She watched her granddaughter for a while without speaking.
Then she said, “Some of this is my fault.”
I looked at her.
“What is?”
“Eric.”
She rubbed her palms together.
“I paid late bills. Covered car payments. Reminded him of deadlines. Let him store half his life at my house. Helped him with rent.”
She sighed.
“I kept telling myself I was helping my son become successful.”
Her eyes moved toward Chloe.
“Maybe all I taught him was that somebody else would always absorb the consequences when he made a bad choice.”
It was the first time I had ever heard Barbara question herself as a mother.
Not long after that, Eric came to her house without warning while Chloe and I were visiting.
He walked inside already frustrated.
“Tell Claire she’s being ridiculous.”
Barbara continued stirring her coffee.
“No.”
Eric stared at her.
“Mom.”
“No.”
“You’re supposed to be on my side. You’re my mother.”
Barbara finally looked at him.
“Exactly.”
That answer seemed to leave him with nowhere to go.
Then he noticed Chloe sleeping nearby.
His expression changed.
He stood there looking at her.
For once, nobody helped him.
Nobody explained what to say.
Nobody softened the moment.
After a while, he asked quietly, “Can I hold her?”
I looked at him.
His confidence disappeared.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” he admitted.
“No,” I said. “You don’t.”
He looked down.
I let the silence remain between us.
Then I said, “But you can learn.”
His eyes lifted.
I picked Chloe up and placed her carefully in his arms.
Eric became completely rigid.
“Support her head.”
“I know.”
Barbara made a small snorting sound.
Eric looked at her.
Even I almost laughed.
For a moment, the tension broke.
That didn’t mean everything suddenly became perfect.
It didn’t.
Eric didn’t transform overnight into the father Chloe deserved.
Life rarely works that way.
He eventually moved into a smaller apartment rather than pay the higher rent on Barbara’s house.
Tessa left not long afterward.
For a while, Eric’s life became considerably less comfortable.
But I wasn’t interested in whether his life was comfortable anymore.
I watched what he did.
