“Are we going to have to go through a repeat of yesterday?” Nick glared at the woman who was supposed to be resting. Instead, she’d pulled on black maternity slacks and a loose gray and white patterned top.
“Not if you let me go visit my mother.”
“You’re doing too much, Tess. You were out all yesterday afternoon at Maddie and Jack’s party and I’m concerned that you’ll have a repeat performance of the home improvement store episode.”
“And I appreciate that concern, Nick. Really I do. But I need to visit my mother because it’s been a few weeks since I saw her. I’m afraid if I don’t go now, while I’m still fairly ambulatory and not tied down with a newborn, I might not be able to visit for a while.” She held onto the closet door frame as she slid her feet into a pair of clogs
“Why don’t I just bring her here to visit? That way she’ll get a nice day away from the retirement home and you’ll be able to stay in bed. I’ll even go to that little restaurant you enjoy and bring back a couple of those salad plates you like so much.” He nodded as he spoke, hoping the motion would translate into agreement on her part.
Nick watched as Tess’s demeanor morphed, and he wondered if he would get a round of tears or just a stubborn argument from her.
Tess stood her ground. “You can drive me or I can call a taxi to take me there. Either way I am going.”
“Are you listening to me?” he countered. “I said I’d pick her up at the retirement place and bring her here.”
“She’s not in a retirement home anymore. Waterford Village is an Alzheimer’s memory care facility. I had to move her there a couple months after I got pregnant. She has settled in there well and is responding somewhat to medication, but she gets very confused and agitated if you take her out of her familiar surroundings. I have to go see her, not the other way around.”
“But you know what the doctor said,” Nick repeated.
Tess picked up her purse and pulled out her cell phone. “Then I’ll call a taxi.”
Nick also remembered his last cab ride and pulled the phone from her grasp. He’d feel like a real jerk if he didn’t take her to visit her mother, especially now that he was aware of the situation.
His voice softened. “I didn’t know, sweetheart. I’m sorry. I’ll take you on one condition.”
Tess eyed him warily. “What’s that?”
“That you make it a short visit. She’ll understand that you need to rest, won’t she?”
Tess shrugged. “I never know from visit to visit how she’s going to be. The last time she didn’t even recognize me, but when I talked to the nurse a little while ago, she said Mama was having a good day today.”
Nick didn’t know much at all about Tess’s family except a few vague references to her mother, the fact she was an only child and nothing about her father.
“We can take the wheelchair—”
“No,” Tess protested adamantly. “If Mama sees me in a wheelchair, she’s likely to panic. And when she panics, they have to sedate her and it takes days for her to recover. I don’t even know if she’ll remember I told her I’m pregnant.”
Tess moved to the recliner in the corner and sat. “And if you could sort of stay out of the way while I visit, then I won’t have to explain who you are. It’s not that I’m trying to hide you. Mama just doesn’t handle change or new people and new situations very well right now.”
How could he argue with her over this? He would just have to make certain she didn’t do too much and somehow stay out of sight while he did it.
As they made the forty-five-minute drive to the care facility, Nick carefully questioned Tess for more information. If her mother was alone, that meant Tess was solely responsible for her, and with a baby on the way, she might need some help in the parent-tending department too.
“What’s your mother’s name?” he asked cautiously.
“Pauline.”
“It’s a pretty name.”
“I was going to name the baby after her if it was a girl—Elizabeth Pauline. Actually, I’m still naming the baby after her.”
Nick entertained a brief worry about “A Boy Named Sue,” but then dropped it. Tess would never saddle a child with a name that would cause problems. Would she? He knew every inch of the woman’s exquisite body, but he had never taken the time to learn about the real Tess Callahan. And that left him with a dreadful sense of guilt.
“How so?” he asked, curious yet cautious.
“I’m using her maiden name, Reece, as his middle name. His first name will be Michael after her father.”
“I…uh…that’s a great name. It goes well with Callahan,” he said, hoping to confirm what last name Tess planned to use for the baby. He’d never object to her using Russo, but didn’t want to pressure her. When she didn’t carry the name conversation further, he filed it away for discussion at a future date—hopefully one before the baby’s arrival.
Fortunately the Sunday afternoon traffic was light and they made good time to the place where Pauline Callahan lived. Waterford Village consisted of a series of one-story inter-connected brick buildings shaded by towering pines.
