stumbling block when it first came to you. That and stubbornly, I think he believed if he refused to grant Melissa’s wish, she’d pull through somehow. And I think now he carries that guilt with him that he couldn’t save her.”
“Jenna said that,” I muttered, not even truly thinking of it that way when she’d said it to me. I closed my eyes and tried to absorb his confessions and admissions, tried to piece them together in a puzzle that would make sense and still came up empty.
For as much as I’d been so angry and hurt, so much of it now made no sense.
And this was David…
“You’ve been through so much,” I said, lamely, for lack of anything better to say. My pulse raced and my head spun. There were so many similarities and so much loss for them.
“Why didn’t you tell me from this beginning?”
David let go of my hand and took a drink of his coffee, settling back in the chair. That familiar pulse of irritation bubbled in me. Was he debating what to say to me? How much honesty to give me?
“David,” I warned.
“It might seem silly. But Melissa, she was my princess, you know? I would deny her nothing.”
“Okay.”
“She liked you for him.”
“What?” I collapsed against my chair, this time, entirely sure I heard him wrong. There was no way. Absolutely no way.
“She said she thought you were pretty, told me once, at the end, that Hudson would like your fire and grit and hidden soft spots she was sure you had, too.”
“Stop.” This was madness.
He kept talking like I hadn’t said a darn thing but inside, my blood was heating. “I needed to wait to see if she was right about you.”
“Stop,” I repeated. My stomach was threatening to heave up everything I’d eaten that day, which admittedly wasn’t much.
He played this game with me to be a matchmaker? He played with my life? My heart? And Hudson’s? I didn’t know whether to slap him or hug him but all the pain I felt at hearing his diagnosis and the story of his wife was quickly turning into something else. If I sat through more of this, I might burn the place to ash with my anger.
“I need to go,” I said and grabbed my coat.
He stopped me with three words.
“He’ll need you.” In a rush, he blurted, “He doesn’t know all this, but Melissa talked to me. I needed to know you loved him. That he loved you. That you’ll be there for him. He’ll need that love to help him live.”
I stilled with my coat in my lap and my hands fisting my scarf and hat. He couldn’t be serious. “This is ridiculous.”
“It is. And fantastical, don’t you think? A dating wish and prayer of a girl who saw the best in you and loved her brother beyond reason? I can imagine her now, happily smiling down at us and laughing with glee at how she knew she was right.”
I huffed a laugh. The man could spin such beautiful stories.
“He’ll need you,” David said again and this time it was the earnestness in his expression that quieted my thoughts. “Hudson has lost everyone he’s ever loved, outside of Brandon. Everyone has said goodbye to him or left without having the chance. I couldn’t risk leaving, without knowing he’ll be taken care of. I’ll be telling him and Brandon and Jenna later this week. I was hoping to wait until after Christmas, give us all one good holiday together, to have you see the beauty in what they can be like when surrounded by love, but well, outside you learning this news first, my appointment has been moved up.”
And just like that, all my anger and frustration with him evaporated like a snap.
“How bad?” I asked, shoulders slumping.
“Beatable.”
But not good. He wouldn’t give me a promise he couldn’t keep. Somehow, I still knew that about him.
He leaned forward on the table and dipped his chin to his chest. “I’d like you there. It will be you he’ll want to turn to and you who will need to be strong enough to absorb his pain.”
Jenna’s words from the other day rushed through my mind like a tornado.
You can’t see the love he has for you.
But I had. And despite my pain and their betrayal which was slowly starting to make sense despite this insanity, I still felt so much the same for him.
I’d spent a lifetime being protected by Josh, rarely being able to