Chapter 15 #2
“Shut your face,” Wolf tells him unceremoniously, then his eyes—full of a fear he’s failing miserably at hiding—land on Lex’s smiling face and he sighs, even smiles a little. “They gave you the good stuff, huh?”
Ruko snorts at his nephew before walking over to hug both of them and close the door behind them.
“Where are your shadows?” he asks, probably talking about their bodyguards, which reminds me to send Austin a text about going back to his hotel .
. . I’ll be here for a while longer. I don’t hear their answers while I take care of that, but when I look back up I see Hawk taking a video of Lex and smiling like a maniac. I frown as menacingly as I can at him.
“You know what the consequences will be if that gets posted to the internet.”
Hawk groans dramatically.
“You’re no fun.” He pouts before lowering his phone.
Their visit seems to lighten Ruko’s spirit the most. Even when Lex falls back asleep, they stay, until several hours later when Lyla comes into the room, looking frazzled and worried but still gorgeous, of course.
The room settles then, like we all sigh in relief now that Lex’s parents are both here. Ruko especially seems to have needed her presence, and their long hug tugs at something in my heart.
They’ve been best friends for going on thirty-five years, long before they married, and even after the end of that marriage, they’re still each other’s person.
Dad’s also Lyla’s person, but . . . differently.
Looking at them now, I realize that Lex is both for me. I tear up at the realization that we’ll finally get a shot at having it all.
January 9th
Packing up Lex’s whole life in LA isn’t super hard as it turns out. At least not when Lyla’s in charge and Ruko and I are willing to follow her into battle.
Lex stupidly tries to help, so it becomes my main task to get him to sit down and not move unless he absolutely has to.
When the movers take the bed frame and we’re finally alone, it’s Ruko who sniffles behind us in the empty apartment. I can see Lex is as surprised as me as we watch his Dad rub at his eye.
“I’m gonna miss having you so close,” is Ruko’s explanation.
“Dad,” Lex says a bit helplessly. “I already moved to New York once, and I was a lot younger.”
“I know, I know,” he grumbles. “Maybe I’ll move to Vegas to be close to Vinny since you’ll have your Mom.”
Lex’s shoulders drop before he takes two slow steps and carefully fits his face over Ruko’s shoulder and hugs him tight.
“You can come with us, you know? At least while I’m still recovering.”
Ruko seems unsure until I step in and nod at him encouragingly.
“You know you’re always welcome at home,” I tell him, and I know even though he isn’t here, I’m speaking for Dad too.
“Thank you, I accept,” Ruko says formally, breaking the emotional moment and making all of us laugh lightly.
“Thanks for inviting him,” Lex says quietly from his seat next to mine on the jet a couple of hours later.
“Of course.”
“Ally’s filming in Georgia, so I really didn’t want him to be suddenly all alone, you know?” I move to grab his hand and squeeze hard.
“I get it,” I confess. “Before Dad met your Mom I didn’t really notice, but looking back I know how lonely he was, and nowadays I still like to make sure he’s not alone a lot.”
Lex turns to the front of the plane to see Ruko and Lyla talking quietly too.
“I told Hawk and Wolf that they better make a habit of spending more time with him.” His lips twitch, and I just bet he went all protective son on them. I know they probably thought he was more cute than anything, but I still hope they follow up on it.
“Maybe he will be making that move to Vegas,” I muse, but Lex shakes his head.
“I doubt it. He’ll fly over more often, don’t get me wrong, but his life is in LA.
Ally, Uncle Paul, and Aunt Elle are there.
I just . . .” He trails off and sighs. I squeeze his hand again to show him I’m still here, I’ll wait, I’ll listen.
“I feel like I wasted so much of the time we could’ve had while I played for the Empire.
If I’d just told him about everything before, maybe things would’ve been different. ”
I stay silent for a long moment, wondering if I even have the words to make him feel better about it, because what I think might just make him feel worse.
“I think that beating yourself up for what’s already over and done probably won’t help anyone,” I start out slowly.
“What you can do now is what matters. Telling him you want him to come in the first place is already a good thing, but Lex, you gotta remember that you did tell him. Eventually. And from everything you’ve told me about your old teammates, I honestly doubt there’s anything either of you could’ve done.
Maybe having your Dad know and possibly do something about it would’ve made everything worse.
You’ll never know, and I don’t want you spending who knows how long wondering. ”
“I guess,” he mumbles, but after a moment he nods, settles deeper into the seat’s cushions, and nods. “I’ll try.”
And isn’t that the only thing we can ever do?