They were buzzed into the main building and greeted at the nurse’s station by a young woman in a pale blue uniform with a Waterford Village logo monogrammed over the pocket.
“Your mother was still doing pretty well the last time I checked on her, but you know how she can sometimes go downhill after lunch. I’m glad you were able to make it today.” The woman eyed Nick but said nothing to him.
“Walter is with her now,” she continued. “You know he comes almost every day to visit her. And even when she doesn’t recognize him, he never gets upset.”
“He is such a sweetheart, isn’t he?” Tess said.
Nick glanced around the area, noting the soothing photographs on the walls. Whoever had taken them had an eye for subjects that would relax the viewer. He had never given much thought to this aspect of photography, but now it literally stared him in the face. He took a few steps to one side to study a photograph of a field of wildflowers.
“Oh, forgive me,” Tess said, apparently in response to his movement. “Tracey, this is my friend, Nick. He brought me since I’m not supposed to drive now. He’s going to wait in the hall while I visit Mama since you know how she can be sometimes about strangers.”
Nick smiled easily and raised his hand in a wave. Friend who waits in the hall. He wondered if that’s all he would ever be. Did he even want to be more than the friend in the hall?
The nurse acknowledged Nick, and then reminded Tess that the resident hairdresser had scheduled Pauline for a haircut the following day and the weekly weight checks would be the day after that.
“I presume since no one has said anything that her weight is holding steady?” Tess asked.
The nurse sat at the desk and tapped at a computer keyboard. She studied the monitor for a few moments, clicking the mouse periodically. “Her weight is steady, but she’s still a little too thin. The doctor would like to see her put on some weight and we’ve been giving her protein disguised every way we possibly can. Walter has even been bringing smoothies for them both to see if that will help.”
“Thanks, Tracey. I’ll talk to her, but you know how it is.” A look of resigned loss filled Tess’s face as she turned and walked away from the nurse’s station.
Nick followed as Tess wove down a series of corridors, taking note of the generic décor and the faint smell of antiseptic. He couldn’t imagine his mother in a place like this. She would never stand for the muted colors and would have scented candles burning everywhere. But if she was in an Alzheimer’s facility, would she even care about colors and aromas? No wonder Tess’s stress levels were off the chart. His would be too if either of his parents developed this dreaded illness. And they could. He had no crystal ball with which to see into the future.
They stopped before reaching the room at the end of the hallway. The door was ajar, and he heard a man’s voice reading a poem about roads diverging in a wood.
“I won’t be long,” Tess said, pointing to a long, padded bench against the wall. “If you want something to drink, just go back to the front nurse’s station and ask Tracey.”
“I’ll be fine here.” Nick settled onto the narrow bench and watched Tess take a deep breath before entering her mother’s room.
Moments later, an elderly man with a head of thick gray hair and a neatly trimmed gray mustache emerged. He stood a few inches shorter than Nick and ramrod straight. Dressed in gray tweed trousers, a crisp white shirt and a red cardigan sweater, he had a distinguished air about him, and the gleaming ebony cane he used added a debonair quality to his look. Nick stood as the man walked toward him and extended his hand.
“I’m Walter Hurst, a friend of Polly’s. That’s what Pauline’s friends call her. We met when she still lived in her house in Marietta.”
Nick accepted the man’s handshake. “Nick Russo. Won’t you have a seat?” He gestured to the bench.
“I think I will,” Walter said and eased onto the bench with the help of his cane. “I had my knee operated on a few months ago and I’m still not one hundred percent with it. But that barbarian slave driver who disguises herself as a physical therapist says I’ll be as good as new by next summer and can play golf again. Do you play golf, son?”
Nick shook his head and leaned against the wall opposite where the man sat.
“I didn’t start until after I retired. My wife had died a couple of years earlier and I was bored to death puttering around that house. A neighbor invited me to go to the driving range with him one day.” Walter shifted on the bench and massaged his knee. “I had PT this morning and it’s a mite sore now. Anyway, I got such a kick out of whacking those golf balls that I decided to take me some lessons at the municipal course. I’ve been playing ever since. And until last year, I walked the whole eighteen holes too,” he said, beaming with pride.
“My dad plays a little golf but I never got interested in it,” Nick said, adding his part to the idle conversation.
“Your folks live around here?”
