Chapter 2
Series 1 Chapter 2
David came home at ten carrying the smell of someone else’s dinner.
I heard him open the refrigerator, move two containers, then close it harder than necessary.
“Where’s my dinner?”
I stood in the kitchen doorway. “Jamie threw it away.”
David looked toward the trash can. “You let him waste food because I was late?”
“Did you ask why he threw it away?”
“Because he was angry.”
“Because he finally believed you weren’t coming.”
David loosened his jacket. “Lucas ran away, Nora. He’s thirteen.”
“I know. Going to find him wasn’t the problem.”
“Then what are we arguing about?”
“What time did you find him?”
His eyes shifted toward the stairs.
“A little after six.”
“And Owen was there?”
“He got there eventually.”
“Jenna was there too.”
“Lucas wouldn’t talk to either of them.”
“So you took him for a burger.”
“He needed to calm down.”
“Our son needed you at this table.”
David rubbed both hands over his face. “Jamie was home. He had you and Ava. Lucas thought his father didn’t care about him.”
“And what did Jamie think?”
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
“Because Jamie knows I love him.”
A floorboard creaked above us.
Jamie stood halfway down the stairs in his pajamas. Ava was behind him, leaning against the wall with her arms folded.
David’s voice softened.
“Hey, buddy. I’m sorry I missed dinner.”
Jamie looked at the dark dining room.
“We can do it again tomorrow,” David continued. “I’ll pick up another cake.”
“It was today,” Jamie said.
“I know, but we can still celebrate.”
Jamie came down one step.
“Lucas was scared,” David said. “You understand that, right?”
There it was.
Not an apology. A question asking Jamie to prove he was still the kind child we had raised him to be.
“I was scared in the hospital too,” Jamie said.
“Your mom was always with you.”
“Lucas had Aunt Jenna and Uncle Owen.”
“He wouldn’t talk to them.”
Jamie picked at the sleeve of his pajama shirt.
“Why did he still get you?”
David looked at me as if I should step in.
For years, I would have.
I would have reminded Jamie that Lucas had a difficult home. I would have told him his father was trying to help.
This time, I said nothing.
David sighed. “It isn’t a competition.”
“Then why were you with him and not me?”
The question left nowhere for David to hide.
He walked toward the stairs. “Come here.”
Jamie moved closer to Ava instead.
“You’re tired,” David said. “We’ll talk when you’ve calmed down.”
“He is calm,” I said. “You just don’t like what he’s saying.”
David turned on me. “Don’t make this worse.”
“You missed the night. He doesn’t owe you another version of it.”
“He’ll get over it. He always does.”
Ava gave a small laugh with no humor in it.
David looked up at her. “What?”
“Jamie still waits for you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
She looked directly at her father.
“It means he hasn’t learned yet.”
David frowned. “Learned what?”
Ava stepped back toward her room.
“I stopped waiting last year.”
David stared after her as if he had only just remembered there were two children at the table.