“What did you say?”
He clears his throat and says a little louder, “I said… it doesn’t explain the vibes that Heath was giving off.”
My eyes bulge. But, like, just a little. “Heath was giving off vibes?”
“Major ones.”
“But… he kinda hated me back then.”
Jonathan laughs. Right in my face. “No, he didnot.”
“I’d just forced my way into his house, made a mess of his kitchen, and broke his toe. There’s no way he wouldn’t have hated me. Maybe they were just my spillover vibes.”
He shakes his head, standing to leave. “I saw it with my own two eyes. Also?” he says, gesturing to the three of us. “Good conversation, no confusion or slurring, I think you’ll be just fine. Nick, please wake him every couple of hours and ask him the questions on this list. If you’re even a little bit worried about his answers, go straight to the hospital and give me a call.”
We agree and have Jonathan let himself out while Nick helps me get settled into bed. “I can revoke Rafi’s membership,primo. You won’t have to deal with him anymore.”
“No, don’t. That was Asadi’s husband.”
Nick’s mouth drops open. “Oh,shit. I hadn’t gotten that.”
“Yeah, he’s going through something that is so much worse than me sitting in a dark room for three days. He lost the love of his life, and I was the worst thing that had ever happened to him.” Before my cousin can protest, I continue. “And yeah, I know that it wasn’t my fault that Asadi was in that room. But I’m not a neutral party, and every day I try to keep the promise that I’d made to be a better man.”
Nick ruffles my hair. “I’m proud of you,primo. You’re not just a better man, you’re an amazing man. You’ve always been amazing, but now you’re a person who sees the humanity in other people better than you did before. I think if Asadi met you now, he would be so proud. Don’t discount that.”
My last thought before I drift off is that if Jonathan is right and there are vibes between me and Heath, I’m going to work so hard to be worthy of him.
I just hope it’s not another three weeks before I see him again.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Heath
One of the joys of being a father is the fact that I have a different relationship with each kid, and I love nothing more than to strengthen those bonds with one-on-one time. Unfortunately, today’s unscheduled one-on-one time is sponsored by the varsity asshats who’ve been giving Lily a hard time. One of the cheerleaders photoshopped Lily’s head on the body of a pig, and some of the football guys have been snorting at her in the hallway.
It’s hard to be a freshman, it’s hard to be a young woman, and it’s damn near impossible to be larger on top of all of that, and I can’t make any of that go away for her. All I can do is support her, threaten the administration to within an inch of its life, and help my daughter be as strong as possible. And she is strong. Honestly, she’s handling it as well as can be expected, but yesterday two guys from the varsity team pushed her down, putting a big gash in her knee, andshegot pulled into the principal’s office for calling the quarterback a four-person douche canoe.
That was the last straw.
Ashley cut short her business trip and is making her way back, but we both decided that this could not wait another day. I took Lily out of school for the day and had Jake hang with her for a few hours while I ripped her principal, the football coach, the cheerleading coach, and the parents of the jerks involved a new one. I’d wanted to press charges, especially since both guys were eighteen, but Lily was horrified by the prospect of having to talk to the police, and frankly, she’d been through enough.
I normally don’t throw around the fact that I’ve got a lot of resources, but I made sure that they knew I had the ability and desire to tank their precious children’s college prospects so hard that acceptance to good schools, scholarships, rosters, and Greek life would be distant dreams by the time I was through with them. My real mic drop moment came a few minutes later when my good buddy, Jean-Pierre Sehene, walked in and let me know that we were running late for our tee time.
He paused dramatically, then went in for the kill. “Wait, are these the people who did such a poor job of protecting my goddaughter? And who are the parents of the young men who put their hands on my Lily? She almost required stitches.”
His acting lessons have really paid off, and I made myself a mental note to send Cricket a bouquet of spring flowers for setting those up for him. Needless to say, they’d all fallen all over themselves to apologize and promise that the jerks involved would be dealt with appropriately. The cheerleader who’d made and distributed the pictures was knocked down from varsity to junior varsity for the last month of the school year, and the two guys who’d pushed Lily around were moved out of her homeroom and suspended for a week. All three of them have to complete an anti-bullying class if they want to walk across the stage.
Not enough, I know, but I just wanted them to stop torturing my daughter. The football coach also called and apologized to Lily directly, promising that she could watch them do punishment drills if she wanted to.
When I got home, Lily and Jake were teaching Huey, Dewey, and Lewey to sit up on their haunches, both smiling and laughing at the dachshunds’ laser-like focus on the treats while Sasha wound her way through them, trying to figure out what she could do to earn a treat, too. I hadn’t known Jake for that long, but I know that smiling is new to him, and Jean-Pierre’s soft look at Jake’s happiness made me so damned happy and sad at the same time.
Lily seemed to be okay, but I thought that a walk in the sunshine would do us both a world of good, help us to reset what had been to this point a stressful week. I would’ve invited Jake and Jean-Pierre to join us, but, from the look of things, they had other, more naked things planned for the rest of their day.
Anyway, that’s how we find ourselves walking along Lady Bird Lake, Sasha’s leash in hand, chatting about TikTok and Instagram and Snapchat (I now know the difference between all of them, and yet still feel dumber for having that information) when a familiar face rounds the bend, heading in our direction.
My heart squeezes at the sight of his bruised face.
“Oh my god, Lily! I’m so happy to see you!” Roly jogs up to us, Audrey trailing behind him.
