He gave her a quick glance before returning his gaze to the road. “I believe you. I’m just not sure faith and God are for me anymore.”
“Then what about talking to your dad? He’s always cared about you and your career.”
“We don’t have that kind of relationship anymore.”
“Sam, you tell me you love me, or could love me. So please tell me what is this rift between you and your dad? I know it’s about the divorce, but it seems like there’s more to it than just that. You used to be close.”
“Not since…”
“Not since?” Chloe prompted.
“Ah, what the heck. I never told anyone this.” He drummed his fingers on the gear shift knob. “Not since I walked in on him and Janice when I was fifteen.”
“Oh, Sam.” Dismay filled her. What must that have been like? How awful for him.
“Jake and I were meeting at his house then going to the batting cages. I walked into the kitchen and caught them—well, making out seems ridiculous to say, but I guess it’s accurate.” He shook his head as if trying to dislodge the image or erase it. “Kissing his secretary. What a cliché. So like Frank.”
“I don’t know what to say.” She sounded as appalled as he must have felt that day.
“I stood there, frozen. Then I dropped my bat and glove and I ran.” He glanced at her, shock and horror and shame and guilt flickering across his face.
“Did you tell your mom?”
“She left a couple weeks later. I dreaded telling her, so I decided not to. I agonized over it, figuring that I had to. But when I got home and saw her car pulling out, I knew. The note on the kitchen table was a formality.”
“Why didn’t you talk to me?”
“It was too humiliating. Within a few days, everyone at school and church knew. People patted me on the head, gave me sympathetic looks. I hated Dad.”
She made a low scoff. “You just called him Dad, not Frank.”
“Freudian slip.”
“I think it’s a heart slip. You still love him.”
He glanced at her. “We both lost our fathers, just in different ways. We also lost…” He paused. “Lost our futures with them. If that makes sense.”
“Totally. Dad didn’t see me graduate. My uncle Vern walked me down the aisle when I married Jean-Marc. But Frank watched you play ball all through high school and college. He’s proud of your pro career.”
“I don’t want to be like him. An adulterer. That’s why I never talk to him.”
“Yet you slept with women you didn’t care about, one-night stands, no relationships?” She called him on it. She’d been wanting to since he first mentioned Frank’s affair. “How does that make you any different?”
He sighed. “That’s just it. I’m not. Or at least I wasn’t. I’m trying to be a stand-up, faithful guy now. But with Frank’s blood in my veins…”
“Sam, you’re believing a lie. Just like you called me on my lie, I’m calling you out.” She gave him a steady look, the dash lights casting a glow on his chiseled face. “Frank’s been with Janice for fifteen years. Did you see the way he looked at her at the party?”
“I tried not to look at either one of them.”
“He loves her. He’s also not traded her in for a newer model.”
“What’s your point?” Sam’s bitterness came through loud and clear.
“I’m not saying what your dad did was right, Sam. Not in the least. But I think your bias has kept you from something pretty special. Have you ever considered this? Your dad stayed. Your mom left.”
“Sure, but Mom left because of him.”
“She didn’t have to leave Hearts Bend and move all the way to Charlotte.”
