Series: Snapshots of the Past
Story: Father of Daughters
Chapter 14
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Previously: Abbey told Jed she had plans to organize a sex-ed program at the hospital; after running into Jed's former communications director at the congressional costume party, Abbey exchanged some not-so-friendly words with her and warned her not to make trouble for Jed or interfere with his political agenda on the Hill; Jed got a call that the girls were in an accident
Summary: The Bartlet girls are at the hospital following the accident; Jed is less than pleased about Liz and Doug
- - -
The flight back to Manchester was a tense one. Jed and Abbey held hands as they soared through the dusky sky from D.C. to New Hampshire, neither of them saying a word. After the call from Abbey's parents, they had cleaned up and changed out of their costumes and into their regular clothes. Abbey packed their things while Jed called the airline and then they had hustled down to the lobby to flag a taxi for the airport in silence, their movements synchronized as if the whole thing had been choreographed and each had rehearsed the part they would play.
All they knew was that a driver had run a stop sign and plowed into their daughters as they were pulling out of a parking lot. Although Ellie had hit her head and was taken to the emergency room, no one was seriously hurt, they were told, but neither would breathe a sigh of relief until they saw all three girls with their own eyes.
As darkness fell over New England and the plane began its initial descent, Jed felt Abbey's fingers tighten around his. He leaned over and said steadily, "They're just fine," as much for her sake as his own.
- - -
If there was one thing Elizabeth wished she had done differently that day, it was to wait for Ellie to be settled in her seat before taking off. The girls had left the bakery and gotten into the car when she had asked both her sisters to buckle up - Zoey, in the back seat and Ellie, up front in the passenger's side. The volume on the radio was low, the street was dry, and it was a lazy Sunday afternoon without any traffic.
Soon after Liz pulled out of the parking space, Ellie realized that the bag with the chocolate muffins was in the back. Too impatient to wait until they got home, she unbuckled her belt and turned around completely, on her knees, reaching behind her over the top of the passenger's seat. Liz, meanwhile, hit the brakes at the exit to the shopping center. She saw a pick-up truck off in the distance, beyond the stop sign that she thought would slow him down. It all happened so fast. She pulled out onto the narrow service road. The truck hit them before they even made it to the main road and the impact knocked Ellie off her knees and sent her crashing into the dashboard.
"ELLIE!" the older girl screamed from the depths of her lungs.
The next several minutes were a blur. Liz jumped out of the car - after seeing that Zoey wasn't hurt - and went around to the other side to help Ellie. The sound of the collision was heard in the bakery and Doug rushed out when he saw it was Liz who had been hit. He ran over to her, but she was too busy with Ellie to initially notice him. All those first-aid tips Abbey had taught her over the years came in handy as Liz tended to her younger sister, asking her questions about school and the latest sixth-grade trends to look for signs of confusion.
Ellie talked casually to both her sisters, insisting she was feeling well, despite the knot in the back of her head and a few bruises on her face from where she bounced off the dash and hit the seat. The fact that she had been dizzy for a few seconds and the force with which she was knocked around still concerned Liz, though, and she decided to take her to the hospital just to be safe. She gave Doug her grandparents' phone number when he offered to help and asked him to tell them to meet her at the emergency room.
"Make sure before you say anything else, you tell them that no one's badly hurt," she warned. "If you don't, they'll freak out and worry all the way up here and when my grandfather worries, he drives too fast."
"Do you want me to go with you to the hospital?" Doug asked.
"No, just call my grandparents please. I don't know if the doctors will treat Ellie without them there."
"Okay, I'll take care of it."
"Thanks."
He gave her a reassuring nod, then turned to walk back into the bakery with the Barringtons' phone number in-hand.
- - -
"Grandma, I swear, she's fine," Liz insisted as she greeted James and Mary outside the E.R.
"Where is she?"
"Waiting room. We haven't been here too long. The triage nurse said it would be a few minutes, but she didn't seem all that concerned so I'm taking that as a good sign. I tried to call Mom and Dad, but I got no answer."
"We called them before we left," James said. "They left for the airport right away so you probably just missed them."
Liz nodded, relieved that her parents were on their way home. "How did you guys get here so fast?"
