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“It’s up to you,” Onyx said. “We support you either way.”
Damn it.
I finished my breakfast and coffee, and still couldn’t get rid of the thought. I wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about it until I took action, so I gave my loves kisses, and headed out to the home I’d grown up in.
The several deep breaths I took as I walked up the front path didn’t calm my nerves, but they did make me lightheaded, so that was different. When I knocked, Quinn opened the door almost immediately, and gave me a broad smile. “You’re here.”
“Yeah.” I still wasn’t sure it was smart, but I was here.
“He’s in the living room.” She stepped aside. “Ring the bell if you need me.”
“Thanks.” I shouldn’t be nervous. This was my home too. But it was surreal walking through a place that was both familiar and foreign, given how many years it had been since I came back here.
I found Dad exactly where Quinn said, in the living room, in a recliner in the same spot his chair had always been in.
He looked up when I crossed the doorway, and gave me a tentative smile. “Maddox. You’re here.”
“Hey.” I stopped a few feet back. If I left in the next few seconds, this position gave me a strategic advantage.
“I owe you an apology.” Dad’s voice was weak.
I must’ve heard him wrong. I took a step closer. “Beg pardon?”
He didn’t look amused—that was status quo. “I’m sorry for what I said in the hospital. My words didn’t come out right.”
“There aren’t a lot of ways to interpret what you said.”
He looked small. Tired. Not like I’d ever seen him before, sinking into his chair. “When I was dying, I saw your mother.”
Oh. Fuck me. How was I supposed to respond to that? The only thing I could do was sink into the nearest seat.
“I didn’t go into the light or anything.” His laugh was rough. “I know my place in Hell is secure and your mother was an angel. But as cliche as it is, my life flashed before my eyes.”
Years of experience with him made me want to grasp a cruel comeback, or at least an indifferent one. Neither had ever come naturally to me, but were necessary in this house. Instead, I stayed quiet.
“You’re a brilliant, creative, kind soul, and you’re so much like your mother that it hurts. It’s obvious every time I see you that you’re your mother’s son. And I look at you and I can only see her, and I’m sorry.” As Dad said the words, it did hurt. It ached through every inch of me.
Yup. I was out of my own words. “Why now?” Not a coherent question, but I didn’t understand why he’d never said anything like this to me before.
“Laying on an operating table for six hours with your chest spread open changes your perspective. Or at least, it added some new things to mine,” he said. “You’re not a fuck-up. In the hospital, I asked about the competition because I know it’s important to you. The words came out wrong, but I didn’t understand why you were there to see me, after all I’ve put you through.”
“You’re my dad. I was there for you.”
“I still don’t get it, but there are a lot of things you do that I don’t understand.”
That was more like Dad. Experience told me to brace myself for derision, but I wanted the warm fuzzies to keep flowing instead. “I could say the same about you.”
He gave a dry chuckle. Twice as many laughs as I’d ever heard from him in his life. Yup, I was pretty sure the scowls had him in the red for fun.
He tried to adjust himself in his seat, and slipped. His growl was both terrifying and heartening, and I hurried to help, without looking like I was helping.
“There’s a property on Main Street,” Dad said when he was settled again. “Your mom owned it, and I held onto it for so long because… Because it was hers. She thought someday she might open a gallery there. Don Spader approached me about it.”
What? I tensed. “Did you tell him—”
“No. I told him no. I hear the rumors as well as anyone else in town, and I know he’s not the kind of businessman we want building here. The thing is, I’m going to sign it over to your brother, but you get first dibs.”
“What am I going to do with a business? I’m not that guy.”
