Page 90 of Let's Call a Truce
I headed back into the house, where my parents were hanging out with the girls. My mom took one look at me and realized how badly I was hurting.
“Brian, why don’t you take the girls for some ice cream? Give you three some special grandpa/granddaughter time.”
“Why don’t we all go? I’m sure Juliana would love some ice cream, too.”
“She just finished running and I’m sure wants to shower, honey.”
“There’s no rush. The ice cream shop will still be there in half an hour.” My dad was sweet and kind and wonderful. He was also oblivious. My mom walked over and whispered to him, and he changed his tune.
“Now that I think about it, I want ice cream now. What do you say, girls?”
They cheered and followed him out to the car.
“Let’s talk, sweetie,” Mom said. I slipped away to jump in the shower and promised we would talk as soon as I was done.
I came back out a while later, feeling cleaner but no better. My mom was sitting on the couch with two fresh cups of coffee. I climbed up next to her, laying my head in her lap and letting the tears come.
“What happened, Juliana?”
“I can’t be around him, Mom. It hurts so bad, and his ex-wife is horrible. I don’t know what to do. I can’t cut him out of my life because of the girls, even if I didn’t have to see him at work.”
She let me cry, running the tips of her fingers soothingly over my back and murmuring words of encouragement. When the tears slowed, she pushed me up so she could see me.
“I remember holding you on the couch at the old house when Jason died. Your heart had been ripped out, and you didn’t know how you were going to do it all. I know it was the hardest time in your life, and it was the hardest of mine, too. You know better than most how hard it is as a mother to see your child hurting.
“But you are still here, through all the pain and grief. You will get through this, too, and I will be here to hold you as often as you need me, just like I was then. You’ll go to Boston, impresseveryone with your giant brain and brilliant personality, and you’ll come back home and heal.”
The tears started again, and she pulled me back to her, holding me through the pain like she always did. And she was right, one more week until Boston.
Then it would be done, and I’d move on.
Chapter 28
We were supposedto board the plane within the next fifteen minutes, but I doubted that would happen with Ben raging out in the seat across from me. Pretty sure the Hulk wasn’t allowed on aircrafts that weren’t sanctioned by S.H.I.E.L.D.
The arrival to the airport had been smooth, Eduardo acting as the perfect buffer between us. We’d moved past the small talk and settled into the portion of a work trip that consisted of us all on our laptops pretending the others didn’t exist.
Until Stephanie popped down in the open seat next to Ben and yelled, “Surprise!”
Hence the Hulking-out.
It took a good thirty seconds of sputtering for Ben to force out his questions. “What are you doing here? Where’s Paris?”
She laughed, shaking her head like he was a silly child. “With the nanny, obviously.”
“What’s obvious about that? You’re supposed to be with her, but then you show up here!”
“I was thinking of grabbing some coffee,” Eduardo said. “Would you care to join me, Juliana?”
“Yes, please,” I said, then let out an uncomfortable laugh at how desperate I sounded to get away. Eduardo smiled in response, spreading his eyes wide and shooting one last glance at them.
“I guess I’ll call the alumni office to see if we can add onemore,” Eduardo said, anxiously spinning his phone between his thumb and middle finger as we walked.
I placed a hand on his arm. “Don’t worry. People add and drop from events like this all the time. I’m sure it’ll be easy for them to sort out.”
He sent me a grateful smile as we settled into line. Eduardo—blessedly—wasn’t a gossip. He kept the conversation on work and our families, never straying to the Stephanie-sized elephant in the room, even if we both repeatedly threw looks their way.
Coffees in hand, I excused myself to poke around the store next to our gate. I had zero interest in purchasing the expensive luggage they were selling—who bought new luggage while at the gate, anyway?—but I had even less interest in going back to their drama. I watched from the corner of my eye as Ben walked away from Stephanie and started pacing, his knuckles white where he gripped his phone to his ear. His lips were moving quickly, a pained expression on his face.
