“He looks so… happy.” I fingered the picture. I hadn’t meant to say that aloud.
“Oh, that was Greg. He was always such a goofball.”
Will the real Greg please stand up?
Chapter 41
1 month later
Greg came home almost three months after we found him, which was about two months longer than Dr. Goodman had predicted. We found a group home specifically targeted for the brain-injured about twenty-five minutes away from our house. At Dr. Goodman’s recommendation, Greg wouldn’t be living alone for at least a year. His short-term memory was inconsistent, at best. He would undergo the same therapy in New Jersey that he had in Canada, and the group home provided for transportation to and from rehab, as well as staff therapists to aid with social transitioning.
By the time he came back to New Jersey, he functioned as well as any other adult with the exception of some minor differences. He had no filter—what was on his mind came out his mouth, much like Leah. He couldn’t seem to censor himself or recognize what was socially acceptable to say and not say. The group home would help with that. He had to relearn kindness, manners, and other social skills. In other words, he’d make an interesting addition to a dinner party.
The day of his homecoming, we took the minivan and made the eight-hour trip, travelling sixteen hours in one day. Leah and Hannah were impressive, to say the least. Drew came along, and my mouth was dry with nerves because it was the first time the two men would see each other again after the accident. With Greg’s newfound ability to run off at the mouth, I was dreading what he would say.
I warned Drew about that, and he had shrugged. “Anything he’ll say will probably be justified.”
After the weekend Drew had almost left, he seemed to accept our new life with a certain resigned grace. I had been making a real attempt to be open and honest and finally came clean about visiting Karen, the small secret eating away at my conscience.
He reacted with his usual laissez-faire. “It seems natural, I guess. Wish I could have been a fly on the wall, though.”
“Oh, my God, Drew, you should have seen how young she was. What was Greg thinking? She was probably barely in her twenties at the time.” We were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, my feet resting on his lap.
He trailed his hand up and down my shin. “Why do you think he broke up with her?”
I’d been thinking the same thing. Had the lies gotten to be too much? Had he missed me? Or was it something specific about Karen? “Maybe the excitement of it was gone. I mean, eventually, people just become regular folks, you know? At some point, high-powered executive Greg Randolf just became Greg, the guy who slept with his black socks on. Maybe Karen just became a regular woman? With her own demands, just like me?”
“You? Demands?”
I playfully kicked his arm with my foot.
When I told Drew about Greg kissing me, however, he flinched. “Are you sure about us, Claire? I don’t want you to resent me twenty years from now for breaking up your family. You have to be sure of what you want. And be honest with yourself and with me. I want more than anything to stay with you and have you in my life. But if I’ve learned one thing, it’s that being dishonest about your own needs never does anyone any good.”
No matter what I said, or how I reassured him, he always seemed to ask the same question a million different ways. “There is no more Claire and Greg. I can’t look at him the same way, not after Karen, not after his lies. If the accident had never happened, I still don’t think we would have made it.”
“I can’t go the rest of my life waiting for the other shoe to drop,” Drew said. “What about who Greg is now?”
“It doesn’t matter, you know? Timing is such a huge part of life. I can’t love him like that anymore. Too much has happened.” I turned the tables on him. “Can you do this? Live this life? With me and the girls, the family you’d always wanted, but with Greg, too?”
“Greg doesn’t matter to me. You matter to me. And if I have to take him to have you, then I take him. I have faith, remember?”
“You say that now, but what about a year from now or more, when you and I go through a rough spot? There will be those, you know. No marriage is all up all the time.”
“What do you think this has been?” He smiled wryly. “I’m here because I want to be. Just let it go, okay?”
The changes in our lives affected the girls, too. Hannah started doing poorly in school and became belligerent with the teachers, refusing to do homework. She also wanted to quit dance class. Leah, as usual, fared better, but I noticed a significant jump in temper tantrums.