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“That’s not self-care. That’s selfish behavior. But we’re not here about that.” Thomas gestured at Galen. “Drop all charges against Galen and we’ll get out of your hair and you can do all the self-care you want.”
“He hit me. His own father.” The whiny note in Marshall’s voice made Galen think of Brenda’s mention of her fourth-graders. Maybe in some ways his father had never developed past the fourth grade level.
But he had.
“I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.”
His father looked at him suspiciously. “Are you just saying that so I don’t sue you for damages?”
Billy shouldered close to Marshall so they stood nose to broken nose. “Galen doesn’t say things he doesn’t mean. You probably don’t understand that because you’re a liar and a con man and you think everyone lies. Galen doesn’t. If he says he’s sorry, he’s sorry.”
Marshall’s eyes went wide as he took a step back. Then a speculative expression crossed his face. “Pro baseball player, yeah? I read about you.”
Billy froze.
But before Marshall could go any further, Thomas pulled Billy back to their little posse. “If you’re thinking that Billy or any of us is going to pay you to drop the charges, forget it. None of us are paying you shit to do the decent thing. You either do it or you don’t.”
“You think I’d try to extort my own children?”
Galen nearly laughed at the fake outrage. Marshall Cooper really wasn’t a very good actor.
“But I could talk to the producers of that show I’m on and see if we could do a storyline about me and my baseball player son. It’d give me more screen time. Some more exposure for you, Billy-boy.”
The sound of that old nickname made Billy flinch. “That’s a pass.”
“Come on, man. It’d help us both. I’ll even drop the charges.”
Galen could see that Billy was fighting with himself over whether it was worth it so he could help Galen. The fuck if he was going to allow that.
He stepped forward. “No. We aren’t doing any deals. None of us. If you want to have a whole trial about whether I was justified in punching you when you abandoned us, let’s do it. I’ve been told that after I hire a lawyer, the first thing they’ll do is bring on an investigator.”
Brenda was the one who’d told the brothers to make sure to emphasize that point. What ex-con wanted an investigator digging up more dirt?
“I bet there’s plenty of stuff that’ll come out. Maybe we’ll finally find out what you were doing all those years when you couldn’t be bothered to contact us.”
“I told you, it wasn’t safe. I had a duty to protect you.” Marshall planted his hands on his hips in a gesture Galen remembered from childhood. Back then, it had sent fear through his bones. Now, he saw it for the empty threat it was. Dad had never been violent with his kids. It was more about emotional manipulation with him. Only now could Galen see that for what it was.
“Safe for who? You and your new life?”
The bravado drained out of him and he looked tired. “Fuck, I did my best. You don’t know what I was up against. Always trying to take care of you boys. Your mom was no help. She couldn’t keep a job. After I got out, I couldn’t go back to that stress.”
“You didn’t want to go back to that stress,” Thomas corrected.
He gave a grudging nod and gingerly scratched a spot near his nose. It made Galen remember a time when he’d gotten poison ivy, and his father had spent an hour dotting him with baking soda to “draw out the itch.”
Despite everything, his heart softened.
Despite everything, this man was his father.
Maybe he was just a weak and selfish man not up to the challenges of a family.
“Listen, Dad. Here’s the only deal we’re going to make. You take the L on that punch, and decline to file charges. We’ll go away and your life will go back to normal. If your normal is a reality show and a gray apartment and a pool that no one swims in, then that’s what it is. You’re welcome to it. So how do you want this to go?”
Galen held his father’s gaze for a long moment, as various expressions of resentment, anger and sadness flickered across his face. Finally he dropped his head and Galen knew he had won.
“Okay. No charges.”
Galen felt hands squeeze his shoulders, his brothers silently congratulating him.
