“Sure. Son, walk with me,” my dad commands.
“If you could point out the waiting room?” Amber asks before I can comment. “I’ll grab a cup of coffee if there is one.”
“I’ll show you,” Margo says. “I’d like a cup myself. I’ll be right back,” she assures her husband.
Amber sends me a reassuring smile, and though it grates, I stay with my father, not wanting to upset him while he is in the hospital.
We slowly head back to my father’s room in silence, and I wait until he resettles himself in bed before walking over and speaking.
“So you’re okay?” I ask.
“I haven’t gotten yesterday’s test results back yet but I think so. It’s just going to be a lifestyle adjustment.” My father shifts in the bed, getting more comfortable.
“So no more steaks and whiskey?” I pull up a chair and sit down.
“Bite your tongue.” My father’s mulish expression is typical.
“Well, I’m sure things will have to change, and Margo will make sure you’re here for a while.”
A long while, hopefully, because my father isn’t old at all. He just turned sixty last year. Margo threw a party. I made sure I was too busy to attend.
“So who’s the woman you brought with you?” my father asks before I have a chance to delve into why he wanted to see me.
Smiling at the mention of Amber, I glance at my father. “A good friend.” I have no intention of involving a man who couldn’t care less about me most days of the year in my private life.
My father narrows his gaze. “Tell me about her.”
I shrug. Talking about Amber isn’t a hardship. “She’s smart, going back to school to make a better life for herself and her son.”
“Seriously? You can do better than a single mother looking for someone to take care of her.”
I blink, any hope I harbored deep down that this heart attack softened my father gone in the second it took for that shit to spew from his mouth.
“First, I said we were friends.”
“And I saw the grin on your face the minute I mentioned her.”
I push myself to a standing position. “Okay, I came because Margo said you asked for me, but if you’re going to be your usual pompous, arrogant self, I’m out of here.”
Insulting Amber is off the table. I admire all she’s done with her life in the face of difficult circumstances. I am falling hard for her, and though I have to hide it publicly for now, I’m not letting her go. Especially not because my father doesn’t approve. I can’t give less of a shit what my father thinks.
“Wait.” My dad pauses, then adds, “Please.”
Folding my arms across my chest, I meet my father’s gaze.
“Why did you want to see me?”
My father’s expression falters, and suddenly he looks more… humble, if I had to pick a word. “When I had the heart attack, I was lying waiting for the ambulance and a lot of my mistakes flashed in front of my eyes. Things I’d done wrong, especially with you.”
I’m not exactly shocked my father had a revelation when he was scared and thought he might die. But how he reacted to Amber? The man hasn’t changed. I wait for Zachary to talk more before I pass full judgment.
“I wasn’t a present father.”
“To put it mildly.”
A muscle ticks in my father’s jaw. “I wanted a fresh start, and I thought if I threw money at your mother, I was doing right enough by you. I was wrong.”
I swallow hard. “I’m grateful Mom didn’t have it harder than she already did, raising me alone. But you were wrong. A boy misses having a father.”
