There wasn’t much left to say between the two of them. Nash hadn’t left a whole lot of room for misinterpretation. Apparently, his old man didn’t see it that way.
Exhaling deeply, he opened his door and stepped out.
His dad stood when Nash stopped a couple feet from the steps. He gestured to Nash’s door at the top of the staircase. “Never been here before.”
“Nope.”
Not once in eight years. When Nash had told his dad he was moving out at the age of seventeen, he’d tossed him a wave over his shoulder, told him where his next job site was and when he needed to be there, and that was that.
It’d been Caroline, Rory’s mom, who’d facilitated the rental. She’d set him up with the sweet-ass deal that’d allowed him to move out so young. And then she’d made sure he’d had furniture to fill the room and food to fill his fridge. He owed more to her for how he’d turned out than he did to his own father.
“I’m—” His dad cleared his throat and shifted from foot to foot. “I’m sorry about that.”
Nash shrugged because, really, what else could he do? He’d made peace with the fact that his dad wasn’t a good father and couldn’t be bothered with any part of Nash’s life. He had no intention of digging up that shit again.
“I know I’m probably the last person you wanna see right now, but I’d appreciate it if we could talk.” The lines around his mouth were pinched, his eyes holding a weariness Nash couldn’t remember ever seeing.
With a sigh, Nash said, “C’mon up.”
After unlocking his door, he turned on the light and tossed his keys on the kitchen counter. “I’d give you the tour, but, well…” He gestured around them. “This is it.”
His dad nodded and surveyed the space like a contractor would. He took note of the exposed, vaulted ceiling. Ran his hand over the original brick along the far wall. “It’s nice.”
Nash shrugged. “It’s tiny, but the Millers give me a good deal in exchange for doin’ any repairs that come up.”
And…that was it. Silence cloaked them, and it was awkward as fuck. After the day he’d had, he just wanted to collapse into bed and fall asleep watchingThe Great British Baking Showlike he’d been doing every night this week.
When it was clear his dad wasn’t leaving anytime soon, he asked, “You want a beer or something?”
“Sure.”
Nash ducked into the fridge to grab two. And then for a solid three minutes, they just stood there, breathing and drinking and not saying a damn word.
“Look, Pops, I don’t know why you’re here, but—”
“I’m not sellin’.”
Nash froze with his beer halfway to his mouth, too stunned to do much of anything but blink at his old man. “You’re…what?”
“To Bozeman, I mean. I’m not sellin’ ’em King Construction.”
Breath escaped Nash in a whoosh, and he sagged back against the counter, too overwhelmed—not to mention shocked—to even contemplate what this meant.
“Earlier tonight… Well, I deserved every word,” his dad said. “I’ve been a shitty dad to you, and I’m sorry I can’t go back and change that.”
Nash kept the platitudes to himself, because, yeah, that was a boiled-down version of real life, and he had no intention of letting him off the hook for it.
His dad set his beer on the table before running a hand through his hair. “When I was growin’ up, things in my house were traditional. My old man provided, and my momma stayed home. When Annie left…well, I didn’t know how to be both for you, kid. So I was neither.”
Didn’t matter how many years had gone by since his mom left, hearing her name still hurt. It excavated all the memories he’d long since buried. The ones he’d just as soon forget.
“I checked out after that because I didn’t want to face the fact that I wasn’t enough to keep her. I’d been so lost in my grief over missin’ your momma that I never stopped to think about what her leavin’ had done to you. I was just tryin’ to get by.” He tucked a hand into his pocket and lifted a shoulder. “When Henry offered me what he did… Well, I saw a way outta here. Outta Havenbrook and the memories of your momma that I see wherever I go.”
Jesus, Nash couldn’t imagine dealing with that for twenty years. Everywhere he looked around town, he saw Rory, and it gutted him. And they’d been seeing each other for months. What would it do to him if they’d built a life together, had akidtogether, and then she’d decided neither of them was worth staying for?
“Pops…” he said, his voice strained.
His dad shook his head. “I don’t want your pity. That wasn’t my intent. And I understand if you still don’t want anything to do with me. Hell, I don’t want much to do with myself. But I just wanted you to know that about the business. It’ll be passed down to you, same as it was for me. And it ain’t a ploy to get you talkin’ to me again.”
