we aren’t glad you’re back,” his father said. “But you know, some explanation might be nice.”
Griffin looked up. “I didn’t think much was required.”
“Well, you don’t look much happier than the day you left,” his mom said. “I was hoping that...”
He sighed and pushed the bowl back. “It’s complicated.”
“How is it complicated?” Mallory asked. “I thought you were going to bring Iris to see us.”
“Iris doesn’t want to come back with me. Because Iris doesn’t want to be with me.”
“She said that?”
“Yep,” he responded.
He got up and went over to the counter, and took another scoop of the hot cobbler and put it in the bowl. “I told her I loved her, and she rejected me.”
“So you came home then?” his dad asked.
“Yes. I came home then. What’s the problem with that?”
“Seems to me you haven’t learned anything,” his dad said.
“How is that?”
“You ran instead of talking things through last time. Now you just ran back home. But it’s the same thing. You’re running from state to state, from your biggest problems.”
“Dad...”
“It’s true. There is no negotiating to be done for Mel and Emma, I get that,” his dad said, his voice breaking on their names. “No bargaining. But you got this girl, and sounds like you had a problem. But she’s not gone.”
“She was pretty definitive.”
“But she’s alive. And so are you. There are going to be hiccups. Going to be problems. But you got to stay and face them.”
“I thought you wanted me home,” he said.
“I do,” his dad said. “But you know, I’d like it if you were home happy.”
“I was happy,” he said. “It was the damnedest thing. She made me happy.”
“Then you need to try again,” his mom said.
“Right,” he said, turning to look at Mallory. “So, you’re from a different generation. Practically a different generation than me. If a woman says she doesn’t want you, what do you do?”
Mallory looked up, a strange, hollow look in her eye. “You know, if you love her, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to say it more than once.”
“I did say it more than once.”
“I just... If you love her, maybe you should make her reject you a couple of times.”
“Really?”
“Well, running feels better than having to do all the chasing. I bet.”
He gritted his teeth. Her loser boyfriend had nothing to do with any of this. But then... He did wonder. He got up and walked out of the kitchen, out to the front porch. His dad followed. “What happened? I mean, tell me the story.”
So he did. Because he hadn’t talked to his old man like this in years. Maybe not since he was a teenager and they had gone out and ridden horses together. Maybe not in all that time. He told him about Iris and how she had come up with cookies. How she had given him back something he hadn’t thought he would ever have again.
“She’s hurting,” his dad said. “Sounds to me. Scared. Because all that stuff she said to you, that’s what scared people do. You want to know. You said some pretty awful things to us when we offered you love. When we tried to pull you back. It’s what happens when someone isn’t ready to accept the love that’s on offer.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“No,” his dad said. “It doesn’t. But you think about it, Griffin. Think back really to what happened when you left. The ways we tried to help you, and all the ways that you rejected it. Pain doesn’t make sense. Fear doesn’t make sense. It just is. It’s only when it quiets down that you can start to listen to other voices. Don’t you think you’ll want to be there so that once hers quiets down... Yours is the voice she hears?”
“So why didn’t you come after me then?”
“Because I had a sense that you needed to listen to your own voice. And it sounds to me like to an extent you did. Now I’m just here to guide you a little bit the rest of the way. You’ve been through things that I haven’t been. You’re a strong man, Griffin. Hold out here. Be as strong as she needs you to be.”
“I’ll go back,” he said. “And when I come back here to visit you, I’m going to hope that she’s with me.” Purpose filled his chest. His heart, his soul.
He would be there. When she was ready. And somehow it all became clear. He didn’t actually need to go after her. Because one thing