Page 52 of Off Limits
“Sure,” I say nonchalantly, shrugging. “What does Melanie want?”
His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows. “She’s going to stay here tonight.”
I blow out an aggravated breath. It’s what I was expecting, but I’m disappointed that Jean-Luc didn’t stand up to her. Didn’t stop this.
“And every other night from now on?” I ask sarcastically. “Until she meets her next fuckboy?”
“Dani,” he warns. “Watch your mouth.”
“You know it’s true, Dad.”
“One night, kiddo. She has nowhere else to go, and she is still your mother.”
“She hasn’t even said a single word to me.”
He flashes dark eyes at me. “She loves you.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m not ten anymore. You don’t have to lie to me.”
I hate seeing Jean-Luc try to stand up for her or protect her. He could have any woman he wanted in the world, but for some reason, he fell for my mom over and over. No matter how horrible she was to him, how far she pushed it, he always forgave her and took her back. There’s no reason it wouldn’t happen again. Of course it’s going to happen again. Melanie will weasel her way back into his life and everything will go back to normal.
Except that this time, Jean-Luc and I will never find our way back to the way we were. How can we go back to playing father and daughter after what we’ve done?
He quirks his mouth into a mou of sympathy and reaches a hand out for me as if he’s at a loss for words. Sitting up and bending over my stuffed rabbit, I lean into the warm, hard comfort of him.
“She wants to be better,” he says quietly, his words making his chest vibrate against my cheek, and despair burns through me.
Not this again. Not like this.
All I ever wanted was Jean-Luc’s love—all of it. And just when I almost had it, it’s about to slip away.
Dinner is predictably awful. Jean-Luc sets the pizza box on the table with three plates and opens a beer. It doesn’t escape my notice that he doesn’t offer Melanie one.
We sit in our usual spots: Jean-Luc and I across from each other, and Melanie at the head, and the mood around the table is disjointed and weird. There’s a heavy energy between Jean-Luc and I. We’re stilted and silent. But Melanie is completely indifferent. She’s positively incandescent as she talks about how great it is for the three of us to be back together again, and how New Mexico was just “faaabulous!”
“You would love New Mexico!” is the first thing she says to me when we sit down at the table—as if I had the opportunity to go and opted out. “For an artist like you, it’s so inspirational. I swear I did some of my best painting work out there. Oh! I need to show you The Faces of Love. That’s what I call it. It’s a painting of Cathedral Cliff—get it? Rock faces?”
I don’t react at all, and I don’t have to. Melanie doesn’t even pause for breath.
She continues talking for a while about her art and then abruptly focuses in on my neck with an alert, keen look. “Is that a diamond necklace?”
I lift my hand to the familiar chain around my neck and run a finger down it until I find the round diamond in its smooth platinum setting.
“Jean-Luc gave it to me for my birthday.”
“Did he?” She looks directly into my eyes for the first time since she got here as if she’s just noticed me. For one blessed moment, there’s silence, and no one speaks. Then she reaches for her glass of wine and picks right back up where she left off about New Mexico. “Breathtaking scenery,” she says emphatically. “Just breathtaking.”
Jean-Luc gets up two more times to grab a fresh beer throughout dinner, while Melanie eats barely anything at all, she’s so busy talking. After I’ve picked at one slice long enough to have consumed half, I look up at Jean-Luc and ask if I can be excused.
“Finish your slice,” he answers, at the same time as Melanie chimes in, “Yes! Off to bed with you!”
I look back and forth between them and make up my own mind to stand up and leave.
“Good night!” Melanie sings out cheerfully as I walk away. Jean-Luc says nothing.
Jean-Luc
SHORTLY AFTER DANICA goes up to bed, I interrupt Melanie and tell her I’ll get her set up in the basement.