Owen's Best Intentions

His sister had been talking med school, same as Noah. If she got in, she’d need to learn about bedside manner.

“Or you were so attached you decided you wouldn’t beg her to take you back.” His mother’s empathy also put him off.

He wasn’t about to bring up the fact that Lilah had accused him of being like his father. He still wondered himself if that was true, and he couldn’t stand how easy his honesty about his own past had made it for her to choose the weapon that kept him away.

“Son?” Suzannah said. “Is there anything I can do?”

His brothers and sister took their mother’s change of attitude since their parents’ divorce at face value. He knew how easy it was to fall back into old habits, and he never managed to believe completely in his mother’s reform.

“I’ve lost four years with Ben, so I’m forcing his mother to bring him here.” Might as well admit he’d blackmailed Lilah. They’d soon realize this wasn’t going to be some joyous reunion.

“Forcing?” Suzannah sat back, her eyes a little too wide. “How, exactly are you doing that? Owen, I don’t want you acting like your—”

She faltered but left the word father unspoken. Which was a good thing. The accusation was too close to his own suspicions about himself.

“That doesn’t sound like you.” Celia shut the cover on her tablet. “Why would you do that, Owen?”

“Because I loved Ben the second I saw him, and I can’t throw away another day with him.” He looked at his sister, and for once, he hid nothing.

“Doesn’t this woman know you’re staying sober now?” Emma asked.

He let himself smile. Good old Emma. She refused to believe the worst. “I’ve told her I’m trying, but she has doubts, and you can’t really blame her.”

“Why don’t we know about her? Were you ashamed to bring her down here?” Suzannah frowned. “What’s wrong with her?”

“She did come down, Mom. I just never introduced her to people here. We didn’t have a lot of time together because she worked for her family in New York, and my place was here. I didn’t want to move.”

“Maybe you also didn’t want anyone to know about your private life,” Celia said.

He glanced at her. “When you take your nose out of your books, you’re observant.”

“This Lilah must not be. If she cared about you then, she must see you’re sober now.”

They were all so desperate to believe in him. Determined to trust the promises he’d made after the last bender only a few weeks ago.

“I guess I wasn’t sober a lot when we were together.” He looked at Noah, who’d persuaded the council he could get the clinic done without drinking. “I am now,” he said. “And I’m going to stay this way.”

Suzannah reached for Owen’s hand. The moment for closeness had passed, but he let her hang on because she needed to feel she could comfort him. He was willing to let her feel better. “You can promise her all you want, but she might not be able to believe you. She’s probably anxious for her son. You can’t blame her since she saw you in those darker days.”

She sounded as if Lilah had filled her in, but no one knew how many times he’d promised himself he wouldn’t drink again. “The first time I actually went to rehab, I did it for her.”

“Which is why it didn’t work,” Noah said. “So she tried to force you to stop drinking, and now you’re forcing her to share your son.”

“When you put it like that, I realize how ruthless I’m being.” Owen recalled Lilah’s frightened expression as she’d watched him drive away with Ben for their day out.

“I’d do the same, and I defy anyone at this table to say he or she would walk away from a child. Ben’s mother wouldn’t do it,” Noah said.

“That’s why she’s coming with him,” Owen said. “At first, I wanted to just take him with me, but I was angry. When I realized Ben would suffer without her, I told her I was staying there until they were both ready to come, but she asked me to trust her not to run for Canada.”