“Don’t be sorry.” I place my hand on her arm. “Come have dinner with us. I’m sure Creed would love to see you.”
“Dinner. I…I…have things to do tonight. Maybe another time.”
Does she mean that?
I don’t know, but I aim to find out.
At another time. Today has been a hard day for her. “I’m right next door if he comes back.”
“With the way you scared him…Darrel’s never coming back.”
The thing about cowards is that you can’t trust them. And that guy…there was way too much anger in him for that to be it.
“Hey, Dad. Where were you?” Creed asks as I walk in the door.
“Next door talking to Greer.”
“What?” His head pops up. “Does that mean you two made up?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool. So, are you two dating?”
“Creed.”
“What? You know you want to see more of her.”
“And? When you care about a woman, what’s the most important thing?”
He stares past me and then nods. “She isn’t ready to date you.”
“Exactly. Her ex-husband showed up today and tried manhandling her—”
Creed frowns. “I hope you put your fist through his face.”
“I didn’t need to.” Even though I thought about doing it.
“But he deserves it.”
“Absolutely. But all I had to do was stand there, and he almost peed his pants.”
Creed laughs.
“Never underestimate a coward with a grudge.”
“Like Reaper.”
“Exactly.” I walk over and open the refrigerator. After all that cake, I’m not really in the mood to cook. “How does pizza sound for dinner?”
“With chicken wings? I’m starving.”
Is there any time that boy isn’t hungry? “Sounds good.”
“I’ll order. Then we can come up with a plan to help Greer.”
“That’s not how it works.”
“Sure, it is. When your friend has a problem, you help them. Greer had a bad relationship. Then you were mean to her, so she’s having trouble trusting you and probably herself. We need to show her that you’re a trustworthy, upstanding guy.”
