Harbor Lights by Sherryl Woods

running after you?” he asked incredulously.
    She shook her head at once, then sighed deeply. “Okay, maybe at first I hoped for exactly that, but I knew your father well enough not to expect it.”
    In an odd way he was relieved that she hadn’t been that delusional. “Then what did you expect?”
    “To have my children with me in New York.”
    She said it so wistfully that it stunned him, especially when he knew it was a lie. “Come on,” he scoffed. “You never wanted that. I overheard you tell Dad more than once that you hadn’t signed on to be a single mom. Am I supposed to believe that changed just because you’d divorced him? Did you suddenly get all warm and fuzzy over the idea of raising us on your own?”
    She looked stung, then shook her head. “Sometimes I’m still astonished by how much you all heard, when your father and I tried so hard to keep our arguments private. You heard just enough to be hurt, but not enough to understand.”
    “Come on, Mom, what’s to misunderstand? If you ask me, you made yourself pretty clear.”
    “Actually the point I was trying to make to your father was that we’d agreed to be partners in our marriage, that if he wasn’t going to be around to share in the responsibilities of parenting, I might as well be a single mother. At least then I’d know that everything was up to me.”
    Kevin knew she was trying to make a distinction, but he wasn’t sure he bought it. “What’s the difference?”
    “I’ll give you an example,” she said at once. “Do you remember the first thing that would happen every time your dad came home from a business trip?”
    Kevin thought back, but couldn’t think of anything specific. He shook his head.
    “Then I’ll remind you. You or Connor or one of your sisters would greet him at the door with a laundry list of things you wanted to do that I’d already refused to let you do. Mick would automatically say yes, undermining my decision without knowing any of the relevant facts. Heloved being the good guy, which left me to be the hard-nosed disciplinarian. Then he and I would end up fighting about it.”
    Though he hated admitting it, Kevin did recall exactly how they’d used Mick’s absences to their advantage. On some level, they’d known that their dad’s guilt at being away so much would keep him from saying no to anything. They’d also known that Megan wouldn’t overrule him.
    “You’re saying it would have been easier to be the final authority,” he concluded.
    “Pretty much.”
    “Couldn’t you just have told Dad to butt out until the two of you had a chance to talk? Wouldn’t that have made more sense than divorcing him?”
    She smiled at that. “We’re talking about your father. Have you ever known him to butt out? Besides, you know the divorce was about much more than that.”
    “I still think you’re revising history,” he said bitterly. “It’s easy to say now that you wanted us with you. How are we supposed to prove otherwise?”
    There was a quick flash of hurt in her eyes at his remark, but then she said, “Don’t you really mean how am I going to prove that I’m telling the truth? Okay, fair enough. Do you remember my first visit back here after I left?”
    Kevin shook his head. He’d made it a point to be away from the house as much as possible whenever he knew she was coming. He’d been so angry then. And Gram and Mick had let him get away with it, buying whatever excuse he’d offered. They’d gently tried to coax him into sticking around, but the minute he’d balked, they’d given in.
    “You spent the weekend with Jake,” she reminded him.“On a camping trip.” She let that sink in, then asked, “How about my next visit?”
    He tried to think back, but nothing specific came to mind. “How do you expect me to remember something from that long ago?”
    “You seem to remember pretty clearly that I supposedly abandoned you.”
    “Well, of course, because that’s exactly what you