The John Hughes Club

Chapter Forty Six

The kitchen table feels like it is now the marker for a battle line—my mum and Rob Summers on one side, myself and Chas on the other—adult and teenage eyes, preparing for the possibility of verbal bloodshed.

"It's good that we're finally able to do this," Rob Summers comments first, showing me a nervy smile, then offering one to his son. "It's better for us all if we can talk through everything that we need to." His eyes then find my mum's, saving the last of his smile for her.

Casting him a gaze of gleaming affection, I watch the warmness and the respect being exchanged between my mother and Rob Summers. I watch them with silent intrigue, with silent curiosity. It's been a long time seeing her look at a man in the way that she's now looking at him. It's in the way that I remember she used to look at my dad. He was the one who used to generate that glow sitting on her enamoured face. He used to be the one to cause her eyes to cast downwards with an attractive coyness, just by a look, smile, touch, or something he had said to her. Now, Rob is the object of her obvious affection, and I'm somewhat interested to discover why. From my side of the table, I begin to observe the man who is not only my boyfriend's father, he's my mother's new love interest. Unlike his son's black hair, Rob's is light brown and his longish layers appear to have a tendency to curl at the ends. And unlike my dad, his pale green eyes carry a sombre depth within them, whereas dad's usually carries a sheen of warmth and mischievousness in his. Rob Summers certainly has a face that bears the signs of his past upon it. His losses, his anger and his drinking, have all left their obvious mark within the crease lines on his forehead and around his eyes and mouth. He's not as clean-cut as dad, not as neat. Everything about him—his voice, his demeanour, his hair, skin and style—is rougher. I don't even see much of Rob Summers in Chas. His dark hair, dark eyes and his natural ability to captivate people, must all have been passed on from his mother. Observing more of the interactions between my mum and Rob, I suppose he does have a nice smile, and when he does smile, you could say that his roughness might be seen as appealing to some. And mum genuinely does seem happy around him. She seems more animated around him.

Quietly still fixed on them both, I watch as mum drags her fond gaze away from Rob, bringing it softly onto myself and Chas. "I agree. Things have been previously handled very wrongly, so I appreciate you both now feeling ready and willing to talk to us." Smiling, she keeps transferring her eyes from Chas, then to me. "There have been lots of reactions, but not enough words. I am guilty of that more than anyone. Mindy, I should have been honest from the start about my involvement with Rob, and Chas, your dad should have been honest about his involvement with me. It wasn't that we didn't want to tell you, it's just we didn't know how to," Mum admits, her voice becoming quieter.

Sitting taller in his seat, Rob Summers reaches to touch my mum's back, affectionately gesturing that he wants to take over the conversation, "The two of you have both been through too much already in your young lives, partly because as parents, we didn't do enough. Many times, I failed you Chas, and I know your mum feels the same way about you, Mindy. During a time when we had found happiness in each other, you two had also found each other. We both felt such incredible guilt over our parental failings, that when we realised you were involved, we kept putting off telling you. It was a cruel coincidence, and we didn't know what to do for the best. The way you found out, Mindy, was never the way we had intended for you to find out. For that, I want to apologise. Face to face, I want to apologise to you both." Peering from beneath his eyelashes, he looks and sounds sincerely sorry. "Things got out of hand. Things were said and done, that shouldn't have been said and done. Myself and Megan were never fully against you being together just because we were, we were more concerned about how quickly you got serious about one another. We realised that it wasn't just a quick and passing crush. We realised that things were getting more complicated from whichever way we looked at it. When Megan saw you kissing, she overreacted to it...didn't you?" In the same smitten way, Rob glances back at my mum.