Promises (TP 6)

49 - No Fairytale

Double update today.

Patrick arrived home after picking up his grocery order just before the kids. He whistled as he started to put the food away. That woman was on fire. It was as if they ignited each other. He didn't remember if it had been the same with Erica at the beginning. For the sixteen years of their marriage, they had a connection that was defined as love. There was desire, but the blaze was steady, not an inferno. Not even he would have guessed under Tessa's mom persona was a seductress.

"Dad, what are you so happy about?" Gabby asked.

"Don't ask him that. Can't you tell he saw her again?" Hannah sounded appalled.

"Hannah, can you be glad that I'm happy? I've been very agreeable about you and Ryder."

Only because if he told her not to see him, she would do the opposite.

Hannah pursed her lips. "Who chaperones you?"

He sighed. "You keep forgetting I have twenty-six years on you. The same rules do not apply."

"Are you going to force us to have dinner with her again?"

He shook his head. "Not this weekend. I'm taking her out on Saturday night, so no company here."

"Great, now I can't hang out on the beach with my friends."

Gabby said, "Hannah, you're working until close on Saturday night."

Patrick preferred she work instead of hang with the boyfriend. "Your brother's curfew is ten. Gabby, I'll pay you to be home at ten."

Gabby hugged his arm. "Dad, you don't need to pay me. It's weird for me, though. You're dating, but I want you to be happy. I definitely never imagined you to be involved with little kids."

"It's creepy." Kevin had walked in while Gabby was speaking.

Patrick turned to his son. "Creepy! You make me out to be a pedophile."

Kevin frowned. "Not that kind of creepy. Just weird the way you are with them."

"I've been your father your entire life and short of the years I was a resident and made your mother do all the parenting of your sisters, I was always an involved father."

"You're not their father." Hannah accused.

"No, but I can be nice to them and hope they like me. It will hurt if they don't. Tessa says she understands, but I have to believe the way you treated her can't feel good."

"Dad, just seeing you look at her," Gabby said quietly.

"And touch her!" Hannah wasn't quiet.

"I know she's not your mother. No woman will ever be your mother, but I made a promise to her."

Hannah voice went higher. "She really told you to find another woman?"

He nodded. "She made me promise. It took me close to two years to look at other women. I stopped dating the other one because she didn't like kids. I don't want to stop dating Tessa, because you cannot give her a chance."

"Did you like the other one?" Hannah asked.

"Not as much as I like Tessa. Give her a chance. The only thing she wants to be is your friend." He almost said that none of them needed a mother. That wasn't true, because they needed Erica.

The three stared at him until Kevin broke the silence. "I've got homework."

"Where are your friends?" Patrick asked.

"Baseball."

Kevin didn't play team sports. It became too hard with Erica's illness. Kevin spent a lot of time with his mother. He wasn't much older than Maya when she was diagnosed. Surfing became his sport.