He’s not soft. Not exactly. Lawson is blunt. Downright demanding at times. He gives just as good as he gets.
But he’s also idealistic in a way most folks aren’t. His head is in the clouds, a trait that reminds me of his father, Hank.
Lawson is a dreamer. Always has been.
I think he always will be.
“It’s fine,” Lawson insists about living at the ranch. “I’ll find a place eventually.”
I hum.
“What?” he asks, voice even.
“Will you tell me what happened with you and Laura? I thought things were getting better. You were in couples’ counseling.”
“I told you. We just…drifted apart. It was too big a chasm to repair.”
There’s gotta be more to it than that. “Did you want to repair it?” I ask, voice quiet, as if that’ll make it easier to talk about.
Lawson doesn’t answer right away. I give him time to sort through his thoughts, knowing he’ll speak up only once he’s ready.
“No,” he finally says, the word so short I’m startled by it.
“No?”
“I thought I did for a while. But…no. There was no fixing it.”
I swallow roughly, my chest tight again. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.” When he and Laura were having troubles, when he moved out, when the divorce went through… I wasn’t there for any of it.
“Yeah,” he says, his voice nearly lost to the road. “I am, too, Oak.”
Fuck.
“You gonna forgive me?” I rasp.
“Already have.”
“Really? That easily?”
“It’s not complicated,” he says, when it feels anything but. “I was mad. I told you. Now I’m moving on.”
I shake my head, constantly astounded by this man. “God, Law. You’re so…”
“What?”
“Forthright,” I tell him. “You’re so damn honest and open. Except, apparently, when it came to my relationship with Stevie.”
“Because that wasn’t about you and me. It was about you and them.”
“Well I’m giving you permission to be honest about my future partners,” I say a touch hotly. “I trust you more than anyone. So don’t…keep shit to yourself just because you think I won’t want to hear it.”
“All right.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Full transparency. I promise.”
I nod to myself. “Okay, then.”
