Protecting Her(80)

“Holton, she asked you a question,” my mother says.

“The suit is a year old,” he says to Rachel.

“Oh. Well, it looks brand new.” She smiles at him. He looks away.

“Where’s Garret?” my mother asks Rachel.

“He’s playing with the other children. I should probably go check on him. Would you like to come with me?”

She agrees to it, and the two of them go down the hall, leaving my father and me alone.

“Pearce,” he says.

“Father.”

We stand there in silence. It’s sad how we never have anything to talk about. I could talk to Jack all night.

“So Jack told me he’s moving,” I say.

My father’s mouth moves up into a slight grin. “Yes. I heard that as well.”

“It’s rumored that you were the one who suggested the move.”

“Is that so? I’m pleased to know people think I have that kind of power.”

“Yes. I thought you would be, which is why I told you.”

He definitely did it. I don’t know how, but he was somehow able to convince them to send Jack away. To get him out of my life.

“Your wife seems to be in a good mood this evening.” My father never uses her name and it drives me crazy. He calls her ‘that girl’ or ‘that woman’ or ‘your wife,’ but never Rachel.

“Rachel is always in a good mood.”

“That must become quite tedious after a while.”

“Not at all. It’s one of the qualities that attracted me to her.”

He scans the room. “Are we done here?”

“I would say we’ve been seen together for an adequate length of time. Feel free to move along to someone you find more interesting.”

He walks away without even saying goodbye. After the almost two-year period in which my parents weren’t speaking to me, they made the decision to talk to me at social events regardless of what’s going on with us behind closed doors. My mother doesn’t want other people knowing about our family problems, so she made a rule that we must talk and smile and pretend to like each other for at least a few minutes at a party or other social gathering. That’s why they came over to talk to Rachel and me. I know my father didn’t want to. He has nothing to say to us.

“There are some other boys in there now,” Rachel says. She’s back beside me and my mother has returned to my father, who is talking to one of the members.

“What do you mean?” I ask Rachel.

“When we first got here, Garret was upset because the room was full of girls.” She laughs. “Although I think he has a little crush on one of the girls. When I was in there just now, he was sitting next to her and drawing her a picture.” She nudges me. “You never drew ME a picture.”

I kiss her cheek. “I’ll be sure to do that for our anniversary.” I point to the side of the room. “There’s Grace and Arlin. Do you want to go talk to them?”

“Yes. Let’s go over there. They’re such a nice couple.”

We spend the next half hour talking to them. Then they leave to get a drink and talk to some other people.

I check my watch. “We’ve been here a couple hours. Let’s go home.”

This is a Dunamis party and members are expected to stay for at least an hour, so I’ve done my duty.

“Okay,” Rachel says. “Let’s go get Garret.”

We go to the children’s room and find Garret playing a ring-toss game with some of the other boys.

I call out to him. “Garret, let’s go. We’re going home.”

“I’m almost done.” He tosses a blue ring and it lands on the target. “Yes! I won!” He runs over to us and the other boys yell, “Bye, Garret!” all at the same time. Garret makes friends wherever he goes. He has a lot of friends at school too. I was never that popular as a child.

We start to leave but he pulls on my suit jacket. “Wait. I have to tell Lexi goodbye.” He runs over to a little girl with dark brown hair, wearing a blue dress. She’s the only girl in the room not wearing pink or purple.

“That’s his crush,” Rachel whispers. “An older woman. I think she’s eight.”

Garret says something to her, then gives her a quick hug and runs off. I catch Sadie watching him out of the corner of her eye. She’s already nosy like her mother.