Page 92 of Last Resort

“To where?”

“Everywhere. Somewhere. I don’t really know. Somewhere I can feel alive. You know me, I get antsy if I stay in one place too long.”

We fall silent as I lower myself back to the sand and hang my head, closing my eyes for a beat.

“We needed you, you know. When he died. We still do.”

I nod, but don’t say a word, because I don’t know how his admission makes me feel. Better because maybe this rift is somewhat sewn up or worse because now that it is, I’ll be walking away.

“Fuck, man. It’s way easier for you to be mad at me than to have to deal with emotions and shit.”

Ledger’s laugh echoes around us. “Then I guess I’ll add more on to the pile while we’re at it.”

“Jesus. Seriously?” I groan.

“He made me make him promises too, you know. Like he made you do,” he says quietly and for some reason, my heart lodges in my throat at his confession.

“Ledge . . .”

“He made me promise to make you finish what you started with Ocean’s Edge. With right here. He wanted me to use whatever means necessary to get you here, to insist you make the changes needed . . . not only to benefit the company, but so that you would know you could do it without him. That you knew you were worthy of the Sharpe name.” He gives a shake of his head while tears burn in my eyes. “He said something about how he’d been teaching you all wrong. That you were the one who needed to get your hands dirty to know you’d made a difference.”

I exhale audibly as I take in everything my brother has just said. Leave it to my dad to make a strong statement in death just like he had in life.

“I don’t even know what to say.” I lean back and look at him. “I’m sorry you were put in the position in the first place. That couldn’t have been easy.”

“He smiled when he asked me. He told me he’d been too much of a candy-ass over the years, but if there was one person who might be able to teach you your worth, it would be me.” He stares up at the sky and pauses. “I hated him for doing it for the longest time. I hated you for putting me in the position to have to be that person . . . but coming down here, seeing you succeed, I’m not sorry at all. You’ve done a good job here.”

“Thanks. Fuck. Can we . . . can we just leave this shit at this?” I stand up again. I move. “This is too much shrink stuff.”

“I know.” He chuckles. “You need to go think in peace.”

“Yes. No.” I hold my arms out. “Something like that.”

He walks over and surprises me when he grabs onto my arm and pulls me in for a man hug. But I grab onto him with just as much force before taking a step back and smiling at him.

“Thanks . . . I guess,” I tease.

“Always the smart-ass cracking a joke when things get too serious.”

“You know me well, brother.”

“I do.” He smiles before I turn to walk away. “Hey, Callahan.”

“Yeah.” I stop and look over my shoulder.

“For the record, you were exactly what he needed you to be. Don’t ever think anything different.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Sutton

“And you had no clue they were doing it because of a promise they made to your dad?”

Callahan looks at me across the short distance—he’s on the couch and I’m on the chair across from him—and shakes his head. “No clue.”

He looks lost. That’s the one constant thought I’ve had since he stumbled in here thirty minutes ago.

But here he sits with bloodshot eyes that I’m more than certain are from crying and a quiet posture about him that I can only chalk up to trying to process everything he’s just relayed to me.