“Remember my science project?”
“I do.”
“I got an A!”
“I knew you would.”
“I wish you’d seen it at the school fair.”
Oliver beamed.
“I wish you’d seen it at the school fair.”
Daniel crouched beside him.
“I wanted to, buddy.”
Oliver frowned.
“Mom said you didn’t want to come.”
“Then why didn’t you come?”
Daniel glanced toward Christy, who was standing nearby.
“I did want to be there,” he said gently.
Oliver’s expression changed.
“Then why didn’t you come?”
Christy stepped forward.
“Oliver, that’s enough.”
“Your father is putting ideas in your head.”
“But you told me Dad didn’t want to see me there.”
Several parents near the dessert table turned.
“Your father is putting ideas in your head,” Christy snapped.
Daniel remained beside Oliver.
“I haven’t told him anything except that I wanted to attend.”
Oliver looked from one parent to the other.
I wasn’t letting another evening turn into something the children felt responsible for fixing.
“I don’t understand.”
I noticed Ava standing in the doorway, watching the adults instead of the game she’d been playing. It was the same anxious look I’d seen whenever Jason and I argued.
I wasn’t letting another evening turn into something the children felt responsible for fixing.
“Hey,” I said, crouching beside Oliver. “Ben needs someone brave enough to help him through the haunted maze. Want to give him a hand?”
Christy was still arguing with Daniel.
Oliver hesitated, then nodded.
I gathered Ava and Ben and took the three of them outside, where another parent was supervising the maze. Once they were occupied, I returned to the adults.
Christy was still arguing with Daniel.
“You have no right to come here and make me look bad!”
“I’m not trying to make you look bad,” he replied. “I’m asking why Oliver thinks I didn’t want to attend his fair.”
“You didn’t even try, according to Christy.”
Jason shook his head.
“You didn’t even try, according to Christy.”
Daniel took out his phone.
“I did. Here.”
He opened their message thread and held the screen toward Jason.
“Those messages don’t show everything!”
“I asked whether I could attend. Christy told me Oliver didn’t want me there. Then she canceled three visits in September and October and refused the dates I suggested to make them up.”
Jason scrolled through the messages.
“You told me he never asked to see Oliver.”
Christy reached toward the phone.
“Those messages don’t show everything!”
The mother of Oliver’s classmate, who had been standing by the dessert table, spoke up.
Jason moved it away.
“Then show me what I’m missing.”
She didn’t answer.
The mother of Oliver’s classmate, who had been standing by the dessert table, spoke up.
“Christy, you told us Daniel refused to attend the fair.”
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Christy turned toward her.
Several guests who had been laughing with her earlier were now avoiding her eyes.
“I was protecting my son.”
