When Dennis invited us to the family barbecue, I said \u201csure\u201d out loud before I even thought twice about it.<\/p>\n
He was my ex-wife\u2019s stepfather. A gruff guy, the kind who wore denim year-round and called every salad \u201crabbit food,\u201d but he\u2019d always treated me decently. Even after Nadine and I split, he\u2019d kept his distance from the drama.<\/p>\n
I appreciated that.<\/p>\n
So when he texted me:<\/p>\n
Family BBQ on Saturday, Reid. Bring Elodie.\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s sweet,\u201d Elodie, my fianc\u00e9e, said, reading over my shoulder. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s a sign of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was what I thought too. After all, I\u2019d spent the last three years trying to stay on good terms with Nadine\u2019s family. Not because I missed the marriage, we were better apart, but because I didn\u2019t want to torch bridges for no reason.<\/p>\n
Especially not with her stepfather, who still saw me as the guy who mowed his lawn in July and fixed his porch light when his back wouldn\u2019t allow him to stand on a ladder.<\/p>\n
I knew it wasn\u2019t typical. Most people I talked to couldn\u2019t understand why I\u2019d still answer calls from my ex\u2019s mom or show up to a random birthday party for her cousin\u2019s toddler. But it was about peace, continuity.<\/p>\n
If we could all be adults about things, I didn\u2019t see a reason not to be civil.<\/p>\n
So on Saturday afternoon, Elodie and I showed up with a tray of barbecued sausages, homemade pasta salad, and a bowl of creamy potato salad.<\/p>\n
Elodie wore a yellow summer dress with sandals, her hair braided in a way that always made me smile. She was stunning.<\/p>\n
We were ready for grilled food, light conversation, and maybe some mildly awkward catch-up chats over drinks.<\/p>\n
We weren\u2019t ready for what happened instead.<\/p>\n
Dennis met us at the gate with a crooked smile and a garbage bag in one hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Dennis invited us to the family barbecue, I said \u201csure\u201d out loud before I even thought twice about it. He was my ex-wife\u2019s stepfather. A gruff guy, the kind who wore denim year-round and called every salad \u201crabbit food,\u201d but he\u2019d always treated me decently. Even after Nadine and I split, he\u2019d kept his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3468,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3466\/revisions\/3468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}