“I’m so sorry he got to that dark place, baby,” I whispered.
“I met a woman once,” he started like I didn’t say anything.
Would this ever end?
“We were getting serious,” he went on.“Told her about this Johannsen guy, didn’t get to the dad part.And she laughed.”
I dropped his hand and slammed back into my chair, snapping, “I’m sorry?”
“I think you heard me, baby,” he replied.“She told me we had to laugh about this stuff.”
“What an asshole,” I clipped.
And no wonder it took so long for him to tell me this story if some bitch reacted to it like that.
“Agreed.”
“I don’t…I really don’t know what to say about all of this, honey,” I admitted.
“There isn’t anything to say.Maybe I looked for them, women like my mom, because it was all I knew.Maybe I fell into them, for the same reason.They weren’t her, except maybe Bree.What I reckon is, I found them so I could get done with them so I could save myself from living my father’s life.”
I grabbed his hand and pulled it to my lips again and just left it there, saying nothing, though I was glad he understood this, even if I hated he had to come to the understanding.
His gaze roamed my face, and the bitterness and anger slid from his tone when he said, “Now, I got you.And I do not know what to do with you.”
I kept hold of his hand even as I took it from my mouth, and replied, “I’ll get you there, Hutch.Thattherebeing, you don’t have to do anything with me.I’m not saying relationships aren’t work.I’m not saying we’re not going to have to keep our eye on it and keep it strong.But I’ll pull out the high school basketball stud, cheerleader sex fantasy when it becomes necessary.”
His body jerked with his surprised bark of laughter before he asked, “What?”
“Don’t tell Abigail I told you, but inadvertently, you rocked Brett’s world.”
His chest moved with laughter.
A good sign.
“I don’t think I wanted to know that,” he said.
“Probably not.However, the point is, it wasn’t about you.Not really.It was about Brett.Their marriage.Keeping it fresh.Alive.Looking out for each other.Finding ways to make it interesting.Finding ways to show he would always be her stud, and she’d be his cheerleader.”
After I said that, he leaned to me, pulling my hands to press them to his chest.
“I wish my dad had a cheerleader,” he said quietly.
Uh-oh.
I was going to have to fight crying again.
“I do too,” I said huskily.
“Anniversary of Mom’s death was a few days ago.My aunt makes a big thing about it.I always find a way to bow out, but I got up in her shit this time.”
“Did she know?—?”
“About my bio dad?Yeah.I’ve been up in her shit before about that.Not that I wanted her to tell me anything about it.Just that, when she was trying to defend her sister, she tried to defend that, and I don’t give two fucks about that.What I give a fuck about is how Mom connived to take Dad with her.”
“Do you think she knew he’d take it that far?”
He shook his head.“No.I would never in my life have thought he’d go there, and I can’t imagine she did either.But she killed something in him anyway.Something she knew meant everything to him.So she knew what she was doing.I firmly believe that.”
