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“Is it? I’m not a kid.” He squeezed my hand before letting go and leaning back in his chair. “I know my mom’s disappointed in me.”
“I doubt that.” I shook my head. I couldn’t imagine any parent being disappointed in Cody. For any reason. He was such a good, solid guy. “Has she said that? Those exact words?”
“Well, no. But she keeps telling me not to be too hard on Dad.” Cody scoffed. “As if it was possible to find a level of harsh that was too much after what he did.”
I flipped my hand over and wove my fingers through his. I understood what he was saying, but I was also pretty sure it wasn’t the right response. “Have you been praying about it?”
Cody gave me a long look. Finally, he shook his head. “Not like you mean.”
“Is there more than one way to mean that?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been praying for some smiting. I won’t lie.”
I snickered. “You know what? That’s actually reasonable. I think it’s okay to talk to God about stuff like that. But you also have to listen. And you have to be open to hearing Him remind you that it’s not our job to decide who gets smited. Smote? Smitten? You know what I’m saying.”
“I do. I don’t really like it.” He closed his eyes and sighed. “I just don’t understand. My whole life, I’ve considered my parents pretty much the epitome of hashtag relationship goals, you know?”
I smiled. “I do know. You’re stealing my phrase.”
He squeezed my hand, but his lips twitched up, and a tiny bit of the humor I was used to seeing in his eyes came back. “When did Austin drop this ‘I want the house back’ bombshell on you?”
“Last Friday.” I watched as he worked through the timing. He’d been avoiding me that week. That continued through the weekend. Then, with all that still on my mind, I’d gone to see him Monday night.
“Ouch.”
“It hasn’t been the best two weeks of my life. No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I think you’re allowed to get thrown for a loop when something big like that happens.” I shrugged. I’d been thrown to a degree with the house thing. “But you don’t get to shut out your friends. Or the woman who loves you.”
Cody closed his eyes. “I know. All I can say is I’m sorry. Does it help to mention Wes gave me a swift kick in the butt yesterday after church?”
“Knowing Wes? Yeah. Actually.” I smiled. “Especially if that’s what brought you around here today. Although…you didn’t take off work to come see me, did you? You could have waited until tonight.”
“I did. And no, I couldn’t have. You’re important to me, and I needed to let you know that.” He glanced around the office. “Is there any way I can help out around here? Since I’m off and everything?”
I had a lot that I’d planned to do today, but suddenly I had no desire to do any of it. I shook my head and reached for my computer mouse. “Nope. In fact, let me close everything up here. Then, if you don’t mind if I run home and change first, maybe we could do something together.”
“That sounds perfect.”
I grinned and shut down the computer. I really shouldn’t walk away from my responsibilities like this. I needed to hire people for the store. I needed to get busy finding a place to live. I had follow-up with our next author that needed to happen, because there’d been a snag with her books, and I wasn’t going to be able to get it untangled without help.
But I couldn’t convince myself that any of that mattered right now. I wanted to do whatever it took to get things back where they’d been with Cody. All my work would still be there tomorrow.
I collected my keys and double-checked that I wasn’t forgetting anything, then stood. “All right, I’m ready. You want to meet me at my house?”
Cody took my hand and pulled me into his arms. He rested his cheek against the top of my head and just held me. I might have wished for a kiss, but there was something about this hug that filled up the restless corners of my soul and calmed them in ways nothing ever had before. We stood like that for several minutes, and I felt him relax.
Finally, he said, “I’ve got my car. I’ll drive you home.”
25
CODY
In the week and a half since I bailed on work so I could try to make things right with Megan, I’d been going overboard trying to get us back to where we’d been before my world fell apart and I reacted badly.
That was how I looked at it.
