you took it upon yourself to open a door that Hal went through a lot of time and effort to shut. He was getting them over her. He had conditions for her to meet first, conditions that were put there to protect the girls, and you blew right through them so they could have this heartwarming Christmas phone call with her. The girls are going to hope for a change now, but there’s no change coming, Max.”
I didn’t believe that. I couldn’t.
“I hated my father for what he did,” I said as levelly as I could manage. “I hated that he destroyed a family, and I hated that he destroyed himself and our family along with it. I hated that, but even after my mother and I left, I still would have appreciated hearing from him. A call, a note, anything. Instead, I had nightmares over what might happen to him without us.”
Those had stopped long ago, when I realized that he was never going to reach out and take responsibility, but Ariel wasn’t my father. She was trying.
“This call with Ariel isn’t a panacea, Dominic, and maybe it’ll give the girls some ideas, but they wanted to talk to her. Isn’t there some wiggle room in the rules when it comes to making them happy with this?”
Dominic shook his head. “Maybe there could have been if you’d bothered to talk to Hal first.” The coldness in his voice carried a finality to it that I couldn’t evade.
“Dom—”
“I think you should leave for a while.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket and handed them to me. “You can take my Jeep, I don’t care, but go. Hal needs some space right now.” He sighed, and now I could see emotion in his eyes again, and it was nothing but regret. “I need some space, too.”
Oh fuck.
“I’ll…” Where was open on Christmas Day? I’d have to drive to a bigger city to find a hotel that would take me…and shit, I needed to pack up. How could I pack without letting the girls know what was the matter? “Can you—distract them, um, while I go and…”
“What—no!” Now Dominic looked horrified again, in a different way. “Jesus, no, you don’t have to leave leave, just—a few hours is all. Fuck.” He ran his hand through his hair, pulling at it distractedly. “Max, it’s not like that.”
“Sure.” He was trying to be nice to me about it, and I appreciated the effort, but it was too late to take it back. They needed space because I’d irrevocably fucked up Christmas Day. “Just a few hours.”
I turned before he could waste any more time trying to apologize for something that was my fault.
…
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Not setting up the call—I didn’t regret that, not really. Maybe I should have, but what I really regretted was forgetting to talk to Hal about it. I’d blindsided him with this, and that was damaging. I didn’t want to set him up for future trouble with the girls, but reaching out to their mother was important to them. And it was Christmas. If they couldn’t get a free pass for conversation today, when could they?
I hadn’t spoken to my father since leaving Edgewood. Thought about it? Yes, many times. Especially during the first years, but less and less as I grew up. Seeing him again, though, it made me wonder. What would I say to him now?
But no, that was a dumb idea. Wasn’t it?
Would it be so bad to reach out to him? It was clear he wasn’t coping well in the aftermath of his bad decisions—instead, they were compounding, making him into a mockery of who he once was. But I still remembered the good times, the times when my father had been Dad and not Mayor Robertson who drove under the influence and got someone killed.
Maybe…maybe he’d like to see me.
Maybe it would help bring us both a little joy on Christmas.
I wasn’t as familiar with the part of town Dinah had let slip Dad lived in now, so it took a few wrong turns for me to find the place. It was a trailer park, a pretty nice one right on the edge of the forest. A lot of the homes were decorated for the holiday, and there were lights sparkling in the trees even though it was almost noon. His place was in the second loop, close to the back. There were no decorations here, and the shrubs out in front were