Page 63 of Afternoon Delight

Four years later…

I was not quite the magnanimous taker of the high road that my mother was. I did not invite Joel and his family into my home for Roddie’s high school graduation party. Instead, I had Mom book the multi-function room at her condo and arranged for the event to be catered.

Thankfully, the weather was great. The younger kids ran out onto the small lawn. Zara’s older kids hovered around Gail’s teenagers. Ollie and Freddie played tag, while Jade mothered Joel’s twins and Zara’s youngest, Ester, at the bubble station Mom had set up.

Zak and I loved to pretend Ester was ours for an hour here and there, along with the rest of Zara’s brood, but we had never felt moved to try making one of our own.

Zak sat at a table near the door with Dale in the chair beside him. I hadn’t seen Shelby arrive with her boyfriend, Aaron, so I was surprised when I glanced over and saw her sitting with them.

“We all deserve fireworks in the bedroom,” I overheard Mom say in a tone I recognized as her not-to-be-messed-with voice. “Why would I be ashamed to convey that in a creative way?”

I paused while filling the plates I was making for Zak and Dale, thinking we were about to get a display of fireworks right here and now.

“Well, you always had your own way of doing things, didn’t you?” Aunt Linda said before walking away in a huff.

“She never changes,” Mom hissed as she sidled up beside me.

“Did you expect her to?”

“No,” she grumbled, then broke into a smile as she looked past me. “Hiram is here.” He’d had a golf game this morning. We hadn’t been sure he’d make it.

Hiram was her new beau. He was a short, heavyset man who had lost his wife ten years ago and lived in Nanaimo. He and Mom had met at a golf tournament at the end of last year and had taken a cruise together in January, to get away from winter.

Did he give Mom fireworks in the bedroom? I refused to ask, but they smiled a lot when they were together, so I liked him.

“Hi.” I came up to Zak and set down the plates, then gave Shelby a hug from behind, kissing her cheek while I was there. “When did you guys arrive?”

“Just now. I think you were outside. Where’s Roddie?”

“Working the crowd.” Zak shifted some things on Dale’s plate and set it in front of him, then handed him a spoon. “I told him to make a point of saying hello to all the relatives so they’ll slip him some cash. That’s how you have beer money your first year.”

Drinking age in B.C. was nineteen, but I wasn’t na?ve.

“Where were you when I graduated high school?” Aaron asked. “I skipped out on the family dinner, went to the rock quarry for an all-nighter, and wound up getting my stomach pumped.”

“Maybe don’t tell that story when I introduce you to Nanna and Pop,” Shelby said wryly, in reference to Joel’s parents. “Oh, there he is! C’mere.” She stood and waved Roddie over. “Where’s Brian? I want to introduce my boyfriend to yours.”

“He’s got his own family thing. We’re meeting at the party later, but he said he’ll come to the hotel for Nanna’s brunch tomorrow, to meet everyone. Nanna just asked me when you would get here, so you should probably go say hi to them.”

“Okay.” Shelby rose with Aaron and said to Zak, “We’re at the hotel with Dad and his family tonight, but then we’ll be at Mom’s for the rest of the week. We’ll see you there? You’re mostly living with Mom now, aren’t you?”

“I’ve been waiting for Rod to move out so I can have my own room.”

Shelby and Roddie looked at each other with long-suffering amusement. They adored Zak as much as I did.

He was mostly living with me, and much as I wished he was fully living with me, he was very torn up about the ways he was having to say goodbye to his dad. He and Zara had closed the antique shop, mostly because it had become more anxiety than comfort for any of them.

They hadn’t sold the building yet, but were thinking about it.

Dale’s care was becoming very expensive.

They had a pair of care aides who did three twelve-hour night shifts a week, allowing Zak to spend those evenings at my place, but he spent his days at the house.

He took some programming contracts here and there, but most of his waking hours were spent caring for his father while slowly preparing his childhood home for its eventual sale.

Dale had nearly started a fire with the toaster a few weeks ago and had cut his hand the other day because he forgot how scissors worked.

He would need a safer environment soon, which meant a facility.

Zak and Zara were still coming to terms with it.

None of that anguish showed on Zak’s face when he spoke to Dale, though.

“Try some of this, Dad. You like macaroni salad. And you—” Zak pointed at Roddie. “Call me if you need me to pick you up later. I don’t care what time.”

“I will. Thanks.”

Shelby set a gentle hand on Dale’s shoulder. “It was good to see you, Dale. We’re here for vacation, so we’ll see you again really soon, okay?”

Dale gave her a distracted glance, but he was more interested in the salad.

“More coffee?” I peered into Zak’s cup as the kids walked away.

“I’ve had enough, thanks. We’ll go soon.” Outings with Dale were a nice break, but they also disrupted his routine so he kept them short.

“Thanks for coming. And I can pick up my own kid in the middle of the night, you know. You don’t have to do it.” I reached over to press Dale’s napkin into his hand. Usually, that was enough of a signal for him to remember to dab his mouth with it.

He looked up at me with a vague smile, always his very sweet self, but he had never really learned my name.

These days he seemed to think I was a nice stranger who showed up at unexpected times.

It broke my heart, especially since I was so deeply in love with his son.

I wished Dale had some memory of us being together, but c’est la vie.

Zak guided Dale’s hand to wipe his mouth, then looped his arm around my hips, looking up at me to say quietly, “I was planning to get you drunk and have my way with you tonight, since we’ll have an empty apartment, but go ahead and stay sober if you want to.”

“What exactly are you planning that I need to be drunk for it?”

“I don’t know.” He wore that look that made my stomach flutter and my heart melt. “Sometimes I think about asking you to marry me.”

“You kinky bastard. Are you really proposing over macaroni salad, on the day I’m losing my son to adulthood, with my ex-in-laws judging me from the other side of the buffet?

” I had zero qualms about his hand on my ass.

I cupped the whiskers on his cheek, loving the silky feel of them against my palm.

“That depends. If the answer is no, then I’m definitely joking.”

“If the answer is yes?”

“Then I’ll do a way better job of asking, so we have a way better story.”

“You’d better get started on that better story, then.”

“Yeah?”

I nodded, smiling so hard my cheeks hurt.

He stood, wrapped me in his arms, and kissed me.

Then the fool—the absolute thunder-stealing clown —lifted his head and shouted, “She said yes!”