Read Online Family Matters by Deborah Bedford - Free Book Online

else. When they had been married, he’d never done that.
    Her gray eyes were huge. And her questions were telling, filling him with questions of his own. “We’re good parents, aren’t we?” she asked.
    They looked at each other wordlessly.
    When they reached the lobby of the hospital, Jennie didn’t want to say goodbye to Michael just yet. She needed to be near him, just as she had needed him for the past few days. She needed not to be alone now.
    â€œYou want to go get something to eat?” she asked. He didn’t even hesitate before he nodded. He must have felt the same way. Together they walked to the cafeteria. They both bought sodas and hamburgers wrapped in greasy paper. Then they sat down at a table and sipped their drinks. For an eternity, neither of them spoke.
    Then, as if he wanted to break the silence he said, “I’ve got an answer to your question.”
    â€œWhat question?”
    â€œWhether we’re good parents.”
    She bit into her hamburger, wiped mustard off her lips with the napkin.
    â€œRemember when I was serving my internship at Parkland and Cody was teething?”
    She thought back, then grinned. “Oh, I remember that, you mean when his bottom ones were coming in?”
    He nodded, smiling for perhaps the first time in days. “The first tooth. You brought him into the hospital at three in the morning so I could get a look at it.”
    â€œYou think that was funny?” She couldn’t resist teasing him just a bit. During their married life together, they’d jousted often. “It was better than sitting there on the sofa with him, listening to him cry all night long. Riding in the car always made him feel better. So we rode in the car and came to see you.”
    â€œI thought that was quite the accomplishment, him getting that tooth.”
    â€œYes,” she agreed. “You were so proud. I remember you showed it to every doctor doing night duty at Parkland.”
    â€œThey were all so impressed, too.”
    â€œOh, I’m sure they were,” she said, tilting her head at him and laughing. “I’m sure they’d never seen anything like it before in their lives.”
    That was back in the days when I thought I could perform miracles, Michael thought. “I thought that tooth was the coolest thing.” Then he chuckled. “You know, they always say doctors make the craziest parents. We’re even more amazed by all our kids’ feats than other people.”
    â€œYou certainly were.”
    Silence came between them again. It lasted a long time.
    â€œWe were good parents, Jen. Maybe crazy sometimes, but good. You were a good mother. You still are.”
    She plopped her elbows on the table, chin in palms, surveying his features, honestly surprised at his words. Honestly surprised at how comfortable she felt with him. His face was familiar to her yet it was different, too, with wrinkles at the corners of his eyes where wrinkles hadn’t been before, deep lines around his mouth that spoke of his concern for his patients and of his painstaking work.
    Their eyes met. She looked sad. “I just wasn’t a very good wife.”
    He didn’t answer. Lots of water had gone under the bridge. There are always two sides to everything. And it didn’t really matter because it hadn’t been her fault. They had both decided, a long time ago, that it would have been better if they hadn’t married one another in the first place. Each of them had been sailing in a separate direction, seeking dreams and a life, each of them unavailable when the other needed support. They’d both been very, very young.
    He fingered his paper cup. “Those days don’t matter anymore, do they?”
    She shook her head. She didn’t know what she could say. And then she looked up at him again. “Yes. I think they do matter. We had some good times together. We both got Cody out of it. They