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“… prefer it,” Max finished quietly, as if he was admitting something shameful. He then brought his eyes to him. “I love Mom, but you and I, we get each other, right, Dad?”

If love could kill—and he knew it could—this moment just killed him with softness.

“Right. I feel the same.” He smiled and patted Max’s hand.

Max looked to both sides. “Dad,” he admonished in a you’re-embarrassing-me tone.

“Okay, okay, sorry.” Finn chuckled. “I didn’t like being an only child. Is that bothering you?”

Max seemed to ponder the question for a moment, his fork hovering above his plate. “Not really,” he said, then took a bite, as if having the answer freed him to continue eating. “I mean, it could be nice, but what if we didn’t get along?” he spoke while chewing. “I know of lots of brothers and sisters who don’t. Mom says she and Noah didn’t get along.” He then lowered his voice. “I think they still don’t.”

That’s because your mother hardly gets along with anyone. “Every family is different. Every person is different.”

They took a sip from their cups in synch.

“So, anything else bothering you?” Finn asked.

“No. Why are you asking?”

“Quarterly check-in,” he said. “I just want to make sure you’re good, happy. Are you happy?”

“Are you, Dad?”

The question was nonchalantly retorted at him. From his tone, it was obvious Max wasn’t expecting an answer, but Finn knew what he would reply. You make me happy, but other than that, there’s a huge void in my life, and her name is Jane. Anne. I need her to be really happy, to be complete. But he couldn’t say that to his kid, so he just looked at him and smiled.

“There’s just one thing,” Max said. “I’m too old for trick-or-treat.”

“Too old? Why?”

“It’s for little kids.”

“Would you say that if you went trick-or-treating here next week?”

Max bunched his mouth to one side in displeasure. It made him look like the little boy he once was. “Here, it’d be okay because I’d go with Eli and others. In Riviera View, I go with Mom. It’s humiliating at my age to go with your mother. I don’t know any kids there.”

“How about if we talk to your mother beforehand and ask her to check if there are kids your age in the nearby houses that you could go with?”

“That’s even more embarrassing!”

“Just at first. You can meet them earlier, shoot the breeze, then go together trick-or-treating.”

“No one says shoot the breeze anymore.”

“Yeah, I’m uncool like that.”

Max chuckled.

“You have to be at your mother’s for Halloween this year. I know the holidays are still confusing, but we’re all doing our best to get them right, am I right?” He smiled at his son, almost pleading with him to understand.

The first year of their divorce had been easier because they had lived in the same town, but since Avery had moved back to Riviera View, things had shifted.

“I know,” Max mumbled, his shoulders stooping.

“Are you still going as that other Aquaman?”

“Namor.”

“Right. Because you’re not into DC anymore; you’re into Marvel now,” he quoted Max with a chuckle.


Tags: Lily Baines Romance