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“Yeah? Good for you.”
She searched for a safe topic. “You said you were from Spokane?”
He stretched his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the
ankles. “Born and raised. I lived in the same house until I went to
college.” He cast a sidelong glance at her. “University of
Washington, by the way. Go, Huskies.”
She smiled. “Do your parents still live there?”
“Yes.”
“That must make it hard for them to visit the grandkids.”
“I suppose.”
Something in his tone caught her attention. “You suppose?”
“They’re not the kind of grandparents who would come by, even
if they were closer. They’ve seen the kids only twice, once when
Kristen was born and the second time at the funeral.” He shook
his head. “Don’t ask me to explain it,” he went on, “but my
parents have no interest in them, aside from sending them cards
on their birthdays and gifts at Christmas. They’d rather travel or
do whatever it is they do.”
“Huh?”
“What can I do? And besides, I can’t say they were all that
different with me, even though I was their youngest child. The
first time they visited me in college was graduation day, and even
though I swam well enough to get a full scholarship, they saw me
race only twice. Even if I lived across the street from them, I doubt
they’d want to see the kids. That’s one of the reasons I stayed here.
I might as well, right?”
“What about the other set of grandparents?”