"It's a Sunday. The interstate was quiet."
The trio joined Ellie and Zoey in the waiting room and a short time later, Mary accompanied Ellie to an exam room while James stayed with Liz and Zoey. He noticed Liz rubbing her shoulder a few times, but didn't say anything until she creased her face as if she was in pain. It had been bruised by the seat belt, she told him, and now that the adrenaline had worn off, it was feeling sore. James urged her to get it looked at by a doctor. Liz agreed, adding her name to the patient list.
When the nurse called her back, the teen looked over at her grandfather. "I'd like to go alone, if that's okay."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I doubt it'll take very long."
"I'm coming with you!" Zoey announced anyway, running towards Liz.
"You stay here with Gramps, Zo."
James held out his hand to his youngest granddaughter. "Come on, Zoey."
"No, Lizzie, I want you!" Zoey cried. She had been clinging to Liz the whole afternoon, distressed after the accident and scared for Ellie. Liz was the one who took charge, the one who knew what to do and how to do it. The last thing Zoey wanted was to be separated from her after the day they'd had.
"Zoey, they're gonna send me for an X-ray and you're not going to be allowed in the X-ray room." Seeing the fear shining beneath a layer of fresh tears in Zoey's eyes, Liz kneeled down in front of her. "I'll be back before you know it. In the meantime, can you do me a huge favor? You've been so brave all day. Can you look after Grandpa, make sure he doesn't worry?"
Elizabeth could read her baby sister like a book. If there was one thing that Zoey always wanted, it was to feel like she was taking care of someone the way everyone else always took care of her. Being the youngest was tough, especially in a family like the Bartlets. They all looked out for each other - from Jed and Abbey to Liz to Ellie to Zoey, they were protective of one another. But while Liz frequently watched over Ellie and Ellie frequently watched over Zoey, it was Zoey who had no one to care for - usually.
"I will." As predicted, Zoey agreed. It made her feel important and in control on a day when she had been feeling so helpless.
"Thanks." Liz gave her a big hug. "I love you, Zo."
"I love you too."
- - -
Jed and Abbey landed at the airport, collected their bags, and hurried to the emergency room, where Zoey was polishing off a donut Liz had bought her from the cafeteria when she returned from her X-ray. Doctor's orders called for an ice pack and some rest to heal her shoulder and she had been given a couple of aspirin to help with the pain and inflammation. Ellie was being prepped for a CT scan to confirm her doctor's suspicions that all she had was a bump on the head and Mary was told they would call for her as soon as the 11-year-old was finished. She and James were sitting with Liz and Zoey in the waiting room when Jed and Abbey burst through the double doors.
"Mommy!" Zoey jumped from her seat and ran into Abbey's arms.
"Oh, Zoey!" Abbey breathed her name, holding her tight. "Liz, get over here."
"I'm sorry," Liz said, standing. She had remorse written all over her face, feeling that she had let her parents down after they trusted her to stay home with her sisters. "I didn't see him coming."
Jed opened his arms to his eldest daughter, blame the furthest thing from his mind. "Forget that. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, we all are. They're running tests on Ellie, but they said it's just a goose egg, nothing serious."
"It wasn't Lizzie's fault," Mary volunteered so there would be no doubt.
"The police cited the other driver for running a stop sign," James added for the same reason. "The girls did nothing wrong."
No surprise to Jed. "That's what we thought. Liz is especially careful when she has Zoey and Ellie in the car."
Abbey set Zoey down and turned her doctor eyes to Elizabeth. "Lizzie, what hurts?"
"Nothing, Mom."
"You're lying."
It was uncanny how Abbey always knew. "It's just my shoulder. It's a bruised muscle or something. The doctor said to put ice on it."
"Fifteen on, fifteen off, starting now. I'll ask a nurse to get an ice pack." Abbey looked to her own parents. "Where's Ellie?"
"They're getting her ready for a CT scan," Mary informed her.
"I want to be with her."
"I asked. They wouldn't let me."
"I'm on staff. I have some pull around here. Jed?"
"Go ahead," he said. "Tell Ellie I'll be back to see her just as soon as they give the okay."
