stare at me, his dark eyes waiting for me to look him in the eye.
I walked right past him.
“Son.”
I kept walking.
He didn’t call after me again. He didn’t follow me. He let me go.
A knock sounded on my door.
I was on my laptop on the couch, submitting my resume for a laboratory position because my undergraduate degree was in analytical chemistry. My eyes flicked to the door, wary of who was on the other side.
The knock sounded again.
I sighed and put the laptop on the coffee table before I peeked through the hole.
It was Derek.
But I wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t there to watch the game. If that were what he wanted, he would invite me over so he could be with his kids at the same time.
I opened the door but didn’t invite him inside. “I’d invite you in, but I’m not in the mood for a lecture. Now, if you’d like to watch the game and talk about your rockets or whatever, I’m down with that.”
He stared at me the exact same way Dad did, and it was in that moment that I really saw how similar their features were, their mannerisms, their brooding natures.
“Alright, then have a good night.” I started to shut the door.
He pushed it back open. “Dex, come on.”
“Come on, what?” I walked back to the couch and closed my laptop.
He took a seat beside me and sighed. “How long is this going to go on?”
I shrugged. “That’s up to him.”
Derek turned quiet.
“All he has to do is apologize.”
“For what, exactly?”
“You’re on his side… Got it.”
“I’m not on his side. I just don’t understand what he needs to apologize for.”
“You only heard his side of the story.” I hadn’t told Derek what happened.
“I don’t know what his side of the story is because he hasn’t said anything to me about it.”
I turned to look at him.
“Daisy told me.”
I felt the disappointment hit me hard.
“When I try to talk to Dad about it, he won’t say anything. He doesn’t want to talk about it.”
“Yeah, I know how that is.” I didn’t want to talk about being a doctor anymore. I didn’t want to talk about Catherine anymore. I just wanted to be left in peace.
“Talk it out and move on.”
“I’ll move on when he moves on.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“He needs to stop sticking his nose in my business. My life is my own—and he has no say in it.”
He turned quiet again and stared at my laptop on the table. “Look, I know you’ve been in a rough place for a while now, so I know that you aren’t quite yourself. Because my brother wouldn’t think or act this way if he were in the right state of mind. You would see that Dad is just trying to help you.”
I dropped my gaze.
“I know you know I’m right. You want us to leave you alone and let you drown, but we’re never going to do that. We let you float on a raft for a while, but now we’re going to teach you how to swim again—because that’s what families do. This probably isn’t the right thing to say and I don’t want you to misinterpret what I’m trying to convey, but as a family, we’re unanimous about this. We all agree with Dad—because all he wants is the best for you. This life, what you’re doing, it not the best for you.”
I stared at the table as my lungs drew breath, as I felt a blast of depression hit me harder than it ever had.
“It’s time, Dex. It’s time to move on.”
15
Sicily
Dex turned into someone I didn’t recognize.
His warmth had turned to ice.
His humor had dried up.
His gorgeous eyes had dulled like a burned-out Christmas light.
He wasn’t the man I’d met, the man I’d looked forward to seeing every day at work. Something had changed his identity, had changed his foundation, and turned into him a lifeless version of who he used to be.
It broke my heart.
I tried talking to him a couple times, but all he did was shut me out.
I stopped trying.
At the end of the day, he packed up his things then shook hands with Matt. “It’s been fun.”
I turned in my seat and watched them.
“We’re going to miss you, man.” Matt shook his hand. “You’ll be hard to replace.”
“I doubt that,” Dex said. “Cleo will find someone a million times better.” He turned to the girls and said goodbye.
Wait, was he leaving?
Cleo wasn’t there, so I didn’t ask.
After Dex said