Kristof waited until he'd handed Eve her drink and he'd settled on the couch before saying anything. "Honestly? Sometimes it's not that hard for me because at this point in his timeline? He wasn't all that much older than when I'd been in his life. And other times? It's... a little terrifying, simply for the fact that he's got the kind of life here that he'd never have back home and it's the kind of life I always wanted for him."
His expression was thoughtful for a moment. "It's really just a matter of me looking at Sean's husband, knowing what his father was like, and deciding to never be that person -- because it wasn't good."
There was a lot he wasn't saying, because it wasn't his story to tell, but he was pretty sure Eve could figure it out.
"For you, it's... a matter of looking at your own mother and deciding not to be that person. Don't make that face, I'm not saying whatever you did was at all like your mother -- I'm just saying that everything you do comes out of that desire. And that naturally you don't know how to handle an older Savannah as easily as you did when she was she was younger -- you could figure out 'oh don't do this because that's what my mother did' when she was two, or nine, or eleven. But between what your mother told you when you were like twelve and the guilt you've got rolling around in there for leaving Savannah, it's turned into 'be there for her at all costs'. And that's... less helpful than you mean it to be."
The Kristof Nast version of diplomacy, ladies and gentlemen.