As Abbey raced towards the nurse's station, Doug drifted through the door, looking for Liz.
"Doug?" Liz called out to him.
"There you are!" He picked up his pace when he saw her. "Where's your sister? Is she all right?"
"The doctors are still with her, but I think she'll be fine." Liz gestured to her father and grandparents. "This is my family. Guys, this is Doug Westin. He's a friend of mine. He was there right after the accident and he's the one who called you, Grandma."
Jed shook the young man's hand, his lips tightly sealed even though he had a million questions for Elizabeth. He had told her he wasn't comfortable with her friendship with Doug, so what was she doing with him during the accident? It wasn't time yet to ask those kinds of things, so he bit his tongue. Until later.
- - -
"All I'm saying is that you're not supposed to mess with medical supplies." Abbey unlocked the door to the farmhouse and ushered Ellie in, Jed, Zoey, and Lizzie right behind.
"Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." Jed refused to defend himself anymore. Abbey had been harping on him ever since he grabbed a roll of gauze at the hospital and wrapped it around Ellie's head while entertaining her with little known facts about Egyptian mummies.
"Do you know how many times I've reached for gauze in the recovery room only to find there wasn't any because of pranksters like you?"
"No, how many?"
"You're not half as amusing as you think you are."
"I'm twice as amusing as I think I am." He smiled. "I wanted Ellie to know the bruises didn't have to ruin Halloween."
"She's not dressing up as a mummy."
"Who cares. It made her laugh, didn't it?"
He had a point. After he finished with Ellie and wrapped another roll of gauze around his own head, Ellie must have giggled for a good 15 minutes. Abbey lectured him afterwards because, as a doctor, it was the right thing to do, but she was secretly chuckling too, grateful for his sense of humor on an otherwise gloomy night.
"You're a bit of a comedian."
"Took you this long to figure it out?"
Shaking her head at her husband, Abbey addressed the girls. "All right, everyone upstairs. Get ready for bed. Liz, I'll bring your ice pack up for you. You can all sleep in our room tonight if you want."
"Like a big slumber party!" Ellie was thrilled by the thought and if Ellie was excited, so was Zoey.
"Elizabeth?" Jed waited until Zoey and Ellie were halfway to their rooms before calling for Liz.
She walked back down cautiously. She wasn't naive - at least not about this. She had seen her father's face at the hospital and knew he had more to say about Doug. "I'm tired, Dad."
"We all are, but this is important. What were you doing at the bakery today? I told you I didn't want you seeing Doug anymore."
"No, you didn't."
"Liz."
"Dad, you never said that. You said you were uncomfortable with our friendship and that I couldn't date him, but you never said I had to end it or that I couldn't go to the bakery."
"You didn't know that's what I meant?"
"Why would I? You've never told me who I was allowed to be friends with before. And I don't think you have a right to do it this time. There's nothing serious between us. We just talk - at a public place, in front of other people."
"He's 20 years old."
"And I'm 17! In some countries, I'd be old enough to get married without your consent."
"Not here, you're not."
"Time out, guys." Confused, Abbey interrupted. "I was with Ellie when Doug arrived. What did I miss?"
"Lizzie was driving out of the parking lot at the bakery when she was struck."
"We stopped in to buy chocolate muffins, that's all!" Liz was quick to point out. "Doug had nothing to do with the accident. He was just trying to help by showing up at the hospital. He was worried. You wanna blame someone for the crash, blame me."
"The only person I blame is the one who ran the stop sign," Jed assured her. "This isn't about the accident. It's about you getting in over your head."
"Like I told Mom, there's nothing other than friendship going on between me and Doug. Why is that so wrong?"
"Because it is."
"That's not an answer."
"Everything about it is wrong, Elizabeth. When you're older, you'll realize that as grown-up as you think you are now, you're really not. You're still somewhere between being a child and being an adult. You and Doug are in two entirely different worlds."
"Three years means nothing at our age."
"Three years means nothing at 27 and 30 maybe, but at 17 and 20, it's a lifetime. Look at how you've matured emotionally since you were 14. That was only three years ago."
"That's different."
