“I am.” At least she thought that’s what she felt. No, she feltbetrayed, she realized, but anger was an easier emotion to manage. “All my life, I got used to people looking up to him, calling him a hero. They all wanted to be on his good side.”
Tom shrugged. “Honestly, a lot of that had to do with him being an outstanding businessman. And he gave back to them, remember. He was always donating to causes and making company speeches when they invited him to come. He did a lot. Maybe too much, now that I think of it. Maybe he was overcompensating.”
“He didn’t overcompensate with me,” she grumbled. “Pretty much left me in the wind.”
He nodded sympathetically.
“Will it hurt the business, do you think? I mean, if the press hears about what he did? Or his clients?”
“I don’t see why they’d hear about it. It was your dad’s choice.” His eyes held hers, willing her to understand. “As far as I’m concerned, the only people who will ever know the truth were in that room today.”
That helped ease the cramp in her gut, but something still bothered her. “Is it cool that I’m angry? Marion says all my feelings are valid, but, I mean, he just died. Seems like I shouldn’t have feelings like that.”
He raised his brow. “I don’t know, Sassy. Do you feel justified in that anger?”
“I feel like I’ve been lied to all my life. So yeah. But I’m also ashamed. I’ve seen that medal on the wall since I was tiny. I believed my dad was better than all the other dads, and I am afraid that maybe I behaved that way sometimes.”
He picked up a cookie. She watched him eat, then she had a sip of tea.
“That’s kind of ironic, isn’t it?” she thought out loud. “Me thinking he was so great for being a war hero, and me being against anything to do with wars. I guess he was right all along about me being a hypocrite.” She paused. “I’m mostly embarrassed, I think. To be honest, after learning all that, I don’t have any idea how to talk to Marion. She’s my best friend, and it’s like we switched places.”
“How do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Last week, my dad was a hero. Now he’s dead, and it’s her dad who’s a hero. Mine’s just a liar.”
“Hold up,” he said, lifting his hand. “I’m not sure you can say your dad was a liar. He never claimed to be a hero. It sounded to me like Hank Moore volunteered the information he had, and your dad merely let it happen. So technically it’s not a lie.”
She side-eyed him. “You think so? I’m not buying it. Omission is still lying.”
“That’s up to interpretation, I guess. But Sass, it’s not right for you to paint him as nothing but a liar. I bet a lot of men lied about different things over there for a lot of different reasons. Think about who he was the rest of the time. Your dad was a good man, and he loved you like crazy. Even before I knew you, he was always talking about you.”
She wished she had known that.
“Tell me honestly, Sassy. If you’d known he wasn’t a famous war hero, would you have loved him any less?”
“Of course not.”
“Then why worry about it? Everyone has secrets. He did what he could.”
“He let you believe it, too. How does that make you feel?”
Tom’s gaze dropped to the floor, and his jaw flexed. “I’m okay. Like I said, I’m surprised. But it doesn’t matter to me if he was a hero or not.”
“Do you wish he’d told you?”
“He had his reasons.”
Her heart twisted. He was trying to be strong for her, but it must be killing him as well.
“He thought you were terrific,” she said gently. “I never heard him talk about having a business partner, so you must have really impressed him. And the way he spoke with you, it felt like he saw you as an equal.”
The curl in his smile twitched. “I’m glad. I enjoyed working with him, and I liked having him as a friend. That’s how I’m going to remember him. He was a good man, Sass.”
It felt good to let someone else win for a change. Especially whenit was Tom. If she could do as he suggested and remember her father as the man she’d loved all her life, without worrying about the rest, she’d be stronger for it.
“I wonder what Joey’s going to say.” She left off the question about if he would ever come home to hear about it.
Tom did, too. “I guess we’ll find out when he’s back.”
