Member-only story
The Family Way
The Right Way?
“You won’t need that.” Lucy bossed.
Kim knew he wouldn’t need a second sweater; they were only going for two nights but that tone just worked on him. He’d once found it endearing.
“I might.” Risking a glance over at his wife, Kim continued folding the sweater. “I can’t know now which one I’ll want to wear.”
“You’re such a girl.” Even as they left her mouth, Lucy was trying to reel the words back in. Glaring, she left the bedroom, yelling for the kids to hurry up.
Every trip up to the house Kim’s folks had left him was a full-scale production and, not for the first time, he thought about putting it on the market. Lucy would never go for that; it meant something to her to have a ‘place in the country’.
“Da-a-addy!” Julie was whining, coming up the stairs, “Do we have to go this weekend? I made plans!”
“You want to tell your mother that?” Kim nodded towards the staccato barking coming up from the utility room at the back of the house.
“No! I want you to tell her!” Julie flounced onto the bed, kicking out her bare feet. “You’re the parent, too!”
Julie was twelve and the next six years looked to be trying. Kim didn’t remember anything in the past dozen years that could have prepared him for…
