I Can't Love You✔

The Grand Escape {11}

My mom's jaw drops to the floor before her head snaps to my dad, who stops mid-sip to give her a 'what' look.

"Are you going to step in?" Mom throws a hand out toward me.

I don't know what she expects. She fucking left us both. I'm surprised dad even let her in the house. I sure as fuck don't want her here, and she just left me behind. She did that to him and cheated.

Dad's dull-sky-blue eyes turn to me. No emotion sits behind him as he half-hartley says, "Apologize to your mother."

"No." My jaw tenses until Ollie reaches over and rests a hand on my leg. The warmth of her hand spreads up my thigh and helps release the tension in my entire body.

"Eh." Dad shrugs. "I tried."

"Unbelieveable, Peter!" My mom's voice raises an octave that brings back memories of my early childhood. A sickly unease grows within my gut as I watch the tempers between my parents rise.

When my parents jump out of their chairs to get in each other's faces, it's like a storm cloud rolling into the room. The hurricane of raw unhealed emotions violently swirls as hurt-filled words are slurred between them.

Ollie's small hand slips into mine, and as I watch the trainwreck, she tugs me off from the couch and guides me out the back sliding glass door. It isn't until she closes that I finally tear my eyes away.

"I think a trip to Miss Nancy's is long overdue." Ollie pulls me down the steps of the porch my dad spent a weekend working on a few years ago and across the patchy yard. When we get to nan's house, we both walk in the backdoor to find Nan sitting in her plush pink recliner. Jeopardy plays as she puts a puzzle together. Her thick glasses sit low on her nose while she concentrates, and Cheddar sleeps at her feet.

"The loosy goose still over there?" Nan asks as she snaps a puzzle piece into its proper place.

"Yeah, but probably not for much longer." Ollie tells her. She lets go of my hand, and she kicks off her tennis shoes and walks over to Nan. She leans over the side of Nan's chair before kissing her on her wrinkled cheek. "Zany called her a whore."

"I did not!" I protest as I slip my boots off. I don't need a good walloping from my nan.

"Close enough." Ollie mumbles on her breath before she walks over to Nan's blue and white floral couch and flops back on it.

Well, maybe it was kinda close, but the truth hurts.

"Nan called her a loosy goose, what's the difference?" I walk over to the couch and lay across Ollie, using her stomach as a pillow. She's ironically the calm and in storms, and I need her support. It's not uncommon for us to be cuddly. The only time we weren't was when I was dating Becca. Understandably, Becca was uncomfortable with Ollie and my level of friendship. Now it doesn't matter.

"The difference is I'm older than your mom." Nan shoots me a slight glare from across the room. "You aren't, young man. I don't care what your mom did, you should respect her."

I give Nan a grunt in reply, showing her what I think of that. Nan gives me a look that tells me she's about to set me right if I keep sassing her.

"I guess this means the dinner your mom was planning on taking you out for is canceled." Ollie starts playing with the long parts of my hair by braiding what she can.

I wrap my arms around her, making her back arch off the couch a bit. "It was never on. I didn't agree to go," I point out. When my mom offered, I went tight-lipped. Mom just assumed I was going with.

Cheddar's soft snores and Ollie's delicate fingers start to lull me into my sleepy daze. It isn't until much later that dad comes storming over to jerk me out of a nap. They rehashed all their built-up frustrations with each other, and mom blames dad for my hostility toward her. Never mind the years of neglect that made me come to my own opinions about her.