"Doug's got three years on you. He's already finished two full years of college. That's two years of being on his own, two years of fraternity parties and girlfriends who spend the night, two years of God knows what else. Meanwhile, you still have stuffed animals on your bed."
"Why do you have to do that? Why can't you take my feelings seriously instead of acting like I'm a little girl who can't relate to people older than she is?"
"That's not what I meant."
"Mom's cool with this, why can't you be?"
"When did I say I was cool with it?" Abbey asked.
"We talked about it."
"Your translation's a little off. I told you I was concerned about you and I still am. The only reason I backed off that night is because you told me that once you figured out how you felt about Doug, you'd talk to me about it."
"Well, guess what - there's no need for a talk now because I already know what you're going to say. You're gonna agree with Dad. Terrific." Liz slammed her palm down on the banister, starting the trek upstairs.
"Before you stomp your way to your room, try to understand where we're coming from," Jed reasoned. "If the idea of Doug sounds the least bit romantic to you, we have a reason to be worried, especially now that your mother and I are telling you this. It probably sounds even more romantic now - the forbidden love, Romeo and Juliet recreated in our own house. This isn't make-believe, Lizzie. This is real life and Doug is not your Romeo."
"Fine, I get it. But why can't you try to understand where I'M coming from? I'm not even asking to date Doug and you're freaking out. How do you think that makes me feel?"
"This isn't what I would call 'freaking out.' I just want to be clear so there aren't any misunderstandings."
"Then it's not working because I don't understand. Somehow, you managed to turn something platonic into something romantic."
"You're saying you never thought about Doug in that way?"
"So what if I did? It's not a crime to daydream, is it? And this isn't just about Doug, Dad, it's about me too. In less than a year, I'm going away to college. When do I get to make my own decisions about relationships?"
"When you prove you have good judgment."
"Is that supposed to be a dig about Scott?" Ordinarily, Liz knew her father would never throw something like that in her face, but it had been a long, stressful day and she was overly sensitive.
"Of course not."
"I got hurt last year with Scott, but I didn't break. So why can't you let my friendship with Doug play itself out and let whatever happens happen?"
"Spoken by someone who's never raised children," Abbey returned. "If we were just trying to save you from a broken heart, honey, you'd have a point. That's not all this is."
"Then tell me what else you're worried about so I can put your mind at ease."
It was Jed's turn now. "There's an entire world out there, Elizabeth, that you have never seen. You'll learn all about it in the coming years. This year, you're supposed to be having the time of your life. Your SATs are done, college essays are written, the applications are in the mail, all your hard work is paying off. Senior year is supposed to be a time to enjoy yourself - with your peers, people your own age who are going through the very things you're going through. We just don't want you to sacrifice one minute of your youth. Once you're in the real world, things get much, much harder."
"You're afraid Doug will drag me kicking and screaming into some other world, as if I don't have a mind of my own?" she complained rhetorically with an attitude that made Jed cringe.
"If you want to talk about this, adjust your tone."
Stepping between them, Abbey feared things were going downhill. "Look, it's obvious we're not getting through to each other tonight and the last thing any of us want is a fight. What do you say we sleep on it and resume this conversation tomorrow?"
"And in the meantime?" Liz asked. "Can I call him?"
"No," Jed said firmly.
"How did I know that was coming? You won't even give an inch."
"Whenever I give an inch, you want a mile. No, you can't call him."
As Liz took the stairs in a huff, Abbey waited until she was out of earshot, then stared at her husband.
"That wasn't necessary."
"I felt it was."
"We've never disapproved of her friends before," she told him, heading towards the kitchen with Liz's ice pack.
"She's never been friends with a grown man before." Jed followed. "And it's not just friends. Friends I can learn to cope with. You should have seen the way she said goodbye to him at the hospital, the look in her eyes. I think she's falling for him."
"That's what I thought when I saw at them at the Homecoming game."
"Why can't she like guys her own age?"
"She did - last year. You didn't like him either." Abbey reached into the freezer for more ice.
"I did like Scott. I liked him a lot until the day he came over to get lucky when you and I weren't home. Other than him, I've been nice to every boy she's ever dated. This time, she's asking too much." He noted Abbey's lack of response. "You think I'm wrong?"