“Yes sir. In Stone Mountain, in the same house I grew up in. When I’m in town, I live behind the house in an apartment over the garage,” he offered before wondering why he felt the need to explain his living arrangements to a total stranger. He also pondered for a moment whether the older man suspected or even knew he was the father of Tess’s baby. He shook off the thought because Tess had been pretty closed-mouthed about the baby with everyone except her innermost circle of friends.
“You work around here too?”
“Yes sir. Well, sort of,” Nick explained. “I work for Earth Events magazine as a photographer and their main offices are downtown. But the nature of the job takes me all around the world.”
“Is that so?” Walter nodded thoughtfully. “Ever been to Rome?” Before Nick could answer that he’d been up close and personal with the Colosseum, Spanish Steps and parts of the Vatican, Walter continued. “I always wanted to go see those old ruins, especially after I saw that movie with the chariot races. Closest I ever got was a fishing trip on the Coosa River over near Rome, Georgia.” Walter chuckled aloud and Nick laughed along. “When I get this old knee back to working right, I think I’m going to take me one of those fun cruises to the Caribbean where it’s nice and warm. I just wish Polly could do something like that instead of having to stay cooped up all the time.” The older man pointed his cane in the direction of the room. “I just hate to see her this way, especially the days when she doesn’t remember where she’s at or who anyone is.”
“It must be discouraging,” Nick said sympathetically.
“It sure is, especially when there’s not a darned thing you can do to make it any better. I know it tears Tess up to walk in and have her own mother not recognize her. I’m not even sure Polly realizes she’s about to become a grandmother.”
Nick remained silent, soaking in these new details about Tess’s family and friends.
“You know, I asked Polly to marry me a few years ago, and she kept on saying no. She said that she just wasn’t ready to try being married again after being hurt so badly before. I gave her time, thinking that one day she’d get over the hurt and say yes and we could share our retirement years together.” A wistful expression crossed the older man’s face. “But I guess it’s too late now.”
“Do you visit her often?” Nick asked, genuinely interested now.
“Pretty much every day, just like Tess did until she had that spell and the doctor put her in bed. She called me so I wouldn’t be worried when she didn’t show up to visit,” Walter explained. “I know how important it is for her to see her mother, but I just hope she isn’t overdoing it by coming to visit now, especially since Polly isn’t lucid a lot of the time.”
Nick was touched at the attentiveness of a man who had been turned down repeatedly by a woman he was clearly fond of. Yet he was still quite staunchly devoted to her. This unconditional loyalty made Nick wonder if he should ask Tess to marry him before it was too late.
While he had given lots of thought to his financial responsibility, this was the first time the idea of marriage had come up. His parents’ marriage had shown him the level of commitment necessary. With his work situation, would he even be there half the time if she even agreed and they were married? Could he be the committed husband and father Tess and the baby deserved?
Before he could comment again, Tess walked through the doorway, her shoulders slumped and her expression somber. Nick rose and took her by the elbow and led her to sit beside Walter on the bench.
“It’s only been two weeks, Walter, and she’s already forgotten about the baby. She said I ought to start watching my diet because I was getting way too fat. And then she wanted to know if I was growing roses. Does that make any sense to you?”
Walter smiled and pulled a thin volume from his sweater pocket. “I’ve been reading poetry to her and one was called Asking for Roses by Robert Frost. Perhaps I should stop if it’s going to—”
Tess stopped him before he could complete the thought. “Please, don’t stop. If whatever you do can keep her happy and talking about the good things in life, then keep on doing it. You’ll never know how much I appreciate you, Walter. And I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to visit before the baby comes. I hope I can come back next weekend. You know I would be here every single day if the doctor hadn’t threatened to tie me to a hospital bed.”
“Tess, honey, you just take care of yourself and that baby.” Walter took her hand and held it between his age-spotted, arthritic ones. Then he looked up at Nick and his expression grew serious. “And you make sure she does, young man.”
He knows, Nick thought. And he wants me to be damned sure I know he does.
Tess and Nick said their farewells to Walter and wove their way back through the complex. Tracey still manned the desk that controlled the security-locked front door, and she waved as she let them out. Before Tess could reach Nick’s Range Rover, she was in tears.
Nick pulled her into a gentle embrace. Every muscle in her body seemed strained to the limit and she sobbed uncontrollably.
