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Kathleen frowned in the middle of the game she was playing with her little brother.
"You never do anything!" her mom shouted from down the hallway—but her voice was raised enough that every word was crystal clear to Kathleen. "You just sit around the house all day!"
"You wanted me to be home, I'm home," argued her dad.
Kathleen sighed. "Do they do this a lot?" she asked Eli. Pumping a four-year-old for information wasn't the best choice but she didn't think she'd get a straight answer from either of her parents.
Eli shrugged, but his casual acceptance of the noise told Kathleen all she needed to know. Leaving her parents to sort it out, though, wasn't an option, if past experience counted for anything. I feel like I'm the parent here, she thought, as she distracted Eli while making plans for her next move.
Kathleen rounded the corner to find her dad in the garage, tinkering with something.
He glanced up as she drew near. "What is it?"
"What's going on with you and Mom?" Kathleen asked.
Her dad shook his head. "Nothing. Don't worry about it."
"That didn't sound like nothing earlier," Kathleen countered.
"Leave it, Kathleen; it's none of your business," he said with a bit more steel in his voice.
Kathleen blinked. "What does Olivia say?" she asked after a few moments.
"Don't know," he said, attention on the part in his hand.
"What do you mean, you don't know?"
"Haven't talked to her," he said. He fiddled with the part, but at this point Kathleen was fairly sure he wasn't actually doing anything useful.
"Since when?" Her dad always talked to Olivia.
"Since last month."
Kathleen stared at him. He'd been radio silent to Olivia since the shooting? What was he thinking? And what was her mom thinking, letting him do that to Olivia? She'd saved their family more times than Kathleen could count. Eli and her mom literally owed their lives to her. "You need to talk to her." For that matter, so did Kathleen. She resolved to visit Olivia that week. Maybe they could eat lunch together and catch up.
"Mind your own business," her dad said.
Kathleen stared a bit longer, then shook her head and headed back inside. Her dad was such an idiot sometimes.
Kathleen should've felt more guilty at recruiting Maureen as moral support, but she figured she needed all the help she could get. "Just suggest a family dinner, so you can spend time with Eli," Kathleen begged. "The rest we can do together."
"I don't know about this," Maureen said with a sigh, but eventually agreed.
Which was how they ended up sitting down to dinner together for the first time in a long while. As Kathleen had suspected would happen, her dad sat through most of the meal eating on autopilot, while her mom carried the conversation, asking each of the girls about work, school, and boyfriends.
All was going smoothly until the topic came around to Maureen's current boyfriend. "Do you love him?" her mom asked.
Maureen twisted her mouth a little. "I don't know. He's nice."
Kathleen watched her mom smile at Maureen sympathetically. "Do you think you're serious?"
"Maybe?" Maureen looked uncomfortable, and Kathleen felt a little sorry she'd invited her sister for the grilling.
"Just make sure you do what is going to make you happy, OK? I just want you to be happy."
Something in Kathleen snapped at that, and all previous plans of careful discussion were jettisoned in an instant as she rose to her feet. "What hypocrisy," she scoffed. "You tell us to do what makes us happy, but neither of you have done that for years." Out of the corner of her eye she caught Maureen leading Eli away from the table, but Kathleen ignored it and went on, her voice rising in volume as she continued. "The person that makes you happy"—she turned to her dad—"you haven't talked to in a month, and left her heartbroken, wondering why her best friend just ghosted her after thirteen years. And you"—she looked at her mom—"keep holding on to him"—Kathleen waved her hand in her father's direction—"ruining any chance he has of being happy just because you're afraid to be alone."
Her dad rose from his chair, his face as blank and unyielding as stone, but Kathleen ignored that too. "You should've just stayed divorced," she said, a little softer, shaking her head. "It'd be better for Eli. For all of us."
The passion drained out of Kathleen, and she decided she'd better take stock of the consequences. Her mom was glaring at her with an "if looks could kill" face, while her dad rushed out of the room. Given her choices, she followed her dad, and found him sitting on the steps outside, staring out into the summer evening. Gingerly, she took a seat next to him, relieved when he didn't move.
After a minute of silence, he quietly asked, "Is she?"
"What?"
"Is she heartbroken?"
