She didn’t say anything as she passed me to enter my office. No kiss or anything.
Sighing, I closed the door behind us.
“You got off work early?”
“I did.” Her response was stilted, as she sat in the sofa at the far end of my office, distancing herself from me.
But I was tired of the distance between us. I moved from the door, to the couch, sitting next to her.
“You came to see me.”
She nodded, glancing away from me, out of the floor-to-ceiling window that looked out on downtown Williamsport.
“I trust you more than anyone in the world,” she murmured, her eyes still turned away from me.
“You’re going to have to look at me when you say that, princess. Because right now I don’t believe you.”
She turned to me sharply, her gaze narrowed. “Right now I’m not so sure I believe it either. How could you, Robert? He’s ourson.Our baby boy and you nearly watched him drown!” she hissed, but keeping her voice low.
“He was never in any danger, Deborah.” I’d said it over and over the past five days, but I’d continue to say it until she believed it. “Deb—” I reached for her hands but she snatched them back. That was worse than a slap in the face. My wife had never rejected my touch. Ever.
“You say that, but …” She shook her head.
“Deborah, I’m his father. You think I don’t know what my son’s limitations are?”
“He’s just a boy. How can you know what he can and can’t do?”
“Because it’s my blood that runs through his veins. My boys won’t ever live in fear. They will live with the high expectations we set for them. For all of them. And they won’t give up on their dreams or what they desire out of life simply because they were too pussy to go out and get it.”
Deborah gasped, her eyes widening.
“I knew what he could do because I know my boy. Carterwantedto know how to swim. He would stare at that lake every day, obviously toying with the notion of swimming in it. He ventured that far out onto the pier because he knew I was there. I will be there to catch him if he falls, but I won’t handicap my son.”
“So how do I know you won’t go overboard? That you won’t overdo it and treat him like—” She broke off.
There was silence as her words settled around me.
I sat back, staring at my wife’s profile.
“Treat him like my father treated his own sons.” I felt sick to my stomach saying the words that she refused to.
But she nodded.
I stood and removed my suit jacket, feeling hot and exposed. It’d been a question that plagued me from the very first moment I found out Deborah was pregnant. Up until then, there hadn’t been a doubt in my mind that I would become a father. But once it was real, I began to question whatkindof a father would I make.
Repeating the same missteps as Robert Townsend Sr. didn’t sit well with me. I’d seen what his heavy hand could do to weaker men like my younger brother, Jason. My boys wouldn’t turn out like that.
“I would never lay a hand on my sons.” My voice was stern, hard, and unrelenting. “That is a line I wouldn’t cross.”
“Are you sure?”
“Would you have married a man who you thought was capable of hurting your children?”
My heart pounded in my chest as I awaited her answer.
“Of course not.”
I moved closer, going to my knee in front of her and reaching for her hands. I was relieved when she didn’t pull back this time around.
