Page 131 of Chasing Home
He nods once. “Yeah.”
“If you ever want to talk, you find me. Okay?”
“Alright. And for what it’s worth, Rory’s obsessed with you. You guys will be fine,” he says, surprising me.
“Thanks, man.”
Opening the door, he hops inside before tipping his chin at me. “Yeah.”
“You coming back after dropping Zeus off?”
He’s the only one of us who knows how to weld, so we’d be screwed without him once we get the current fence down.
“I’ll be back.”
I shut the door for him and slap it once before he starts the engine and pulls away. Thomas is waiting when I spin and head back. He looks like a naughty child after being scolded and sent to the corner.
“One of these days, you’re going to get your ass beat, you know?” I ask.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll apologize when he gets back.”
“If he is interested in Wanda, that’s his business unless he makes it ours too.”
“You’re a giant softy, Johnny,” he teases, but it’s true, and we both know it.
“Yeah, well, my girl likes it, so I’m pretty content.”
“Should I start calling you Mom and Dad now?”
I bust out a laugh, and it feels really damn good.
“Yeah, might as well. We’ll save you a seat at our dinner table when she gets back.”
***AURORA***
Bryce frowns at me as I lean forward on the top of my suitcase and try to yank the zipper closed. It hasn’t been long enough since the last time I struggled to fit all of my things in a suitcase.
“What’s wrong with you?” I ask, staring over my suitcase at her, my brows lifted.
“It’s a sign that your suitcase won’t close.”
“Ice,” Poppy warns.
She holds her phone in front of her, Anna’s face on the screen as we FaceTime. She’s only been gone on tour with Brody for a couple of weeks now, but even already, I’ve grown to hate FaceTime.
Bryce keeps her eyes on me. “You shouldn’t be leaving.”
I huff and abandon the zipper, planting my palms on the hard shell of the suitcase instead. “Why not? Because you don’t think I should?”
“Yes. But also because you’re not going to feel any better after getting to know Lee than you do now. You just think you need to get to know him because of blood obligation, so you’ve convinced yourself this will somehow make everything better. It won’t.”
“And you have experience with situations like these? You’ve suddenly learned about a father you never knew and were given the chance to get to know him the way I have?”
“No. But I do know what it feels like to know both of your parents and still not be important to them. Have you thought about how you’ll feel if your father tells you everything you want to know but doesn’t want to know anything about you? Are you ready for that pain?”
Anna gasps over the speaker, and Poppy’s quick to insert herself between Bryce and me. It’s silly. Neither one of us is going to beat the other up. But I appreciate the sentiment either way.
I extend my hand to Bryce, and with a reluctant sigh, she takes it. “It’ll fucking suck, Bryce. I’ll feel like shit if that happens. But at least then I can move on. I’ll know without a doubt that he’s a terrible man, so I can stop wasting my time thinking about him. This is the choice I’ve made, and I need you to act like you support me, even if you really don’t.”