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“I know,” I say, ready to beg for real if it’ll make her stop crying. “I was young and dumb. I’m still dumb. Please stop crying.”
“I’m not talking about Susan,” she says, wiping her eyes. “I’m talking about you. I can’t believe you didn’t tell us. All these years.”
“That money was half yours,” I say desperately, inching toward the door. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“I swear to God, Finnegan, shut up!” Callie takes a deep breath. “I don’t care about the money, you ass. I care about you. You absolute fool.” Then she’s up out of her chair and hugging me so hard I can’t stand it. She’s still crying, and right now, I’d do just about anything to make her stop.
“I should go,” I say.
“Don’t you dare,” says Callie. She squeezes me again, hard, takes a deep breath, and steps back far enough to look at me. The tears, praise Jesus, appear to have stopped. “I can’t believe you’ve been holding that in all this time. Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Why do you think? He was embarrassed, Callie. I would be, too,” says West, sparing me having to answer that myself. Like this isn’t hard enough already. He’s cleaned up the coffee mess and sets his mug down calmly.
“Thanks a lot, West.”
“Anytime, bro.” It’s the first time he’s called me that in months. I look at him, really look, for the first time since coming into the house. He looks like hell. Like maybe Callie isn’t the only one losing sleep lately. My throat tightens.
“I fucked up,” I say. “Then and now. I should have told you the truth, and I’m sorry.”
“So hang on,” says Lee. “This is why you hate liars so much?”
“Well, wouldn’t you?” says Callie. She’s defending me to her boyfriend. I almost hug her again, but Lee isn’t done.
“And this Susan, this horrible thing she did to you, to all of you… this is the reason you got so mad at Callie and West that you stopped talking to them?”
I don’t like where this is going.
“Raleigh,” West says. It’s a warning, but a mild one.
“No, I get it,” says Lee. “But seriously, dude. You were mad at them for lying to you for a few weeks, but you’ve been lying to them for years. Literally, years.”
“Uh,” I say. “That about sums it up.”
The three of us stare at him for a moment, then Lee throws his head back and laughs his ass off.
“Oh, man,” he says, clutching his middle. “That is rich.”
I feel my face heating. West’s mouth twitches, and I know he’s trying not to laugh, too. Callie looks at me, humor drying her eyes, finally, thank God.
“You’re ridiculous,” she says. “You know that, right?”
“I’m getting the hint,” I say.
I let them have their moment at my expense. They’ve earned it.
An hour and another pot of coffee later, we’ve all settled down. Callie and I get to catch up, Lee stops laughing at me after a while, and West actually smiles at me at one point, which I didn’t expect to see anytime soon. I’m forgiven. All it took was laying out my demons.
Not all of them, maybe, but the relevant ones. And it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
Actually, that’s not true at all; it was every bit as bad as I thought it would be. The thought makes me wonder what else I’ve been lying to myself about.
But at any rate, I have my sister back. I might even have my best friend back. And Raleigh, well, Raleigh’s all right. Better still, I’ve got a date on Sunday with the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever personally laid eyes on.
That’s a pretty fine place to start.
6
NIC
