Author's note: I'd like to thank Lanie Sullivan for her suggestions that enriched this story.
Dotty pushed aside her half-eaten breakfast, and pulled the classified ads out of the Saturday newspaper. On countless other mornings, she'd wondered what it would be like to have a quiet breakfast, but she found it less enjoyable than she'd expected it to be. The boys were with their father, and the newly married Amanda and Lee had driven to Baltimore to visit Inner Harbor with another couple. As she reached for her reading glasses, she was startled by the sound of footsteps approaching the kitchen. She turned around in time to see her son-in-law casually stroll into the room.
"Lee, what on earth are you doing here," she blurted out.
"I…uh…I live here." He looked at his feet, shifted his weight, and then looked back at her. "Our plans changed at the last minute, Amanda went alone, I thought that maybe you and I…I'm sorry I intruded on your breakfast, I'll go-" She quickly got up and grabbed his upper arm as he turned to leave.
"I haven't gotten you to start eating breakfast yet, but you can join me for a cup of coffee. I didn't mean to suggest that you don't belong here, you're part of the family now, and you absolutely belong here." He stiffly sat down at the table with an unreadable expression on his face. Filling a cup with coffee, and adding cream to it, Dotty continued, "Yesterday afternoon, when I left with Curt, you and Amanda were packing her car for your trip, what happened?"
"Laura called to cancel as we were locking up the house. Jim had gone to her a couple of hours earlier; he told her that he couldn't keep pretending that he was happily married. He told her that he needed space, packed a suitcase and left."
"How awful for her; how is she holding up?" She handed Lee his coffee mug, and sat down across the table from him.
"She's not doing well, so Amanda convinced her to let her come spend the day with her, she needs a good friend."
"I'm glad that Amanda is there for her, but it leaves you with no plans for the day."
"Not necessarily," he took a long swig of coffee as he studied her nervously, "I thought that maybe you and I could do something together?" Taking in her surprised expression and uncharacteristic silence, he continued, "Since I moved in, I've spent one-on-one time with each of the boys, but you and I haven't spent any…" He looked away sadly as she studied him uncertainly.
"Quality time? It's sweet of you to suggest that we spend time together, but I need to start concentrating on leading my own life. When I moved in here, Amanda and the boys really needed me,but I've spent more years with them than I expected to and they don't need me anymore. Curt thinks that I should get on with my life…the sooner the better." She stood up and began to slowly clear her dishes from the table.
"What do you think?" I was surprised when I heard her come home at 1 AM; Amanda led me to believe that she was spending the whole weekend with Curt.
"Three is a crowd, you and Amanda are just starting your life together, and you don't need a live-in mother-in-law." She quickly walked to the sink and started to vigorously scrub the dishes. Lee followed her and leaned against the counter next to her.
"I guess if Amanda wanted to make a completely fresh start with me, she'd try to arrange for the boys to live with Joe and Carrie." Dotty's head whipped around to stare at him.
"Is THAT what you want?"
"No, of course not, but I don't want you to move out either. When I asked Amanda to marry me, I knew that if she said 'yes', I'd be joining an existing family unit. I was eager and terrified," he smiled shyly, "all at the same time. You reached out to me from the start. I can see that you have a lot on your mind, yet you just added cream to my coffee without my having to ask you to." His voice grew rough as he continued, "I'd hate to see you leave, I had my mother for such a short time…being around you has given me the chance to experience a mother's love."
"Oh Lee," she dried her hands and tenderly stroked his cheek, "it would be so easy for me to stay here, to let the years continue to drift by. When I lost Amanda's father, I was so lonely, adrift without an anchor. When Joe left, moving in here gave me new direction…and an excuse to not face what was missing from my life. It took Amanda a long time, and your love, to find the courage to move past her divorce and embrace life again. It's my turn now; last night, Curt asked me to marry him." She smiled, but the smile didn't reach her usually sparkling eyes.
"Did you say 'no' or did you ask him for time to think it over?"
"Most people would assume that I said 'yes', and offer their best wishes," she replied, not looking him in the eye.
"You should know by now, that I'm not like most people."
"That's certainly an understatement," she replied, dropping the dish towel on the counter as the sparkle returned to her eyes. "Long before I met you for the first time, I suspected that Amanda had met someone special, even though she continually denied it. I had all sorts of ideas about what her mystery man might be like…" Lee smiled as he recalled Amanda's recounting some of her theories, and he repressed a laugh as he thought about some of their conversations that he'd overheard himself.
"Now that you've had time to get to know me-"
"Hmmpf, I've only scratched the surface, you're a very complicated man…and a mass of contradictions." The smile on his face faded, and he raked a hand through his slightly damp hair. "Relax, Dear, I didn't mean that in a bad way. You're everything that I hoped Amanda would find in a man and more. I'm so relieved that she didn't let me push her into marrying Dean. She had the good sense to not marry a man that she didn't love…passionately…she looked beyond the practical considerations that I kept harping on."
"Dotty, I think you're being too hard on yourself, 'harping' is such a harsh word. You wanted what you thought would be best for Amanda and the boys; a secure future."
"Security is important, but it doesn't make you feel truly alive. You wouldn't have lived so much of your life on the edge, if you didn't believe that too?" She used her hands to punctuate her words and as she concluded, her facial expression dared him to deny the truth of what she'd said.
"I was too close to the edge; I'd probably be dead now if I hadn't met Amanda. She saved me from my more self-destructive tendencies, and forced me to acknowledge that I wasn't happy with the way I was living. I didn't do anything halfway…I bounced from one extreme to another…and tried to convince myself that was what living a full life was all about."
"I'm afraid that I've…" She anxiously wrung her hands and looked away from him, as her voice trailed off. He walked around and stood in front of her, but not close enough to invade her personal space.
"Amanda has taught me how to be a good listener, and I'm in no position to judge how you choose to live your life. Please talk to me," he quietly implored.
"I really do think you might understand, and I can't talk to Amanda about this, you should have seen her face the last time I tried to talk to her about…my needs." He offered her a reassuring smile and waited for her to continue. "I feel as though I've only been half living since I lost Carl. I've lived through Amanda and the boys during the day, and then I tried to lose myself in countless romance novels in the evening. Even after I began dating, I haven't found a man that has offered me everything that I want in a partner. When I met Harry, I thought that maybe…but you know how that turned out."
"I'm sorry about that," he briefly touched her shoulder, "I think he cared for you a great deal too. I don't think you should give up on love or settle for marrying Curt-"
"I don't intend to, you were right earlier, I told him 'no'. I won't marry a man that I don't love; but I can't stay here either."
"Why not? We're your family, and this is your home. Yes, you need to start chasing your own dreams again, but it doesn't mean that you have to move out until that is really what you want to do."
"I think that you're right, but like Scarlett O'Hara, I don't want to think about all this anymore until tomorrow. Is your offer of a day with my new son-in-law still available?"
"Absolutely!" They briefly embraced as a new chapter in their lives began to unfold before them.