He knew nothing he could say would make a difference so he made shushing noises and gently rubbed her back, her shoulders, and down her arms, until the tightness began to release and the tears stopped. Once she appeared to be somewhat calmed, he helped her into the car.
Nick gave her time to collect herself before breaking the silence. “Walter seems like a pretty nice fellow.”
“He is.” She pulled a tissue from her pocket and dabbed at her eyes. “He’s one of the really good guys, unlike my father who left my mother when I was a child.”
“Have you seen your father since then?” Nick asked. He hoped the foray into Tess’s childhood wasn’t a wrong move.
“He popped up unexpectedly when I graduated from law school. I think he wanted to show off his new wife. I wasn’t impressed, and then he had the audacity to get pissed off when I didn’t invite him and his child bride to dinner after the ceremony.” The condemnation and disgust were evident in her voice. “I haven’t heard from him since. I did hear through the grapevine he’s on wife number four now, and he’s seventy-eight years old. Given how he’s picked them younger each time, this one probably just graduated from nursery school,” she said with a snort.
“It’s too bad your mother didn’t meet Walter sooner. Maybe they could have had a life together.”
Tess gave him a curious look. “Walter has lived next door to my mother since I was fifteen years old. He took a job transfer and moved to Marietta when his wife was diagnosed with cancer so they could be closer to their daughter. Fran died a year after the move and from what I understand, he’s been proposing to my mother for the past fifteen years. She was so angry and distrustful of men that she kept turning him down.”
Wow. This revelation made Tess’s avoidance of commitment even more understandable. She had watched her father leave and seen her mother’s grief. Who wouldn’t want to avoid the same fate? Nick’s parents were still happily married after forty-five years.
“His concern for your mother is touching. And he seems genuinely concerned about you too.”
“Did you tell Walter you were the baby’s father?” Tess asked.
“No, but he probably doesn’t think that I drive you all over Atlanta just for fun. And you heard that stern warning he gave me about looking after you. He might be old, but he’s sharp as a tack, so I think he’s figured out I’m the daddy.”
“Do you mean to tell me you aren’t enjoying ferrying Shamu all over town in your big gray whale-mobile?”
No way was he going to reply to the Shamu remark and risk life and limb—until he saw the mischievous grin on her face.
“I’ve never once considered you a whale, but I have heard you’re one hell of a barracuda in the courtroom.”
“Damn straight,” she countered. “Do you know why the school of barracudas didn’t eat the lawyer who fell overboard from a cruise ship?” She paused before delivering the punchline. “Professional courtesy.”
The mood had shifted, and they joked for the remainder of the ride home. Nick helped Tess to her room then went back to the kitchen to get her a glass of milk. In the few minutes it took for him to return, Tess was on her side, curled around a large pillow and sound asleep. He drank the milk himself, covered her with a light quilt and eased into the recliner, his gaze trained on her sleeping form.
The subject of marriage had weighed heavily on him since his conversation with Walter earlier. The baby growing inside Tess was more than a good reason to get married, and maybe he should propose. But his globetrotting vocation was an equally good reason not to. He knew about Tess’s father and how having been abandoned had affected her and her mother. He wouldn’t technically be abandoning Tess and the baby, but would she view it as such? He fully intended to provide financial support, so why should a certificate of marriage be necessary anyway?
And what about the fact Tess had never mentioned marriage?
*****
Three days later, when a gaggle of women invaded the house for Tess’s baby shower, Nick made good use of the opportunity to visit his sister. The laughing and shrieking sounds had sent him running to the Range Rover. He needed some female perspective, but from someone of his own generation. He and Bella had always been close, once she’d given up trying to send him back to the stork so she could reclaim her position as baby of the family.
When she had become engaged to Ed Wallace a year ago, their mother had only him to pester about marriage and family. Now she could stop hounding him. He parked in front of the Victorian bungalow Bella and Ed had purchased in anticipation of married life. Carol Russo hadn’t been thrilled with the idea of her daughter living in sin, but the three-carat diamond on Bella’s finger helped even though no wedding date had been selected yet.
Bella was the family penny pincher, which fit well with her career as a CPA. She had worked in public practice for a decade, then struck out on her own and had become successful. Her client list included millionaire business owners and wealthy Buckhead widows as well as struggling entrepreneurs much like she had once been.