Kathleen didn't bother to deny being in contact with Olivia; her dad was too perceptive about that sort of thing. "What do you think? She loves you, Dad."
He stared in the direction of his feet, and Kathleen thought she'd never seen her dad so … haunted. "I—I don't know what to do," he admitted.
"Go see the lawyer, that's a good start," Kathleen said. "And go talk to Olivia."
He shook his head. "She'll hate me."
"No, she won't. I told you, Dad, she loves you."
He shot her a wary glance. "You really think—" he began, then trailed off.
Kathleen made a guess at what he was going to ask. "Anyone who talks to her can figure out she's in love with you. Just like anyone who talks with you can figure out you're in love with her. You haven't been in love with Mom for years, and neither of you are happy like this. Eli's already used to the arguing. Brings back memories," she said with a sigh.
Her dad grimaced. "I'd hoped that one of my kids wouldn't have to go through all that."
"You can spare him if you call it quits now. You and Mom are better as friends than you are married," she said. "Besides, you could always have another kid with Olivia."
Her dad's eyebrows shot sky-high, but Kathleen only grinned at him. "I bet she'd love a kid of her own," she suggested.
He shook his head. "Right now—"
"Right now, you and Mom need to talk. We'll keep Eli out of the way."
In less than two hours, her parents had emerged from their bedroom, eyes a little reddened but otherwise calm. Kathleen left Eli's bedtime routine to her mom, walking over to her dad. "So?"
"Your mom will call the lawyer tomorrow, see how soon we can get the papers drawn up," he said with a sigh. "Though you might need to apologize for ruining her dinner."
"I'll do that later," Kathleen said. "Right now, you and I have a trip to make."
He caught her meaning immediately, shaking his head. "I can't—"
"Yes, you can. She needs to hear from you." He didn't seem to want to budge, so she tried softening her face and begging instead. "Please, Dad. This is the birthday present I want the most."
"For me to talk to Olivia?"
"For you to be happy. For you both to be happy. And the only way that's going to happen is if you get over your fear and go talk to her." She could see him wavering, just a little. "Come on, I'll drive you." She grabbed her purse and pulled at his arm, just like when she was a kid, begging for a treat. He was overprotective of them but when it came to indulgences such as sweets, he'd always been a sucker for their pleading eyes. Something of that reaction must have still lingered, because he let her draw him outside and into her car.
The drive to Manhattan was quiet, her dad looking out the window on his side, lost in thought. She found a parking spot a block away from Olivia's apartment, and coaxed him out of the car and up to the correct floor. "Wait here," she said, leaving him a few feet away from Olivia's door, "and don't go anywhere." She gave him a stern look.
"I promise," he said.
Olivia answered the knock swiftly. She looked tired, but perked up at seeing Kathleen's face. "Kathleen? What are you doing here? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, really," said Kathleen. "May I come in?" she asked, before Olivia could glance down the hallway and see her partner standing there.
"Of course," said Olivia.
Kathleen stepped inside enough for Olivia to close the door before she began. "I can't stay long, I just wanted to tell you that it's over with my parents. They're signing the papers for good this time."
Olivia looked sympathetic. "I'm sorry."
"I'm not," Kathleen countered.
Olivia's sympathy evaporated into surprise.
"I was going to just talk to them calmly but I ended up blowing up at them," Kathleen said sheepishly, to Olivia's small grin. "And, well, we've all felt they shouldn't have gotten together for Eli, and I think they agree now."
"I see," said Olivia, looking like she still hadn't absorbed the news fully.
"So, uh, that's all I wanted to say, except that I'm dropping him off. He'll need to get a new place soon anyway."
Olivia's eyes got big. "Him?"
Kathleen didn't bother to answer, opening the door instead. She breathed a sigh of relief that her father was still standing there. He looked like he might throw up or burst into tears, either of which was unsettling to her, but that was Olivia's problem to deal with now. "Go on, Dad, she's waiting for you," Kathleen said, giving him a little push.
"Oh, El," Kathleen heard, feeling dripping from the words as Olivia drew him inside the apartment and closed the door behind him.
Success! Her work here was done. She turned to get back in her car for the drive back to her dorm, feeling like she'd just averted disaster. She still owed her mom an apology, but it was worth it. Who knew what mess her parents would have made of their lives if she hadn't stepped in?