Chapter 18 #2
I wasn’t sure why the thought of him selling my and Remy’s childhood home hurt so badly. It wasn’t as though we had many good memories behind those four walls, but, nevertheless, a pressure suddenly pressed down on my chest at that news.
“You did? When?”
My father, a force of nature, a huge man who’d always seemed so sure of himself, cleared his throat tensely and tugged at the collar of his shirt. “A little over thirteen years ago. After?.?.?. after I divorced your mother.”
A record scratched in my head as every muscle in my body went solid, freezing me to the spot. “A-after?.?.?. you?.?.?. I-I don’t understand.”
It wasn’t as though I hadn’t thought about my mother since my return to Ashland.
It would have been a lie if I said I wasn’t more than a little curious why I hadn’t seen her a single time I’d visited Ezra in the hospital.
Mostly I was thankful we hadn’t crossed paths but had been preparing myself for that inevitability.
Now to find out he’d divorced the evil woman shortly after Remy had gotten the hell out of there, it felt like a blow to the stomach.
“Baby girl?” At my father’s tender tone, I blinked back into the present, trying to sniff down the hurt that it hadn’t been until after we were gone that he finally got rid of her poisonous ass.
“Oh, honey.” His face fell at the pain he so clearly saw in my eyes.
“We have so much we need to talk about.”
I knew that logically, but I suddenly wasn’t sure I was game for that conversation.
Shaking off my hurt feelings, I focused on what was happening right then, telling myself that everything else was for another day. Maybe it made me a coward to bury my head in the sand, but it was all I had the strength to do at the moment. “Okay, fine. Just tell me where I’m taking you.”
“My house,” Roe answered automatically, even as my father talked over him.
“To the clubhouse.”
My chin jerked back into my neck. “Have you lost your mind?” I squeaked loudly, my eyes bugging wide.
“You just had heart surgery ! You can’t stay at the clubhouse.
” I didn’t bother to hide the curl of disgust in my upper lip.
“That’s the last place someone who’s still healing the way you are should be staying.
Hell, five seconds in that building and you’re likely to go into septic shock. ”
Roe let out a snort of laughter. “A lot’s changed in the past sixteen years, Honeybee.”
I shot Roe a killing look. “That may be the case, but it’s still a glorified bachelor pad, not some place a person goes to heal.”
He held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, you won’t get any argument from me. That’s why he’s stayin’ with us.”
“Can you two stop talkin’ like I’m not sitting right here?” my father grumped. “Son, I already told you, I’m not imposin’ on you and Sparkle. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, and the clubhouse isn’t that bad.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and shot daggers from my eyes. “You are not staying in that clubhouse,” I argued back.
“She’s right, Pops. We might have cleaned sh—” He paused, casting his eyes to his little girl who was watching everything like it was the most interesting TV show come to life and she couldn’t get enough.
“Uh, stuff. We might have cleaned stuff up, but not to the level you’d need it to be to get better. ”
He crossed his arms and pouted like he was a toddler and not a grown-ass man. “Well, I’m still not stayin’ with you.”
“You can stay with me.” The words fell out of my mouth without a single, solitary thought from my brain, but there was no way of pulling them back now that they were out in the universe.
My father smiled in my direction. “Honey, as much as I’d love that, have you forgotten you’re currently living out of a hotel room?”
I had. Shit .
Call it temporary insanity, but I found myself saying, “Not anymore. I’m renting Lennon’s old place. You can stay there with me.”
Why the hell did I just say that ? I thought to myself, ignoring the way Ezra’s and Roe’s eyes lit up at the invitation.
Before I could take it back, however, the nurse I’d totally forgotten was still in the room, watching the whole ridiculous scene go down, spoke up.
“That’s great! All settled then. What do you say we get you home? ”
“Uh?.?.?.” My eyes darted around the room, not that I was looking at anything in particular as I tried to work out how the hell I was going to care for my father in a house where every room except the kitchen was completely empty.
“Great. I’ll just pull the car around, and, um, make a few phone calls. ”
I darted out of the room before anyone could say anything else, pulling my cell from my back pocket.
I hit the number I’d saved on speed-dial and brought the phone to my ear as I power-walked to the elevators.
“Iris?” I asked as soon as the call connected.
“Hey, girly. How’s it going? You sound out of breath.”
“I need a favor,” I blurted, jabbing the button to call the elevator. “A big one. Incidentally, do you think Lennon would be willing to rent me her house? And also, how fast do you think you can furnish an empty house?”
I could have sworn I heard the smile in her voice as she answered, “Leave it to me. I’ll get everything taken care of.”