Bella greeted him at the door with a look of surprise. “You look like hell,” she declared.
The muscle in Nick’s jaw twitched as he stepped inside, and it pissed him off that Bella could annoy him so much.
“I sleep with one eye and one ear open. That takes a toll on a man.” And wouldn’t that be how Tess slept after the baby arrived? Ever-vigilant and on call twenty-four hours a day?
“There’s a baby shower tonight and I—”
“Say no more. Silly party games and lots of oohs and ahhs over bibs made out of washcloths.” Bella gave an exaggerated shudder. “I avoid showers at all cost. I’ve been known to fake the flu to avoid one.”
“Ever the cynic, dear sister.”
“I’m not a cynic, just pragmatic.”
“Aren’t you worried someone will throw a baby shower for you some day?”
Bella raised one eyebrow and cocked her head to one side. “A baby shower for me? Nick, I’m forty-one years old, so I don’t think there will be any babies in my future. Ed and I aren’t getting married so we can have children. However, that doesn’t stop our mother from believing I will give her another grandchild. At least now you’ve taken the focus off me after your fling with Miss Legal Eagle.”
Nick opened his mouth to respond then realized the futility of it.
“I was getting ready to eat. Want to join me?”
“Just you?” he asked. “Where’s Ed?”
“Another business trip to Miami.”
“Again? That company sure keeps him hopping.”
“Says the man who hasn’t been home in seven months.”
“Touché,” Nick said. “You should go with him sometime and relax. Lounge on the beach and shop on Collins Avenue.”
“Not my style, though Ed seems to love Miami.”
Nick could understand a man’s enthusiasm for his job.
“I, however, will forever love the person who invented the slow cooker,” she said, ladling hearty beef stew into the bowls and setting them on the table along with thick slices of bread.
“At least you finally learned to use it. You have the largest collection of takeout menus of anyone I know.”
Bella made an obscene gesture. “Be careful or I’ll rescind the dinner invitation.”
Nick laughed. “I take it back. Okay? Honestly, though, I suppose I’d like a slow cooker too if I was ever in one place long enough to use it.” He broke off a piece of bread, dipped it into the stew and popped it in his mouth. “This is great. Reminds me of a great stew I had in the Netherlands once.”
“If you hang around to watch your baby grow up, you’ll have time to learn to make your own stew.”
“If I do that, I’ll be unemployed, and I’ll be eating cat food.”
“There are other photography jobs that don’t require you to visit all seven continents in a year.”
“I will not resort to doing wedding photography or those pictures of sleeping babies all folded up like pretzels.” He pointed his spoon at his sister. “And no soccer teams or cheerleading squads either.”
“But what if your kid was on one of those soccer teams or cheerleading squads? Wouldn’t you want to be there to watch him or her?” Bella blew on a spoonful of stew to cool it. “Do you know if it’s a boy or girl?”
Nick nodded. “It’s a boy.”
“Does Pop know? I mean, he loves Angie’s girls and Tony’s son but they’re teenagers with no time for him. He’ll go ape-shit crazy over another grandson.”
Nick leaned an elbow on the table then rested his chin in his palm. “Everyone in the family is assuming we’re all going to be a part of this baby’s life, but that may not be the case. I mean, right now I’m helping out because Tess is in a jam. But once the baby gets here and Tess hires a nanny and goes back to work, I don’t know what’s going to happen. And I might get shoved aside sooner if she can find someone else to help her at home. It’s not like we’re married or anything.”
“Do you want to marry her?” Bella asked pointedly.
“I don’t think she wants to marry me.”
“That’s not what I asked, little brother. And the fact you avoided the question makes me think there’s more to this than just polite concern.”
Nick pushed his half-eaten dinner away, his appetite gone because of the knot in his stomach. His sister had just aimed a giant spotlight at the very issue that had dogged him for days.
Tess’s father had deserted her and her mother and had left them to fend for themselves. How could Nick do the same to his child? Even though circumstances were far different and Tess was fully able to support not only herself but a child, the marriage issue still nagged at him.
Modern convention decreed marriage wasn’t necessary or required. His traditional upbringing warred with modern convention though. And he wasn’t sure which would, or should, win.
He stood and carried the bowl to the sink, then leaned against the counter and stared out the window at the moon, which was high and bright in the night sky.
