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When Galen didn’t move, still in shock, his father hissed at him. “Go. I’m fucking dying here. You trying to kill your own father?”
Galen ran to the bathroom. But when he came back, the most shocking thing he’d ever seen was happening. A strange man was dragging his father out the door, a knife held to his throat. He left a trail of blood across the floor.
He started after them, but the man brandished the knife at him. He froze.
“Stay where you are and don’t fucking tell anyone,” ordered the man. “Clean this up and don’t say a word, ever.”
“Do what he says.” Dad squeezed the words out through his constricted throat muscles. “I love you.”
And they were gone, his father and the other man.
He was in so much shock that he moved like a zombie after that. He cleaned up the blood with paper towels, then took them all to the dumpster behind the apartment building, even though it was dangerous and scary back there. He even threw away the beer coozy he’d been working on.
He never told anyone what had happened.
His brothers never noticed that he clammed up every time someone mentioned Dad. He couldn’t help it; it was as if a steel vise would go around his throat and even if he’d wanted to, he couldn’t say a word.
* * *
“That’s quite a traumatic event,” the therapist said softly. “Did you ever learn more about what happened that night? Who the man was, or who had hurt your father?”
“No. About a month later, we heard he went to prison. My mom would never let us go see him. I know he’s out now, but I don’t know where he is.”
“So that’s the last time you saw him?”
Galen nodded. His heart was racing, and he felt sweat on his forehead. He’d kept that secret for so long. “You won’t tell anyone, will you? Patient confidentiality, right?”
“I won’t, but I’m curious what you’re afraid would happen if I did.”
“I don’t know. Something bad. After he went away, things went downhill for me. I got into fights. I used to go after my mom’s boyfriends, and the man she got married to. Things never felt right again until I got off the bus in Lake Bittersweet.”
“I can see how you could feel that anything can happen after witnessing a shocking and unexplained event like that.”
Galen shifted his position and dropped his gaze to the floor. “But that’s just the way the world is. Anything can happen.”
“Do you include good things? Things like your crush taking your number?”
“That’s different. It’s just a card. And it’s not like she’s called it.”
“I’m curious. Do you want her to call you?”
It was such a perceptive question that he went blank at first. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s better if I just worship her from a distance. Then nothing can go wrong.”
She smiled gently, letting his own words speak for themselves. “That’s all the time we have today. But this is good work, Galen. I know it’s not easy bringing up these memories.”
No, it sure wasn’t. It left him in a fog, almost like a hangover, for the rest of the day.
Now that he thought about it, it sucked that no one had ever bothered to tell them what had happened to their father. Why had he gone to prison? What happened after that? Why hadn’t he ever contacted them?
And it was very fucked up that Dad had forbidden him to say anything about that night to anyone. It was like carrying a grenade in your chest pocket for the rest of your life. He remembered being so afraid that it would slip out that he’d avoided even thinking about Dad.
That’s why he’d blurred out the image of the father he’d loved and idolized.
At least he’d finally broken down and told someone about it. The inner ban on talking about it had been so strong, he was still sweating as he drove back to Lake Bittersweet. What would happen now? He half expected a concrete block to drop on him from above.
When he rolled into Lake Bittersweet, he didn’t feel like going to the office just yet. He was still rattled. He needed to collect himself first. The SweetBitter. That was what he needed, a strong cup of coffee from his old friend. Rick was one of his fishing buddies, and he didn’t know anything about the Cooper brothers’ father.
When he stepped through the door, he took a grateful breath of warm air scented with the aroma of roasting coffee beans. Then he pulled up short as he caught a flash of auburn across the room.
