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Angel is sitting on the floor next to a basket of blocks, and Hayden is crouched on the ground building a tower. Angel smacks it down and then starts clapping.
“We play this game a lot at home,” Callie says.
“Want to do another one?” Hayden asks in a sweet voice to Angel.
“I’m not close to my siblings anymore,” Amanda says, “so Hayden hasn’t had the chance to play with his other cousins. But he’s really good with her.”
I can’t help but wonder if Amanda is beginning to regret her decision to keep Hayden away from us all this time.
Hayden builds another block tower, and Angel knocks it down, giggling hysterically. Her soft, dark hair is pulled up into a little ponytail with an over-sized pink bow. Callie always has her dressed in the cutest little outfits, and I have no doubt my mom has a hand in that. She loves to spoil her little granddaughter.
It’s scenes like these that make Jenni think she can’t be with me. It hurts that she can’t trust me enough to let me decide if I’m okay with not having more kids one day. And now she’s leaving me just like Sarah and Amanda.
It’s not that I still want either one of them, but I’m clearly not over the feeling of abandonment that they left me with. It hurts to be left, and in Amanda’s case, there wasn’t even an explanation given. To this day, I still don’t know what I did to cause her to leave. Am I that bad at being a husband that I can’t hold a marriage together?
“Where did Jenni go?” Weston asks.
“She went home,” I say.
He looks over at me, taking in my expression. “Hey, man. Are you okay?”
I shake my head slightly.
“Come here.” He stands and gestures toward the conference room. Mom looks over at me and watches as we leave, and I can only assume that she’s glad Weston is there for me.
Weston pulls the door shut when we get to the conference room. “What’s going on?”
“Jenni and I broke up.”
His brows knit together in concern. “Oh, no. I thought you guys were so happy together. What happened?”
“I can’t go into too much detail because I want to protect Jenni’s privacy. But she ended things with me today.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. And I don’t mean to pry. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“She’s not the problem at all. I don’t want you to think she did anything wrong. It’s just… complicated.” Because Jenni is wonderful in so many ways. “If anything, she’s being noble. Too noble, if you ask me.”
“You can’t control what others do. We all have to learn that the hard way, don’t we?” Weston says.
“Jenni has to figure out things for herself, but the situation is just really hard and sad. That’s all I can really say.” My heart aches so much when I think of Jenni. But I love her, and that love has only grown seeing how she’s trying to protect me, as frustrating as that may seem.
“What I’ve had to learn from my own experience being married is that you have to have so much compassion and patience for the other person.”
“I wonder if part of our problem is that we moved too quickly,” I say.
“I don’t know if that’s true. You and Jenni have been brewing some chemistry for quite a while. We’ve all seen it from a distance. I think these feelings were there, but neither of you were acknowledging them. By the way, how’s Ronnie feeling about all of this?”
“He’s not happy. He thinks I should stay away from Jenni. Well, he’s getting his wish granted now. She doesn’t want to be with me,” I say miserably.
“This girl has you all sorts of torn up,” Weston says. “I know the feeling. Callie had me the same way.” He shakes his head with a smile. “I hope you two work it out. I’m rooting for you two, and I know all the family feels the same way.”
“Thanks, but I don’t see how this could be worked out. Jenni seems to have her mind made up.”
“Don’t give up hope. You never know what could happen.” He grins at me. “Who knows, maybe this time next year the two of you will be announcing your own little one on the way.”
I groan inwardly and give him a stiff smile.
Weston looks at me hesitantly. “Did I say something wrong? You’re giving me a funny look.”