“A-Ba.”
“Come here. Let me look at my boy.”
Alexander approaches slowly, like he’s afraid. Deep down, heisafraid.
Xu Hong aged with grace. Li, on the other hand, looks like an entirely different person.
Alexander remembers a man who towered over everyone in the room. Someone with a big, commanding voice who was able to charm everyone he came across. Alexander remembers a father with snark and sass. A man who knew what he wanted and lived by no one else’s rules. He remembers a man who ran his mechanic shop with an iron fist, taking no prisoners when it came to half-assed jobs.
That sounds awfully familiar. Alexander figures he must get that part of himself from Li. Who knew he had so much of his father’s heart in him?
The man before Alexander looks nothing like the man he once knew. Li is a lot smaller, skinnier due to loss of muscle. His hair is almost completely gray, and his face sags in several places. His eyes are the same, though. Full of kindness, full of mischief. When Li smiles at him, there isn’t a hint of sadness or disappointment or anger like Alexander thought would come to pass.
There’s nothing but forgiveness.
Alexander sits down on a vacant chair next to Li’s bed, Xu Hong sitting directly next to him in another. He leans forward, allowing his father to reach up and brush his fingers up against the faded scar on his cheek.
“This healed nicely,” Li says fondly. “That’s too bad. I hear chicks dig scars.”
Alexander wants to laugh. He wants to cry. He settles for a wistful smile. “My girl seems to like me just fine.”
Li gasps. “You have a girl?”
“Is that so hard to believe?”
“Is this like the time you said you had a girlfriend in middle school, but she turned out to be imaginary?”
“You’re never going to let that one go, huh?”
“You just didn’t want me to chaperone you to the school dance.”
“Because you were going to get all dressed up in that ugly velvet suit of yours and insist on taking pictures.”
“It’s a rite of passage, son.”
“I don’t believe you for a second.”
“What’s her name, then? If you haven’t made her up.”
Alexander smiles. “Her name’s Eden. She’s my sous chef.”
Xu Hong chuckles. “Oh my. A workplace romance? What’s she like?”
“Feisty,” he replies, easily imagining the fire behind her beautiful eyes. “Tough. But sweet, too. She can cook circles around me.”
“I like her already. We’d love to meet her one day.”
“Yeah. I want you to meet her, too.”
A heavy pause falls over them. Alexander isn’t sure what to say or do. He doesn’t know how to begin. What is he supposed to say after a decade away without so much as a phone call? He’d left in such a hurry after the accident, blinded by his shame and guilt and anger. But he’s older now. Wiser. A whole lot less brash and impulsive, as hard as that may be to believe.
This is a Band-Aid that he needs to rip off.
“I’m sorry,” he blurts out, unable to meet his father’s gaze. “I’m so sorry. For everything. I should have listened to you guys. I should have listened to Uncle Charlie. Sebastian was a mistake and you told me as much, but I wouldn’t listen.” His face warms with remorse, vision blurring with tears he has no control over. He’s a little boy again, no longer a man. “I shouldn’t have gone to Paris. I shouldn’t have—”
Xu Hong hushes him, gingerly rubbing his shoulders while Li places a hand on his son’s lowered head.
“Stop it, son,” Li says firmly. “What’s done is done. There’s no point beating yourself up about the past.”
