Page 97 of Making the Save

“Wyatt,” I hissed, watching the hurt cross Danny’s face. “You don’t have to be cruel.”

“Leaving behind that boy haunted your mama her whole life,” Danny said. “All her troubles-”

“Troubles?” Wyatt scoffed.

“Belinda could get real low,” Danny said to me. “Would take to her bed for days at a time.”

“It’s called depression, Dad. It’s called untreated depression and we never talked about it. We never said the word out loud. Do you know how fucking terrifying and confusing that was for me and Liam?”

Danny blinked his watery dark eyes. So much like Wyatt’s. He opened his mouth like he might explain himself, but in the end he closed it again.

“I’m sorry,” Wyatt said with a heavy sigh. He shook his head and I knew that he was trying to pull himself together. Bring everything back under control. “That was… uncalled for. It’s been a long night, Dad, you must be tired from the drive.”

Wyatt stood up like the conversation was over and I waited for Danny to say something, to apologize or explain, but he was happy to have Wyatt change the subject. I saw so clearly how he must have been relieved to have Wyatt be so responsible when he was a kid. How he didn’t try to fight it.

“Dad, you can have the bedroom,” Wyatt said. “Let’s go get your stuff.”

“I don’t need to kick you out of your bed,” Danny said, and Wyatt and I looked at each other. He smiled a little, the tension between us thawing.

“You’re not,” Wyatt said. “We like the pull out.”

“Now that is weird,” Danny said and heaved himself to his feet.

Wyatt

“Well,she’s a real breath of fresh air, isn’t she?” Dad said as I followed him out of the cabin. “I’m going to need your help getting my bag out of the truck. It’s real heavy with my c-pap machine.”

The second the door closed behind us and we were far enough away from the porch that we wouldn’t be overheard, Syd had already headed back to the bathroom to get ready for bed, I stopped. And waited until he turned around and saw my very unamused face in the glow of the moonlight.

“You’re not going to help an old man out?”

“Cut the old man crap,” I told him. “You’re sixty-two and probably as strong as I am. Why didn’t you warn me you were coming?”

“I’ve left you about a dozen messages, son. It ain’t my fault you’ve been too busy to look at your phone.” He waggled his eyebrows at me but I only bristled harder.

“I didn’t want to deal with all the noise from everyone,” I muttered.

“Liam called after he left you two in California and said she’s the one. So I wanted to get up here and find out for myself if he was right. He was.”

“The one what?” I asked, purposefully obtuse.

“The one for you,” he said and poked me in the chest. “You can’t fool me, Wyatt. I know you too well.”

“You’re being ridiculous. That was a very sweet story about how you met Mom and immediately knew she was the one-”

“It was the truth.”

“I’m not disputing that, but that’s not me, Dad. This thing with Syd was just a crazy night that got out of hand. As soon as it doesn’t cause her any embarrassment, we’re going to get divorced and we’ll both move on with our lives.”

“Why?”

I adored my dad, but sometimes it was like having a conversation with a toddler.

“Why what?”

He shrugged and started walking to his truck. “Why do you have to get divorced? Why don’t you just stay married and see how it goes?”

“Because this is real life Dad. Syd doesn’t fit into my life and I sure as hell don’t fit into hers.”