Chapter 25 #2
“She doesn’t want to come back. She will, and she’ll put on a brave face, but that’s not the holiday that she wanted, and I don’t think it’s the holiday any of you wanted, either.”
Carmen looks genuinely confused. “What would she rather do?”
“Stay at the hospital. She threatened to sleep in an on-call room.”
“Is she allowed to do that?” Cassie asks.
“Can you imagine trying to tell her no?” Jules mutters.
Mara nods, though. “Let me guess. The hospital is the only place she feels like she’s good enough right now?”
I nod grimly.
“We weren’t trying to—” Carmen starts. Then she stops. And she makes a fluttery motion with her hands, and lets out a watery cry. “That silly girl.”
Dante comes in from the back room. “What’s this all about? Oh. Garrett.”
That’s a significantly colder tone than asking me yesterday if I wanted money for a diamond ring. Which is what I get for giving his daughter a customized vibrating eggplant in my likeness.
“Garrett is worried about Rory,” Carmen says to her husband. “He says she’s hiding at the hospital.”
“That’s not what I said.” But I could just as easily have said the same thing to Rory. Guilt churns in my belly. “Rory will come home tonight because she puts holding this family together above all else, including her own happiness. Ask yourselves, why does she have to be the one to do that?”
She blinks in surprise.
“You trying to make a point, son?” Dante grunts.
Definitely mad about the dildo.
Only way to get through it is to go through it, though. “At some point soon, Rory might make some choices that you don’t understand. And when she does, I want you all to support her no matter what.”
“Of course we will,” Dante says.
Except no, he might not. That’s not a given.
“We just want her to be happy,” Carmen adds.
“Do you? Or do you want her to seem happy no matter what?” I push off from the counter. “You guys need to step up and carry some of the happiness responsibility.”
They all just stare at me.
In for a penny, in for a pound. Might as well go all in. I look at Rory’s father. “Sir, can we talk in private?”
He looks startled. “Yes, I suppose. If everything is all right here?”
Carmen waves us on. “Go. I’m sure Cassie and Jules can pick up where Garrett left off.”
He looks like he doesn’t want to know what that means, and that’s for the best. He grunts and nods at me. “I was going to spray down the skating trail. Come with me.”
As we walk down the lane to the tree lot, the fresh snow squeaking under our boots, I try to order my thoughts.
“Well, out with it,” he finally says, impatiently.
“I’m not sure where to start.”
“Garrett, son, I’ve known you for nearly fifteen years. You’ve been in love with my daughter every second of that time. Whatever it is, I can handle it, even if I don’t like it. You’ve always been good to Rory—”
“That’s the thing. I haven’t.”
He turns on me, his hands immediately curling into fists. Can’t blame it. That sounded ominous.
I hold up my own hands. “I’ve never cheated on her. Don’t look at me like that.”
“Then what?”
“Earlier this year, I lost sight of…us. We’ve been struggling ever since.
I don’t want to say more than that, because it’s private, and Rory doesn’t know I’m telling you this.
But last night, when you joked to her that she might lose me, that pressed on a very sensitive bruise. One that I gave her, unfortunately.”
“Ah, fuck.”
“Yeah.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you say something?”
“I don’t know.”
“Jesus, kid. Now I’m the asshole.” He makes a face. “You could have ripped me for that in front of the girls, you know.”
I shake my head. “I don’t want them to know that we’re rocky. Not if Rory doesn’t want to tell anyone.”
“All right. Your secret is safe with me. But you fix this, yeah? You make it right with her?”
“Yeah, I’m going to try.”
“Don’t try. Do.”
“Easier said than done.” I shake my head. “Look, loving Rory is hard, because deep down, Rory doesn’t trust that she’s loveable. And I think—I know your family is close. Your house is chaos at the holidays. So much love, right? But there are strings attached to that love, and that scares her.”
He scoffs.
This is the hard part. “Dante, you don’t speak to your brother.”
He falls silent.
I switch gears before he gets mad and tells me to mind my own fucking business. “Did you ever know my father’s sister?”
Warily, he shakes his head. “I don’t think so. She ran away as a teenager? I think that was before we moved here. Very sad, very sad.”
“Well, it turns out, she’s alive and living in Alberta. She’s good now, but she was in a controlling relationship for a long time. She has four sons. They’re right around my age. I met one of them today.”
“What?” He claps me on the shoulder. “Garrett, that’s wonderful news.”
“It is. But I wish my dad was here to be reconnected with them, you know?”
He takes a deep breath, his eyes closing, and he nods. “I understand.”
I hope he does. Because I’m not going to let anyone tell Rory that she might lose me if she’s not enough. She will always be enough for me.