that kind of man. The loss suddenly hit me hard, because I knew I’d lost someone who could never be replaced.
“Can I get you a glass of wine?”
“Uh, sure.”
He went to the bar and got it for me, treating me the way he treated Daisy, going out of his way to take care of me like a daughter.
“Thank you.” I took a drink and let the alcohol sting my tongue a little. “Does that happen a lot?”
He gave me a confused look.
“With the woman…”
At the mention of her, his expression tightened again. “After the bar fight, yes. I’ve gotten a lot of publicity for that, publicity I don’t want or need.” His fingers continued to spin his ring. “Thanks for meeting me.”
“Yeah, sure.” It was a bit weird, not because of him, but because we’d never really done this before. I spent time with Cleo but not Deacon.
“How are you?”
I shrugged. “I’ve been better…but it’ll get better.”
He looked down at his ring for a moment. “Dex asked me to talk to you.”
“Yeah, I suspected.” Dex was unable to get to me in person and he hadn’t called, so he probably had no other choice.
“You know I was married before Cleo. You know Derek is from that marriage. You know I was unhappy with my ex-wife. What you don’t know is my ex-wife repeatedly tried to get me to come back to her by leveraging my relationship with my son against me, and it got to the point where I just had to move away for my own sanity. I came to New York and left Derek behind…even though it practically broke my heart. I tried to do the right thing by staying in that marriage so Derek would have both parents, or at least one good parent. I spent many years in that miserable relationship, unhappy every single day of my life, doing the right thing for both her and Derek. I thought I might love her in time, that we would grow as a family, all of that stuff…but it never happened.” He grabbed his beer and took a drink to wet his throat. “Ironically, the first person I met when I came to New York was Cleo. I left the airport in an SUV, and when I stepped out of that SUV, she was waiting for me. I literally left my old life and came into my new life when I opened that door. It was fast, really fast. Cleo and I clicked right away, she fell in love with me instantly, loved my son…but I was not in a good place. I never wanted to get remarried, at least not that quickly, and I knew if I had a relationship with Cleo, that was where it would lead. Bottom line, I was not ready. But when you meet the right person, it doesn’t necessarily happen at the right time.”
My fingers rested on my glass, and I listened to a more detailed version of the story I’d heard before in bits and pieces.
“But when you love someone and it feels right at the wrong time, that’s how you know it’s real. I understand the intent behind your decision, that you’re trying to keep a family together, but what you don’t understand is, it’ll never happen the way you’re imagining. If Dex theoretically went back to her, he would be like me in my first marriage. He would be unhappy. He would be with the wrong woman…just to do the right thing.” He waited for me to say something, but I really didn’t have anything to say.
He’d just dropped a lot on me, and I wasn’t a genius like he was, so it took time to process it.
He spoke again. “My son is a great man, and he deserves to be with a great woman. If you want to do right by him, then stay. Because Catherine is half the woman you are. She doesn’t love him the way you do, and she would never make him happy like you have. You deserve a great man too, and you aren’t going to find a better man than my son. Move forward together. The three of you can be a family…just the way Cleo, Derek, and I became a family.”
I knew when Dex was in the city because I tracked his flight. It touched down safely, and he was back in New York. He came and went, and he was obviously well, or else his father would have said otherwise.
Tomorrow,