Being Known by Robin Jones Gunn

Author:Robin Jones Gunn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2020-04-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

On Monday, I was ready to take Eden to her final ballet class and have an unemotional response when I saw Garrett. If he had the pictures of my mom as promised, I would thank him, talk to the other moms there, and exit as soon as Eden was finished.

I designed the strategy to limit my interaction with him because I didn’t want to hear anything that might tug at my heartstrings—no inside jokes from high school, details about his mom, or anything about how his wife was gone all the time.

The other reason I wanted it to be an easy hello/goodbye was because I still hadn’t managed to tell Joel about Garrett. At least not when Joel was awake.

He had Tuesday and Wednesday off this week, and our plan was to work on the garden. I wanted to be able to tell him the whole story and conclude it with a tightly sealed “the end” since, with no more classes, I didn’t have a reason to bump into Garrett ever again.

That was the plan. Or so I thought.

But Garrett and Violet never showed up at class.

Eden asked about her friend before the lesson started but was quickly distracted when the teacher put on the music and lined up all her charges. I took a seat next to two other moms and, for the first time, truly watched Eden.

“Is she yours?” the woman next to me asked toward the end of the class. “The one in front with her hair up in a bun?”

“Yes, she’s mine.”

“She seems like a natural dancer. Has she had a lot of lessons?”

“No, just this class.”

“My oldest is fourteen. She showed the same poise and balance when she was this age. She’s in a dance company now. It’s a lot of work, but she loves it.”

I would have thought the woman was trying to advertise or sell me something by the way she sounded so enthusiastic. She wasn’t, though. She didn’t even tell me the name of the dance company her daughter was with.

I drove home frustrated because the teacher had announced another class was scheduled the following week to make up for the time she had been ill. My closure with Garrett would have to wait another week. Now I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell Joel about Garrett that week or wait until after the final class. I was beginning to wonder if there was anything to even tell him.

Poppy had come over to watch Alex so that I didn’t need to take him with me. GiGi was having her hair done; so it was just Poppy and Alex at the house for the hour and twenty minutes that Eden and I had been gone. I stood in the living room and surveyed the chaos.

How is it possible for my son and father-in-law to make such a mess in so short a time?

“Hope you don’t mind that I made myself a sandwich,” Poppy said.

“No, of course not.” The counter

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