But to make a call.
A call to the one person who can help me pull off something big enough, brave enough, insane enough?—
to win her back in a way worthy of who she is now.
My dad picks up on the first ring.
And I say the words that will change everything:
“Dad… I need your help. For Jade.”
The after-party is still raging when I bail.
Tristan throws me a look.
“Bro. Seriously? You’re skipping? The king never skips.”
“Not tonight,” I mutter.
Xavier shrugs. “Let him go. He’s got that ‘I’m about to do something dramatic and emotionally responsible’ stare.”
Mindy sips her cider. “Gross. Men with emotional growth. Ew.”
I crack a smile, but it doesn’t reach my chest.
I leave them in the glittering rooftop chaos and walk down to the harbor, where winter wind slices off the water like a blade.
I text my dad and decide to meet him in the Yacht Club cigar room.
He motions me over not caring I’m just eighteen. He hands me a scotch.
“She won’t text me back. Let me guess,” I mutter. “I’m doing everything wrong.”
“Of course you are,” he snorts. “You’re eighteen.”
I roll my eyes.
He continues.
“You’re begging. Calling. Chasing. Trying to reason your way back into her heart. That never works.”
“What do I do, then?”
He nods toward the tall shelves lining the lounge walls.
“When we get home, remind me to show you the books from your great-grandfather. Love letters he wrote during the war. Beautiful cursive. Real emotion. He poured his soul into those letters.”
I blink. “Why?”
“Because when he returned, he wasn’t the same man. The war broke him in ways she didn’t understand. But she waited for him because she knew the man he was underneath it all.”
Silence.
The fire pops.
My dad lowers his voice.
“Be a man a womanwaitsfor, Leo. Be a man she feels safe coming home to.”