"No, I don't. Everything you said was right on, which is why I wish you had held it in until tomorrow when there's a chance that she might have been receptive."
"What makes you think she would have taken it any better tomorrow?"
"She was in an accident today, Jed. Her nerves were on-edge. The last thing she needed was to be lectured."
He took a beat, then said, "Yeah, you're right. I jumped the gun. It would have been better to wait." Another beat. "I made a mistake."
"Doug didn't impress you, did he?"
"I don't know him. I'm grateful that he was concerned enough to come to the hospital and maybe he really is a fine young man. If she was a few years older, I'd butt out and let her make up her own mind. But she's still 17 and that alone makes me question Doug's motives. He's on a campus full of women - women of legal age, I might add. What the hell does he want with a high school senior who's still a minor?"
"Maybe he has an innocent crush."
"I know Liz is a spectacular girl and all that jazz and guys her age couldn't do better, but I also know how a healthy college man's mind works. You and I met when I was Doug's age, remember?"
"I do." Her eyes twinkled at the fond memory of meeting her future husband for the very first time. "Did you have dirty thoughts about me that night?"
"How do you think I knew I couldn't be a priest?" His stroll down memory lane was short-lived. "And those are probably the kinds of thoughts Doug Westin's having about our underage daughter, which is why she can't go out with him. We're on the same page on this one, right?"
"For now."
"What does that mean?"
"Instead of us forbidding her, I'd rather Elizabeth come to the conclusion on her own that Doug's too old for her."
"She will eventually."
"I'd prefer we help her realize it. She's going to be faced with all kinds of decisions when she's at college. I want to know that she's capable of making the right ones."
"She IS capable, but that doesn't mean she's immune to the wrong ones. She's still a kid."
"No, Jed, she's not. Especially not after this past year. She's responsible and mature. And she steps up when we're not around. Look at today with Ellie and Zoey. They raved about her. They said she took charge and calmed everyone down, got Ellie to the hospital, called my parents to meet them there. She's not a child anymore."
"To me she is."
"She'll always be our baby, but she's not a child." Abbey set the ice pack on the counter and took her husband's hands. "It was hard for my dad too."
"What was?"
"Reminding himself that I was no longer five. People grow up, even daddy's little girls."
"Lizzie was much sweeter at five. When do they become sweet again?"
"Twenty-one, I think."
"Some days, I can hardly wait." His arm now wrapped around her, he led her out of the kitchen. "I'll go talk to her."
Abbey handed him the ice pack. "I'll get the bed ready."
"Slumber party in our room?" he questioned as they walked upstairs together.
"With a pillow fight."
"Maybe I should sleep in the spare room."
"And deprive me the chance to pummel you with my pillow?"
"You're all gonna gang up on me."
"Only because we love you."
He rolled his eyes as they reached the top landing. "You know, if we'd had boys instead of girls, I would have protected you from them."
"Oh poor Jed, about to beaten up by girls."
"Like hell, I'm fighting back this time. There's gonna be a knock-down drag-out and I'm gonna be standing at the end. You better warn them."
Abbey laughed. Jed was so gentle with the girls, he was sure to be the one knocked down. "You go get 'em, champ."
She was mocking him, but he didn't care. He simply made a mental note - his first target would be Abbey.
They parted ways then - Abbey heading in the direction of the master bedroom while Jed approached Lizzie's room. He knocked on the door twice, then let himself in when he heard a muffled response he thought sounded like "come in."
"Your mom stuck up for you after you stormed off to your room." It was important to Jed to tell her that. In the past, Liz sometimes felt that Abbey was the rigid one, unwilling to give her any freedom.
"I thought she agreed with you," the teenager replied, lying on her bed with her back to her father.
"She does, but she thinks I was a jerk to bring it up tonight. Do you think I'm a jerk?"
Liz turned her head to see him. "If I say yes, will I be grounded?"
"Yup."
A mutual smile.
"Can't you just get to know Doug?"
Jed sat down on the edge of her bed, brushing her long brown hair aside so he could apply the ice pack to her shoulder. "Why is he so important to you? Is it the principle? Is it that you want to spread your wings and he gives you a sense of independence? Is it that you're trying to rebel against your mother and me? What is it that draws you to him?"
