Chapter 12 - THE MAN TESSA DIDN’T TELL GRAHAM ABOUTCole Mercer did not like Graham.
Graham did not like Cole.
Predictable.
First formal meeting, Graham’s handshake cold.
Cole:
“I’m not trying be his dad.”
Graham:
“Good.”
Tessa rolled eyes.
Naomi intervened:
“We're not doing territory.”
Both men looked.
Cole had known Tessa two years.
Stable job.
No criminal history.
No substance issue beyond occasional smoking? To connect tobacco maybe he smoked cigars/cigarettes socially. If he smoked around teens? Better he used cigarettes occasionally but not around Eli. He should not be villain.
Graham had imagined unknown dangerous.
Reality ordinary.
Problem was secrecy and lax attitude.
Cole apologized:
“I shouldn’t have let Bryce hang with Eli without thinking.”
Graham:
“He gave my fourteen-year-old cigarette.”
“I know.”
“You knew Bryce smoked.”
“Yes.”
“So?”
“I thought Bryce wouldn’t.”
“That’s not supervision.”
Cole bristled.
“Neither is your kid lying at home.”
Graham stood.
Naomi:
“Stop.”
Graham sat.
Truth hurt.
Cole was right but deflecting.
Tessa:
“Cole.”
He apologized.
“I’m sorry.”
Then Cole said something important to Eli later:
“I told you you’re old enough make choices.”
Eli:
“Yeah.”
“I was wrong way I said.”
“What?”
“You’re old enough make some.”
“Not all.”
“And grown people who tell fourteen-year-olds ‘do whatever’ are usually avoiding responsibility.”
Eli looked.
“Are you calling yourself bad?”
“Calling myself lazy.”
Good.
This undercuts simple villain.
Cole also confronted Bryce.
No contact for while.
Tessa’s relationship with Cole strained because she realized she had rushed Eli into her new life to prove normalcy.
She wanted show:
I have home.
Partner.
Friends.
I'm stable.
So she introduced too fast.
Again fear.
Graham had opposite:
kept Tessa out.
Both extremes.
Family therapist set gradual.
Cole not present every visit initially.
Tessa resented.
Then saw Eli calmer with just her.
They needed reconnect mother-son before new partner.
May you like
She accepted.
This chapter broadens.
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