Finally, Daniel said, “I’m glad you’re doing so well.”
Eli looked directly at him.
“Okay.”
Daniel flinched.
Not because Eli had been rude.
Because he hadn’t.
There was no anger in my son’s voice. No accusation. Just the careful politeness you use with an adult you barely know.
Mason tapped a pencil against his leg once, then slipped it into his pocket.
Vanessa suggested they go find lunch.
Daniel didn’t move.
“Could I talk to them for a minute?” he asked me.
The question surprised me.
What surprised me more was that he had asked instead of simply assuming.
I looked at Eli and Owen.
“That’s their decision.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened at that, but he turned to them.
“Would you mind?”
Owen glanced at his brother.
Eli shrugged. “We can talk here.”
Daniel clearly wanted privacy, but the boys weren’t offering it.
So the five of us stood beside a university hallway while Vanessa and Mason remained several feet away.
Daniel began carefully.
“I know I haven’t been around as much as I should have been.”
Owen’s eyebrows rose slightly.
As much as I should have been.
Thirteen years compressed into a scheduling problem.
Daniel noticed the reaction.
“I made mistakes,” he corrected himself. “A lot happened between your mother and me. You were young. Things were complicated.”
I didn’t interrupt.