"It's not about you and Mom. There's just something I like about him. It's how he makes me feel. I can be myself around him and he thinks that's super."
"I'd be willing to bet you a month's allowance that there are ten guys at your school who think of you just as highly as Doug does."
"It's not the same, Dad. Guys my age are still boys. Part of Doug's appeal is that he's beyond high school melodrama. He's different, you know? And when I talk to him, I feel different too. He's like one of my girlfriends, except that he's older and he has...I don't know, insight? About things and people. I like that about him. I like hanging out with him. I even like bickering with him. Did you know I started off not liking him at all? We had this crazy he-said-she-said dialogue where it was like we were in competition to try to get in the best one-liners."
"How did you go from that to this?"
"If I said I didn't know, would you believe me? Something just...happened. Over the summer, he and his buddies came to Friendly's and when he found out I worked there, he came back - a lot. During my breaks once or twice, we shared an ice cream cone at the walk-up window and I guess since neither of us was trying to impress the other, we were free to just talk. I got to know him. It's as simple as that."
His features scrunched slightly, Jed asked, "The same ice cream cone?"
"Different ice cream cones. He had his, I had mine."
"Ah." More acceptable. "He's more than a friend, isn't he?"
Liz thought about that question for several seconds, before she nodded, admitting it for the first time. "In my heart, he is."
"That's what I was afraid of." Jed stood up.
"Is it really that terrible?"
"Yes!"
"Why?"
"Because you're 17."
"So what?"
"It's wrong, Elizabeth. You're still a minor and he's...not."
Immediately regretting opening up to him, she barked, "Then why did you bother coming in here?"
"I wanted to say I was sorry for not holding off on Doug until tomorrow. But if I made you think I came in here because I changed my mind..."
"You used to tell us that if we came to you, you'd keep an open mind. You used to say the most important thing to you was for Ellie, Zoey, and I to feel like we could turn to you. When did that change?"
"It didn't."
"Yes, it did. I just told you how I felt about Doug and you're not even willing to hear me out. I didn't even admit it to Mom. I didn't tell anyone, not even my friends."
Jed always had a special bond with Liz and in that moment, the bond strengthened just a little more. "Why did you tell me?"
"Because you asked at the right time," she answered simply. After all the months of being confused and denying it, she was confident admitting it now. "I wasn't sure until today, when he came to the hospital because he was worried about Ellie. Yeah, I do like him as more than a friend. And I don't want to lie to you, Dad. That's why I'm giving it to you straight. If I visit Doug at the bakery now and then, does it really hurt anyone? It's not like we're alone at his apartment or even in his car. Why is it such a sin to hang out with someone I care about, someone who cares about me?"
"Sweetheart, I don't know anything about Doug, but I do know a thing or two about college men."
"Can't you put everything you know aside and get to know Doug...without any bias? You might find that he's unlike the college men you're thinking of."
"That's doubtful."
"Will you just meet him? Not like you did tonight, but a real meeting. I can invite him over for dinner so you can talk to him, flesh him out if you want to. Right now, you're judging him before you've even had a conversation."
"Nothing he says is going to make me think he's a suitable boyfriend for you."
"No kidding." She gave him a faint smile with that bit of sarcasm. "That's not why I want you to meet him."
"Then what's the point?"
"I want you to see that I haven't lost my mind, that I do have good judgment. I want you to have faith in me and in how I read people. One dinner, that's all I'm asking."
It was clearly important to her, partly because of his earlier words about her judgment, but Jed still had doubts. "And then what?"
"Nothing, on the dating front. I won't push any further right now. I just want you to be cool with me talking to him at the bakery."
"Until your 18th birthday, when you'll go riding off in the sunset with him?"
"When I'm 18, I'd like to revisit the subject, yes. If you get to know him now, that gives you almost five months to mull it over."
"Oh my God."
"What?"
"Five months? What kind of scary ass world do we live in that YOU'RE going to be an adult in five months?"
Liz threw her pillow at him. "Can I invite him over for dinner?"
