"Good man," she said, poking him in the chest with the cork from the bottle. "You know that you can't let him blame all his problems and his actions on how he was fucking raised, alright? We all have to take responsibility for our actions as adults at some point." Abi wiggled a little in his lap. "You have control of your actions, your reactions, don't you?" she said softly. Abi leant in and placed a chaste kiss on his lips. "Say it with me, Hemingway... 'Jack is an adult in charge of his actions', come on."
She kept the bottle securely in her lap, hoping to distract him enough to make him see he didn't need it. Instead of pushing his energy into drinking, he could focus it on her, on writing, on healthy actions instead of letting his vices get the best of him. "I know it's difficult to divorce yourself from his childhood but the fact of the matter is that you're not that man he knew. You are not even close because if you were, I'd never have let you even meet Charlie, let alone adopt him. Jack needs to see how he's hurting you on his own or he'll never learn."