Dotty had been convinced that once she stated her intention to get Lee to answer her questions she'd have his undivided attention so she found the far away expression on his face disconcerting. She had no way of knowing that his focus on her had begun to wane as soon as she had said, "not all surprises are pleasant". Lee had been instantly assailed by memories of all the times in his life when surprises had been the prelude to pain and loss.
"You don't look too sure of yourself right now; are you afraid that I'm immune to your charm and good looks," Dotty questioned from across the kitchen. She still had the sense that Lee was looking through her rather than at her so she walked over to the stove where he was standing and indignantly asked, "Are you listening to me?"
"Yes, of course I'm listening to you," Lee responded mechanically. "You said that 'not all surprises are pleasant' and I couldn't agree with you more," he added sadly. Lee looked away from her for a moment, shook his head imperceptibly and then turned back to Dotty. "May I assume that you sent the boys out of the room so that you could continue to ask me about the things that Joe told you about me?"
"I wouldn't be a good mother, or grandmother, if I didn't follow up on the concerns that Joe raised about you. Amanda is quite taken with you; she trusts you completely and I plan to make sure that her trust isn't going to be betrayed by you. She's been hurt badly in the past-"
"Not by me; at least not intentionally. I've never cared for anyone as deeply as I care for Amanda."
"Joe says that you only care about yourself," Dotty threw back at him despite the sincerity in his voice.
"Joe says," Lee said as the vein in his neck jumped while he tried to keep his anger in check. "He barely knows me. Don't you respect your own daughter enough to put more stock in her assessment of my character than you do in his?"
"Don't you dare question my respect for Amanda," she countered with a wave of her hand. "She's changed over the last couple of years and now I know that is the length of time that she has known you. Amanda and I were always honest with each other in the past but since she met you she has been evasive if not flat out dishonest with me."
"Amanda didn't set out to be dishonest with you," Lee countered as he swiped his hand through his hair. "She didn't tell you about me…her feelings for me…because she had reason to believe that those feelings wouldn't lead to anything. I'm not…I wasn't the kind of man that Amanda would expect to have a future with."
"So you're admitting that the things that Joe said about you are true." Dotty held onto the notion like a dog that instinctively refuses to give up a bone.
"The things that Joe told you are based on second and third hand knowledge of my PAST behavior. I'd like the chance to tell you the truth about my past. I'm not proud of a lot of it but I won't hide the truth about how I used to live."
"That is another thing that I'm worried about; if I hadn't interrupted you a few minutes ago you would have told my grandsons ALL about your colorful past."
"Your opinion of me is even lower than I expected; I wouldn't have shared the more colorful details of my past with two impressionable boys. I was trying to explain to them that it isn't just children that grow and change over time; hopefully we adults do as well. Since you were obviously eavesdropping on our conversation, you know that I was attempting to defend their father's actions. I was standing up for the man who walked out on your daughter and grandsons even though he has been doing his best to trash me," Lee said with his fists clenched at his side.
"You're mistaken if you think that I have a high opinion of my former son-in-law; I am well aware of his faults. I wish I had paid more attention to my concerns about Joe before it was too late. I think he has matured and deserves a second chance but I'll be watching him closely. I failed to protect Amanda from the pain he caused her and the boys. I won't make that mistake again; with him or with you"
"What concerns did you have about Joe?" Lee waited with furrowed eyebrows for her response.
"Before Amanda married Joe, her father and I were bothered by Joe's willingness to have Amanda put aside her own academic pursuits in order to help put him through law school. We should have cautioned her to give more thought to whether or not she wanted to marry a man who didn't think her hopes for the future were as important as his."
"Do you truly believe that you could have changed Amanda's mind if she was determined to marry Joe? She is a very stub…determined lady who often follows her heart over her mind. I love her caring nature but I also realize that it puts her at risk of being hurt. Amanda isn't the naïve coed who married Joe anymore; she's-"
"I'm a thirty-five year old woman who has loved, been deeply hurt and learned to love and trust again," Amanda interrupted as she entered the room. She walked over to Lee and gave him a quick kiss. "I appreciate that you both love me and want what is best for me, but only I can decide how I'm going to live my life. Can you both accept that?"