited about sharing a room with her younger sister. Zach, on the other hand, is aching to get closer to Jackson’s stuff, but Jackson is looking for a footlocker with a lock on it. I don’t think Jackson or Cole care what we do—they’re not planning on living with their parents much longer, anyway, but they still need a place to stay when they’re not at school.”

Trace was quiet for a long moment. “I’ve lived in this house almost my whole life. Since I was five, anyway. I don’t remember the house we lived in before.”

“You boys and your mom have been here a long time. Is that what bothers you? Not having this house as an anchor?” Tom asked.

“Sort of,” he said with a shrug. “Or maybe it’s that we’ll live in your house.”

“Ah. That makes sense. Can you think of it as your mom’s house?”

“Listen, man, I like you. You’re a good guy and I know you like my mom. I don’t have any problems with that. It’s just that this is where we live. Where we’ve always lived. And I don’t want to move. That’s all. It’s not personal.”

“Gotcha,” Tom said. “You planning to live with your mother the rest of your life?” he asked.

“No!” Trace said. “Until I get my own place, that’s all!”

“When you’re...like...twenty-six?” Tom asked.

“I just turned eighteen! Hopefully I’ll be living in my own place by the time I’m twenty-one.”

“So if we could wait three more years to get married and move in together...?”

“But then I figure me and Cole will come here for holidays and stuff,” Trace said.

“Oh, I get it. So you want this house and your mother to stay the same until you decide you’re done. With it and with her?”

“That’s not what I mean!”

“Can you be a little more clear about what you mean?” Tom asked. “Because Lola and I decided from the start, our kids come first. We don’t want to rock your world too much, so if you’re going to get sideways about us getting married and living in the same house, we’ll just wait until the idea is more acceptable. But it would help to know what it is you need. So we can try to make it happen.”

“I should be talking about this with my mom,” Trace said.

“Then why haven’t you done that? Because I think your mom is worried. She’s ready for a positive change. Both of us are. I got divorced a long time ago, too. We’re both ready to have a steady shoulder to lean on. Someone to talk about the checkbook with, someone to divvy up chores with. Oh, and your mom has been dying to buy a fixer-upper, remodel and sell at a profit—use all the skills she’s learned working at Home Depot. And I’ve done that twice. We thought if we plan right, we can turn our partnership into a business, too. We’d love to do that. We’re a lot alike—we both have worked as many jobs as it takes to keep our families afloat and we’ll continue to do that.”

“So what’s the big deal, then?” Trace asked.

Tom took a drink of his water. “Well, the big deal is, it’s hard to love someone and not get to see them. When you live in separate houses and you work a bunch of jobs, just finding the time to talk is a challenge. Naturally we’d like to lie down together at night, wake up together in the morning. We’d like to be able to share our days while we do the dishes or spend a couple of hours in front of the TV just not talking. That’s all. We don’t want to inconvenience anyone. We just want to spend time together. Quality time. But...” He stood up. “We took an oath. Our kids come first. We’ll be patient. Would you do us a favor, though?”