“Auden.” I moved forward. “Honey, let Mickey and his kids—”
“He’s moving again, Mom,” Auden announced and I stopped dead. “He’s got custody of us and he’s taking us with him. He thinks. He wanted us with him yesterday,” his face twisted further, this time in disgust on the “with him,” “because Martine moved out yesterday because they’re getting a divorce because he’s a loser cheat.” Auden looked to his father. “You know I was there when that woman came to our house.”
“Oh no,” I whispered.
“Jesus Christ,” Lawr ground out.
“I explained that,” Conrad snapped.
“Yeah, and you lied.” Auden retorted. “Do you think Pip and I can’t hear you two fighting all the time? And Martine isn’t the only one who’s loud. You shouted at your wife. Is that what I should do to my wife when I get one, Dad? Is that what Pippa should take from her husband? What you did to Mom? What you did to Martine?”
“We should discuss this elsewhere, Auden,” Conrad said coldly.
Auden leaned back and crossed his arms on his chest. “Why? Pippa got laid out in front of everyone to learn her lesson about going with the wrong crowd. How are you going to learn your lesson when you go your own way, having a blast, and you drag us along with you, not having a blast? Hunh, Dad? Who’s going to teach,” he uncrossed his arms to jab an angry finger at his father, “you?”
Conrad was losing control, I could see it in his face getting red and the way he leaned toward his son. “I’m an adult and your father and I’ll not have you speak to me that way ever, but absolutely not in company.”
Pippa was edging around them and I lifted my arms her way.
She ran into them.
I wrapped her close to me.
Lawrie got closer to us both.
“I’m not going with you,” Auden announced. “Pippa’s not going with you. And when I mean that, I mean now and I also mean to Texas. We talked in the car on the way here and we decided in like two seconds we’re staying here with Mom. So you go to Texas and be with whatever woman you’re gonna cheat on later there. We’re staying home with Mom.”
“This will be discussed later between your mother and me,” Conrad declared.
Auden looked at me. “Straight up, I want to live with you because I like your house, you and Mickey actually like each other and aren’t screaming all the time. Mickey’s decent and you love us enough to come to us, not jerk us around all over the effing country.”
“I wanna stay with you too, Mom,” Pippa whispered.
Conrad looked to his little girl, his little baby, his daughter who was always at his side, and the anger vanished.
His look was now beaten.
“All right, this is done,” Lawrie announced. “Con, the kids are staying with Amelia. You and she can sit down and have a talk when cooler heads can prevail. Right now, we’ve had a lot of drama and we need to calm things down and I’m afraid your presence here is not helping.”
“I—” Conrad started.
“Con, please. Go,” Lawr said low. “I can understand you don’t want to leave it as it is but quite honestly, it’s the kindest thing you can do at this juncture.”
My ex-husband stared at my brother and he wasn’t angry or nasty. He seemed dazed.
Then he looked to me. “We’ll talk?”
I nodded. “We will, Con,” I said quietly.
His eyes went to Olympia and came back to me.
“I fucked things up again, MeeMee,” he whispered.
Conrad calling me MeeMee?
Yes, completely dazed.
I pressed my lips together.
“Dad, Uncle Lawrie asked you to go,” Auden declared, moving to the door and opening it.
Conrad jerked and looked to his son. It took him a moment but he nodded and moved to the door. He gave Auden another look but Auden just scowled up at him.
He turned to us all and mumbled, “Enjoy your Thanksgiving.”
Then he walked out the door.
Auden slammed it behind him.
And I was shaking. Shaking uncontrollably.
Finally, I couldn’t hold it back anymore and I burst out laughing.
It was hysterical.
I didn’t care.
“En-en-en-enjoy your…” I gulped then cried out, “Thanksgiving!” and I kept holding on to my girl and giggling.
“Yeah, right,” my daughter said, her voice shaking too. “Maybe next the bird will have salmonella and we’ll all get food poisoning.”
I held her tighter and laughed harder and louder.
“It really sucks what my sister did to you, Ash,” Auden said tersely, and I tried to control my laughter as Pippa and I turned eyes to him. “And it sucks more your mom has a problem. But as you can see, our dad’s a real peach.”
“Our dad would so never cheat,” Cillian declared. “I was with him when he was playing poker with his crew. A jack had fallen on the floor in a suit he could totally use and he saw it and he totally coulda scooped that up but he didn’t. He called for a re-deal.”
At Cillian’s words, I kept laughing.
“I think, Cill, they mean—” Ash started.
“Same thing, Ash, just a different game, baby,” Mickey said gently to his daughter.
At his voice, I sobered and looked to my guy.
I wiped under my eyes and kept hold of my girl, starting to announce, “Okay, Mickey, Ash and—”
“Are freaking hungry,” Cillian interrupted me. “You got any of those horse do-overs?”
I blinked at Mickey’s son.
Mickey started chuckling.
I swung my gaze his way and blinked at him.
“Can I…Ash, would you come to my bedroom with me so we can talk?” Pippa asked.
I tensed.
Ash regarded her and then she nodded.
Pip gave me a squeeze and whispered, “I’m good, Mom.”
I looked to my girl. “You sure?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Fix that.” I kept whispering, referring to Aisling.
She knew what I meant and nodded again.
I let her go.
“This way,” she said to Ash and she moved.
Ash followed.
“Right, kid, you like cheeseballs?” Lawr asked Cillian.
“The puffy kind or the crunchy kind?” Cillian asked Lawr.
“The stick a knife and spread it on a cracker kind,” Lawr told Cillian.
Cillian’s eyes got big. “With the nuts on the outside? Like, on Christmas?”
“Christmas has come early this year,” Lawr replied.
“Right on!” Cillian cried.
“Let’s go lay it out,” Lawr suggested. “Kitchen.”
They moved.
I looked to Mickey.
He was watching his son and my brother.
I licked my lips and pressed them together, so deep in watching him watching his boy with Lawrie, I jumped when, from close, Auden said, “Mom.”
I looked to him.
“Need to take a walk.”
I turned fully to him. “Auden—”
“Just to blow off some steam. Get my head straight. I know we haven’t helped at all but—”
“Go. Walk,” I said. “But don’t be long, kiddo.” I lifted my hand and cupped his jaw. “And we’ll talk more later about all that’s been happening. Okay?”