“It is eight years insufficient.”
I let him pay.
But money was easy.
Fatherhood was harder.
At first Adrian tried to compress eight years into weekends.
Fishing trips.
Museums.
Skiing.
Sporting events.
Tours.
Every visit became an event.
Eventually Ethan told him:
“You know we can just eat pizza.”
Adrian looked confused.
“I know.”
“No.”
“You keep planning Dad Activities.”
“What is a Dad Activity?”
Noah answered:
“Anything requiring reservations.”
That ended most of the expensive outings.
They started watching movies.
Doing homework.
Cooking.
Arguing about video games.
Adrian discovered Lucas could talk about engineering for an hour without breathing.
Noah became furious whenever Adrian beat him at hockey.
Ethan wanted structure.
He asked Adrian direct questions about the military, divorce and responsibility.
Miles was different.
Miles took the longest.
Six months after Christmas, Adrian missed Miles’s school art exhibition because a flight was canceled.
