“What exactly is it you are running from?” he said with his hands clasped together and his head tilted to the side.
“Currently? Anal beads.”
He tossed his hands into the air. “For goodness’ sake, Marie, you couldn’t stop yourself from telling Jax about what happened to the bathroom drain?” he hollered toward the other room.
“The beads were your idea, sweetheart! Don’t blame me for being unable to lie,” she hollered back. “My truthfulness was what made you fall in love with me all those years ago.”
“Yes, well, things change.” He groaned, shaking his head.
I pushed my tongue into my cheek. “Are you sure you don’t want to lie down on the couch and tell me your current thoughts and feelings?”
He shot daggers at me with his eyes, making him less Dr. Jefferson and more Human Eddie. “I thought you were leaving.”
I smirked. “On my way out.”
“Stop by the office when you get a chance. We’ll have a real meeting.”
“Sounds good.”
“Oh, and Jax?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m really sorry to hear the news about your father.”
I stayed quiet for a few seconds. I didn’t even bother asking how he’d heard about it, because I knew people in our small town were all news reporters without the credentials. It was a town of gossipers who didn’t really give a damn about my father or me.
If anything, they were running around singing songs of joy about him almost being dead. Soon enough, I’d walk down the streets and hear the townspeople’s praises: Ding dong, the dick is dead. Which ol’ dick? The dickiest dick!
My father wasn’t loved by me, and he was even less loved by the town’s inhabitants. If I had to count the number of times he’d been referred to as the town’s Mr. Potter from It’s A Wonderful Life, I would’ve been exhausted by the high number. I couldn’t even argue with the assessment.
My father wasn’t a good man, and now he was in a nursing home, struggling after his third stroke had left him partly paralyzed with vascular dementia. He no longer knew who he was, and I was no longer able to take care of him. He’d recently moved into the nursing home where he’d be able to get the care he needed.
Before my father was placed there, I’d spent the previous twelve years aiding him with his health issues—which were a lot. He never took care of himself, which made it even harder for me to do so. During all that time, he was quick to beat me, too, to remind me that I was under his control. My older brother, Derek, left the day he turned eighteen and never looked back. Mom had Derek from a previous marriage, but throughout my whole life, Derek referred to my father as his—up until the day our mother passed away and Dad turned to us as his punching bags.
Now, Dad had been moved out of the home I grew up in and placed in the care of others. Even though I hated him, the house still felt a little colder at night. Funny how one could miss the demons they used to play with once they had to go away.
Eddie had a field day when I revealed that truth.
I nodded once, trying not to show any feelings about my father’s condition. The truth was, I’d skipped our therapy appointments because I wasn’t ready to talk. I didn’t know what to say.
A frown landed hard on Eddie’s lips. He used to be better at holding his frowns in during our therapy sessions, but the older we grew and the more we became like family, Eddie couldn’t hide his worry about me.
“If you need to talk…” he started.
“Your couch is always open—yeah, Eddie, I know.”
I headed outside to meet Connor at the truck, but to my surprise, I found him standing at the fence, talking with Eddie and Marie’s newest neighbor—the trespasser.
He was holding one of his business cards out toward her and talking way too much—like always. “So, yeah, I am the founder, owner, and CEO of Cuber Incorporated, and as a new member you get your first ride for free. But, as you appear to be a diamond in this town of coals, I’ll let you have two rides free. Just download the app and enter the code ‘diamond’.” He paused and scrunched up his nose. “Okay, don’t enter that code yet because I have to update the app before that will work, but after like sixteen hours, I’ll