Dempeo: The right kind of wrong

Somebody saw you with her last night

Patrick had been so excited to finally get to see his daughter, she was his princess no matter how old she got. So when she had given him the cold shoulder all day long he wondered what happened. At first he thought she was just annoyed to have her parents interrupt her plans but the more the day went on he noticed that she was only acting this way towards him and not Jillian. He started to think back if he'd done something but nothing came to mind.
Then he thought maybe Jill had said something to her but that didn't make sense either. Because things had been fairly good between them lately and never before had Jill gotten their children involved, even in their biggest fights.
So he decided he needed to ask her if something was wrong.

Sitting here in a lovely italian restaurant with all of his family together Patrick should have been at his happiest. But two things were bothering him right now. One being Tal's behaviour and the other being that Ellen wasn't here. He had promised El to meet up tomorrow but with his daughters mood and Jills close eye on him he didn't know how to keep his promise without consequences.
"Is something wrong honey? You seem mad at me." Patrick asked T when Jillian went off to the bathroom. The boys were on their phones, not paying attention to them.
"What?" Tal spat arrogantly at him. "I asked you what's wrong? What did I do?" Patrick tried to search for his daugthers gaze but she was looking down at the table.
"Nothing." T simply answered and he wanted to tell her that he didn't believe her. But just as he was about to speak again Jillian came back to the table.

"Mom look. This is from Paris." Talula said showing her mom photos from her trip. Frankly she was greatful that her mom came back when she did. Her dad had asked her what was wrong and she just couldn't face him. She'd spent this entire trip trying not to think about the stupid phone call she'd overheard but seeing her dad again had brought it all back. She was still confuesed but what she did know was that this whole thing made her angry.
She'd always seen her father as an honest man but looking at him now made her question if she could even trust him and it was all his fault.
"Can I see T?" She heard her dad say with a kind voice. She showed him the same photos but with far less enthusiasm. This was not the time for this conversation and they both knew it.

*

The next day Patrick decided to let it all go for now. Tal was obviously upset at him but it was a discussion for when they were alone. Besides, his daugthers mood gave him a good reason to sneak off to see Ellie today. He had told Jill that she should take Tal shopping and the boys were away minding their own thing. So he told his family he was going to go on a bike ride to get some exercise.
So now he was thrilled to finally see his love, even if just for an hour or two.

Ellen was sitting on a bench next to a jogging trail. It was closer to where Patty was and they'd decided to meet up there.
Chris hadn't really questioned her about where she was going when she'd told him she needed to go for a jog.
"You know I love this country but I think the best part of it is that you're here." She heard a voice say and looked up to see Patty standing there with his bike in hand. "Well i'm always an added bonus wherever I go" Ellen replied with a wink and a giggle.
Patrick left his bike and came to sit down beside her. He pulled her into the longest hug "God I needed to see you today." Pattys voice sounded almost wounded when he spoke against her hair.
Ellen pulled away first but replaced their embrace with grapping his hand in hers.
"Is something wrong?" She asked seeing the look on his face. He gave her a sweet smile. "I'll tell you later, right now I just want to enjoy this moment." He said pulling her into his arms so that her head rested on his shoulder. He planted small kisses on her head and stroked her arm and Ellen felt at ease.

"How are the kids? Are they enjoying the vacation?" Patrick asked Ellen as they headed up the hiking trail. "Yeah they are having the best time actually. It's all kind of perfect except..." Ellen stopped herself and he wondered why.
"Except what Ellie?" He smiled at her giving her reassurance that she could tell him anything.