This was why I hated her.
Because she became my mother when he did not become our father, and then she became worse than my mother and doing it, proved him wrong.
“You’re welcome, with the boys, without them, with her, or without,” I assured him. “You’re welcome anytime, Lawrie.”
“Thanks, MeeMee.”
“And I’m so sorry,” I repeated.
“I lived for years stupidly hoping she’d snap out of it or just snap. Let fly what was causing her to be the way she was being. And maybe I should give it longer. But I’m not twenty-five. It isn’t that I didn’t try to talk to her. Take her away for the weekend. Adjust things I was doing in case I hit on the right one. She gives no indication it’s anything but over. The boys are old enough to get it and the fuck of that is, I think for them it’ll be a relief. They love their mother but she isn’t what I want for them because she gives them less than Mom gave you and me. And that’s my biggest fuck up, MeeMee. I should have gotten them away from that a long time ago.”
“Hindsight is twenty-twenty,” I told him.
“And hope is as blind as love,” he told me.
God, but the two men I loved most in this world had taken a licking by the women they gave their hearts to.
I straightened from the wall at that thought because I’d admitted to myself I was falling in love with Mickey.
I’d never admitted I was there.
Since in that moment my brother needed my attention, I shook this off and said, “Come for Thanksgiving and let me, Auden and Pip take care of you.”
“I’ll be there, MeeMee, and I’ll let you know what Mariel and I decide about the boys.”
Whereas I couldn’t wait to have my kids with me for a holiday, she’d probably shrug and say, “Whatever you think is best, Lawrence.”
Lawrie took us off that subject by asking, “Since you brought up Auden and Pip, things still going good with that?”
They were. It had been three days since Mickey and my fight. It was now Monday, his kids were back and as for my kids, the TV visits were continuing. Not to mention Pippa and Polly had a sleepover on Saturday night at my place (Pippa having a sleepover I was happy about, her bringing Polly, who, when she wasn’t being negative she was being mean, not so much).
And that evening, both of my kids were coming over and Auden had said they were spending the night.
We were definitely back. Things were Mom and Kids. It was a different brand of Mom and Kids that meant they had two homes and a divided family, but it was working for us.
I still had concerns there was something not right about it, but they didn’t seem to be cagey about anything. It was just like they wanted to spend time with their mom.
So I was taking it.
I shared all that with Lawrie and ended it, asking, “By the way, have you heard from Mom and Dad?”
“Mom called this weekend. She wanted to know when Mariel was taking her next spa weekend so she could come up. Since every other weekend is a spa weekend for Mariel and we’ve hit that rotation, she’s coming up on Friday. Why?”
Mom and I agreed on very few things. Our mutual dislike of Mariel was one of them. And a shocking twist to this, we both disliked her for the same reason.
Not that Mariel wasn’t the appropriately styled, turned out and behaved wife to a prominent attorney who also was a Bourne-Hathaway (because she was).
But that she didn’t make Lawr happy.
Mom avoided Mariel like the plague.
“I haven’t heard from them for a while. I’ve been emailing but I get nothing,” I explained.
“Neither of them are big on email,” Lawr reminded me.
“I know but they also haven’t phoned or anything. Not in weeks, or, Lawr, maybe even months.”
“They disagreed with you moving across country, MeeMee. Maybe this is your penance. But I’ll talk to Mom when she’s up this weekend. See if I can find out where she’s at with that.”
I knew he’d get nowhere with that. If Mom didn’t feel like sharing, and with her silence she obviously didn’t, she wouldn’t share.
I still said, “I’d appreciate it.”
“Consider it done.”
I smiled and asked, “You going to be okay?”
“In the stages of grief, I’m past denial, anger and bargaining. I’ve hit depression. One more to go and I’m good,” he joked.
I didn’t laugh.
“I’m here, anytime you need me, Lawrie,” I told him.
“I know, sweetheart,” he replied.
“I’ve gotta get back to the residents. Jeopardy is after Wheel of Fortune and the staff try to stick close in case a fight breaks out.”