“Tess tried to call me when she found out she was pregnant. She never left a message. I honestly didn’t know about the baby until the day I was at the store getting stuff for your…getting stuff.”
“Weren’t you curious about why she was calling? I mean, obviously you two had slept together at least once.”
“Off and on for two years,” he admitted.
“Wow, that’s a long time for you.”
“Don’t act so surprised,” he ground out, irritated by her comment.
Bella held her hands out, palms outward. “I’m just stating fact. It is what it is, Nick.”
And it was the longest time he had spent with any woman, he thought. And the longest and biggest lie too, because he’d convinced himself Tess was just a good time with no strings attached. And she had played right along, obviously because she had her own share of commitment baggage. Now he understood why.
“I can see the wheels turning in your head, Nicky. Talk to me. Don’t let this eat you up like the situation with Mellanee did.”
Nick placed his palms on the granite countertop and remained standing there with his back to his sister.
“After I found out Mellanee had an abortion without telling me, I swore I would never get involved with another woman. I convinced myself that Tess was just a port in the storm. When I was in town I could call her and we’d go out to eat or take in a movie or sometimes we’d just spend the whole day in bed. She didn’t ask for any kind of a commitment and I sure as hell didn’t offer one.”
After he had arranged his face into an expressionless mask, he turned to face his sister.
“I’m hearing a big but here,” Bella coaxed.
“I didn’t plan on falling for her. The last weekend we spent together I realized I was way too fond of her and if I didn’t get away, I was going to move things to the next level. You know, the one that involves rings and ‘I do’.”
“Oh, man, you have it bad, don’t you?”
“That’s why I didn’t return her calls,” he admitted. “I saw her number on my cell phone as a missed call, and presumed it was nothing important since she didn’t leave a message. I figured I’d just ignore her and she would move on to some other guy. Since she lived downtown and I’m at Mom and Pop’s way out here in East Jesus, what were the odds I’d ever see her again? I even took a couple of assignments I didn’t want just so I could stay out of town.”
“Like what?”
“Did you know there’s a pig parade in a town in the Philippines where they dress up pigs like different characters? They parade them through town and then roast and eat them at the end of the week. I ate part of a pig that had been wearing a Superman costume all week.” Nick closed his eyes and shook his head at the memory.
“Damn, you must be in love with her,” Bella stated matter-of-factly.
“Who said anything about love?” Nick felt the muscle in his jaw twitch again.
“I know we’ve had our battles, but what you’re describing is a man running away from love. A man so scared he’s going to get hurt again that he’ll eat Superpig to avoid facing the truth.”
Nick shrugged and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “The pig wasn’t bad once I stopped thinking about the big yellow S on his chest.”
“Maybe you need to start thinking about the big yellow stripe down your back.”
Nick started to argue, but again, he knew Bella was right. He was running scared and was a coward. It was time to man up and change that.
“I’ve been thinking about asking Tess to marry me.”
“You’re in love with her for sure, despite what you say. But are you going to ask because you’ve admitted to yourself that you love her? Or are you just going to ask because she’s pregnant?”
Nick knew the right answer, but that big yellow stripe kept getting in the way.
“Nicky, there aren’t any assurances in life. There are no promises. But if you love her and she loves you, then propose. Marry her. But if you’re just doing it for the sake of the baby, maybe you should think about it some more. Find somebody to talk to; don’t jump into marriage for the wrong reasons. I love you too much to see you do that.”
Did he love Tess? Love her like his dad loved his mom? Like Bella apparently loved Ed? He certainly had feelings for her that went well beyond just friendship. Or was it just his sense of moral obligation nipping at his conscience?
“Love you too, Sis,” he said, moving to the table again and leaning to plant a kiss on her cheek. “Let me help you clean up since you fed me. Then I have to head back to the hen house.”
He snagged the dishtowel Bella threw at him, wadded it into a ball and lobbed it back before loading the dishwasher and giving his sister one last hug before departing.
He arrived at Tess’s place in time to utter a few oohs and ahhs over the stack of baby gifts in the corner and to say good-bye to the last few shower guests.
His life had been picture perfect—a job he loved, the carriage house behind his parents’ home where he could come and go on his own schedule.
Could he create a different kind of perfect with Tess and their baby? A part-time life as a father and family man? Maybe something would develop if he focused on it long enough.