It sounded fair. After all, once she was 18 and off at college, Jed knew he would have no say in her relationships. Meeting Doug now would undoubtedly lead to less stress and worry later. "All right, look, ONE dinner. He comes over, we meet him, we talk to him, and that's that. Don't you dare lead him to think you're going out with him afterwards."
"I promise. Dinner with the family and that's it."
"Regardless of what happens, the age difference is still going to be a sticking point for me, even when you're 18."
"We'll deal with it then." Liz was too happy to argue about it now. "I'll call him and set something up."
"Hold off on that until I break the news to your mother."
"Mom won't say no. And if she does, you and I can talk her into it."
"Let me deal with it. If I'm not in the doghouse when I'm finished, we'll sit down and set a date." Jed opened the door.
"Dad?" Liz rose to her feet and moved in to hug him. "Thank you."
"I'm agreeing to this because I trust you, Lizzie. You're not going to assume I'm giving you the green light to go out with him?"
"No."
He looked her in the eye as he pulled away. "I was wrong to bring all this up tonight. It could have and should have waited."
"It's okay. I knew it was on your mind at the hospital. I'm glad we talked about it."
"So am I."
It meant a lot to Jed that Liz had told him the truth about her crush on Doug. That was something he assumed she'd confess to Abbey long before she told him, but he had caught her in a moment of sincerity, when she felt safe enough to be completely candid and put everything out on the table. Those moments were rare, as far as Jed was concerned. Like all teenagers, Liz sometimes hid things from her parents, but unbeknownst to them, she was rapidly approaching the stage in life when she was starting to realize they weren't just her guardians, but also her biggest supporters.
- - -
"Ellie started it!"
"You've worn that line out, Zo."
"But it's true!"
Back in the master bedroom, Zoey and Ellie had crawled into Jed and Abbey's bed and following a disagreement about sleeping arrangements, Ellie had hit Zoey with her pillow. Zoey had hit back, which jump-started an all-out pillow fight and before Abbey could intervene, feathers rained down on all of them, leaving a mess she was trying to clean up when Jed strolled through the door.
"What the hell?"
"Don't ask." Abbey turned a stern eye to her two daughters.
"When you said a pillow fight, I thought you meant a civilized one."
"I did."
"Yeah, well, the girls missed your memo. Looks like someone slaughtered a bird in here." Jed looked over at Zoey, who was still holding the feathers from his pillow. "Did you have to use mine?"
"Sorry," the five-year-old squeaked out.
"Did you smooth things over with Liz?" Abbey asked.
"Yeah."
"Is she going to join us?"
"Maybe."
"What happened?"
Jed intentionally headed to the hall to pick up another pillow from the linen closet, a fair distance away from his wife. "She asked if she could invite Doug over for dinner and I foolishly said she could."
Abbey hollered out the door. "What?"
"Doug's coming for dinner," he hollered back.
"What the hell happened in there?" Abbey approached him in the doorway. "Jed?"
"See, this is the problem with me handling the girls. They manipulate me and before I know it, I'm agreeing to things I don't want to do."
"Bull." She wasn't buying it. Jed could be a big teddy bear when it came to his daughters, but he could also be strict when he had to be.
"Would you be terribly offended if I said this was your fault for making me talk to her in the first place?"
"Jed!"
"It was important to her, okay? For whatever reason, she likes talking to this guy and she wants us to meet him. I made a deal with her - one night, one dinner, that's it."
"It's going to stop there?"
"At least until she's 18. You're the one who said you thought we should help her realize Doug's too old for her. We've got five months and one meal to do it. Let's get him out of her system so we can all move on with our lives."
"This isn't her way of sneaking out for a movie with him afterwards?"
"Absolutely not. It's out of the question, we're already clear on that."
"One meal? What happens if we like him?"
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
"He's 20 years old and he has a thing for my teenage daughter. What are the odds that I'm going to like him? Besides, the little I saw of them today..." He shook his head. "I have a gut instinct about people and let's just say that Doug and Liz - they don't mesh."
"Has this gut instinct been tested before?"
"He's not the one, Abbey, I can tell. There's someone else out there for Lizzie. She just hasn't met him yet."
TBC