Easton was the other half of me, and we would weather this storm.

~~Easton~~

There was no real handbook on parenting. Yeah, there were lots of books written on the subject, but I was beginning to discover that being a good parent relied more on instincts, love, fairness, and consistency.

I didn’t have the solution on how to handle this sticky situation, but I decided that as long as we did it with love and the children’s best interests at heart, eventually things would work out.

We’d dropped a bombshell on them, and they would need time to adjust, but kids were resilient and sometimes they handled changes better than adults did.

We gave them about a half hour to let their emotions out. I don’t know if that was the right thing to do or not, but approaching them immediately seemed counterproductive to me, and Caro agreed.

“I’ll talk to Heath if you want to tackle Hailey?” I said.

Caro nodded, her face blotchy from crying. She blew her nose, wiped her face, and gave me a shaky smile. “We can do this.”

I stood and pulled her to her feet. I gave her a soft kiss on the lips and winked. “We can do this. Divide and conquer.”

She almost laughed. Together, we walked down the hall and knocked on the kids’ bedroom doors.

Neither of them said a word, so with one last encouraging smile in Caro’s direction, I went inside as did she.

Heath was sitting on his bed tossing a puck back and forth from one hand to the other. “Ziggy, one of my teammates, can juggle six pucks at once.”

My son didn’t look up, just kept doing what he was doing.

“One time he tried seven and got smacked in the head with multiple pucks, almost knocked him out.” I chuckled and waited for a reaction. Nothing happened. The room was silent except for the slapping sound the puck made as it hit his palm.

Smack. Smack. Smack.

“I know you’re upset and have every right to be. It’s not easy to find out things aren’t as you always thought they were.”

Smack. Smack. Smack.

“I know you loved your dad, and I never want to take that away from you. I’m just hoping that someday, you’ll find room in your heart for me too. I want to be your dad, Heath. I want to cheer you on at your hockey games. I want to help you with your homework. I want to teach you to drive a car. I want to be there for you when you need me for the rest of my life.”

Smack. Smack. Thump.

The two pucks hit the ground, and Heath didn’t bother to pick them up. He lifted his head and our gazes met. His eyes were filled with unshed tears, and my heart broke a little.

“I miss my dad.”

“I know you do, buddy. It’ll get easier, and you’ll always have the memories.” I sat on the edge of the bed, keeping a foot between us, not wanting to push it by getting too close. “I know how it feels to lose a dad. I lost mine. I’ll never forget the night they came to our door to tell my mom. It’s burned in my memory, but as time goes on, the good memories are the ones I choose to recall and hold close to my heart.”