but I’d be lying,” Emmitt said. “And using your niece’s phone to trick me into answering is a new low. Even for you.”
“I had to do something to save you from yourself. Annie called in sick again today.”
Emmitt rested his head against the wall and rubbed his hand over his chest, trying to ease the raw ache that had been gnawing at him. It didn’t help. Not even being seven thousand miles away helped.
In fact, the farther the plane flew, the deeper the ache got and the hollower his chest felt.
He hated hearing she was sick, almost as much as he hated that his first reaction had been to get on a plane and fly home to make her some of her grandmother’s chicken noodle soup. Because if he went home, he’d forgive her.
As it was, he could barely eat, he wasn’t sleeping at all, and every time he thought about how she must have looked when she’d seen his note, his eyes started doing this whole watering thing that most people would mistake for tears.
“I don’t know what you want me to say, other than she lied to me.” How many times was he going to have to repeat himself before his family got it? He was the injured party here.
“Says the pot about the kettle. Dude, she didn’t do anything you haven’t done, and you know it. And what exactly did she lie about? Did you ask her how your dad was doing?”
“No.”
“Did you ask her if any of your family members were suffering from a potentially terminal disease?”
“No, but—”
“But what? I threw in the disease part because the men in your family are suffering from a terminal case of stupidity,” Levi said. “From what I understand, the moment she made the connection that Les was your dad, she encouraged him to come clean. But Les being Les, she had to give him an ultimatum. He had until the family dinner to come clean or she was going to tell you.”
“I didn’t know that,” he said, not that it mattered. She’d had plenty of time to tell him and didn’t.
“You hung up on me before I could get to that part,” Levi said. “Only you could fall in love with a woman who actually didn’t think you were an asshole, then blow it.”
“I didn’t say I loved her,” he said, wondering again at the power of the L-word.
Not just the word, but the little flutter he got saying it. He’d told himself when he walked out of his kitchen, it was over. That it was better this way, to end it before they became too invested—even though he knew he was already a goner.
“You didn’t have to, man.” Levi laughed as if this was all so hilarious. “Only love could make you crazy enough to ruin what was an honest-to-God chance at what we’re all hoping to find one day. You had it, right there in front of you, and you ran.”
“I didn’t run. I’m working.”
“Working at being a miserable turd, like your old man.”
“Well, maybe I finally understand him a little better.”
“Are you kidding? Your mom died. Annie just kept her vow as a health practitioner. News flash, that’s life, not some big slight against you.” Levi lowered his voice. “And if anyone should understand the difficult position Annie was in, then it should be you, man. The guy who went to jail rather than reveal his source. Hell, I’ve bailed you out of a ton of situations that had to do with your refusal to give up a source, and I’m still here.”
“Those were sources, not family.” Didn’t Levi think he’d gone through the similarities a thousand times over, only to come to the same conclusion? “I didn’t trust them with my kid or my secrets or my—”
“If you say love, I’m going to be the one hanging up on you. Because if you love her, then how could you punk out when all she was trying to do was give Les a chance to tell you, rather than give you another reason to hate him,” Levi said. “And if you can’t see that or admit just how badly you hurt the most honest and giving person you’ve ever been with, then don’t come home. Because she deserves to be with someone who won’t bail every time he gets his panties in a bunch.”
“You done?” Emmitt asked.
“I don’t know. Yeah, I guess I am.”
“I did more than punk out. I hurt her,” he said for the