“Rip Van Winkle,” I supplied.
“Yeah, him. Everything changed. I had blinding headaches and seizures…bad seizures. Mom hired a nurse to watch me till we found a medication that worked. I couldn’t go to school, I obviously couldn’t play ball, and with the exception of Troy, I lost touch with my friends. Some came to see me at first, but their lives were moving along, you know? Mine had crawled to a standstill.”
“The girlfriend?”
Dex snorted. “Gone. Big teary good-bye, too. But at least shesaidgood-bye. My dad didn’t. He just fucked off to Buenos Aires or Rio. I have no doubt my mom scared him off with legal bullshit, so maybe he had an excuse. All I can tell you is that it was a dark era.”
“You got through it.”
“Yeah. I did. Took forever, but I finished my degree and my mom gave me a job at her firm.” He made a face. “I hated it. I dreamed of being a football star, not a nepo desk jockey. It was good in that I was amongst people again. I was so socially rusty, it was comical. There was this clump of years in my twenties where I didn’t date, rarely saw friends, or left the house. Suddenly, I was back.”
“Is that when you got married?” I was instantly annoyed with myself for asking and for the rogue pang of jealousy that I had no right to.
Dex rolled his eyes and winced. “Not immediately. I had a lot of catching up to do. I fucked around a bit—had an affair with a married man and with a woman who was closer to my mom’s age—drank too much and tried to be…normal. My mother was mortified. She put it in my head that I had to settle down and grow the fuck up. She introduced me to her new assistant, Jennifer. We hit it off and were married within a year. It was a mistake. Should never have happened.”
“Why? You didn’t love her?”
“No, I didn’t. She’s a shark like my mother,” he huffed. “I was her ticket to an upwardly mobile career within the company. Once the dust settled, it was clear we were never gonna make it. Jenn liked the perks of marrying the boss’s son—private jets, nice cars, beautiful houses—but I don’t think she liked me. She put up with me. We had nothing in common except work, and financial anything bores the hell out of me. If we were out to dinner or at a party, we were okay. Alone…we didn’t know how to act. Jenn’s solution was to start a family. Great idea, huh?”
I scooted a little closer to him to massage his neck. “Probably not.”
“Definitely not. I agreed, though. I wanted a family, and I naively thought kids might make our marriage better, too. But I was also drinking a lot. All those parties catch up to you, ya know? But with my previous condition, too much alcohol and stress can bring on migraines. I was getting them pretty often. I switched medication to something stronger and one night, I had a seizure. The first in…years.”
I frowned, my hand stilling at the base of his skull. “What happened?”
“I was at home. Thank God. Jenn called an ambulance and I was whisked to the ER. I was in the hospital for two days. And I never once saw my wife.”
“No.”
“She told my mother that my drinking and the stress of my medical issues had been too difficult for her to bear. And with all the stress, it was hard for her to get pregnant. Of course, we hadn’t been trying long enough for that to be true, but…whatever.”
“That’s very…fucked up,” I growled.
“Very. I quit my job and asked for a divorce the following week.” Dexter sighed. “That was over eight years ago, and my mom still hasn’t gotten over it. According to her, my brain got scrambled and I’m not a reliable entity. And days she’s reallyannoyed with me, she’ll say I’m like my deadbeat dad—the guy who takes the easy way out and runs when life gets too tough.”
“That’s not you.”
Dex turned his head and smiled. “Thanks, but maybe she’s right. Think about it. I jumped at the chance to follow Troy to Wood Hollow, sight unseen. I happily hid in the fucking forest to lick my wounds and figure out what came next.”
“And you did.” I squeezed his neck.
He worried his bottom lip, his gaze fixed on the sliver of sunshine peeking above the horizon through the window beside the fireplace. “She’s right about one thing. It’s a huge responsibility…bringing a child into the world. I’ve been so focused on how I don’t want to repeat my parents’ mistakes that I might have overlooked my own shortcomings. I avoid stressful situations, eat well, exercise, and drink in moderation, but one fucked-up conversation with my mother and I get my first migraine in years. What would I do if I was on my own with a baby and that happened?”
“You would call me.”
Dexter blinked as he shifted to face me, his eyes sparkling with heightened emotion or maybe tears. “Just like that?”
I grazed my thumb along his jaw and nodded.
“Just like that.”
I pulled Dex close, running soothing fingers through his hair as the sun made its slow ascent in the sky. I didn’t have pretty words. I couldn’t absolve past sins or guarantee a brighter tomorrow. I probably couldn’t fix him at all. But I sensed that this was all he really needed. Just someone to listen. I could do that.
CHAPTER 22
DEXTER
Gretchen pushed her cape over her right shoulder, her brows knit in consternation. “Is that sausage?”
