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“Well, I'm preparing you for Creed growing up.”
“Ugh! You’re going to make me cry!”
“Son, how are things?” Dad takes his turn hugging me, but he glances at Charlie, letting me know he’s talking more about our relationship and less about my life in general.
“Things are pretty damn good.”
“Let me give him a hug! I haven’t seen him in so long.” Addi shoves Dad out of the way and practically tackles me. “I'm so sorry, sweetie. I never should’ve been so… I don’t even know how to describe my behavior towards you, but it wasn’t nice. It was nothing close to what you deserved and I'm sorry for that.”
“Stop, Ads. It’s over and done with. I'mnot upset.”
“Well, you should be upset! We totally let you down.” She swats at my chest.
“Wyatt, do you mind if I talk to you in private?” Wes stands just behind Addi with his attention focused entirely on me.
“Yeah, no problem.”
He nods his head and I quickly follow him out to the deck. Well, as quickly as I can on crutches. Uncle Jesse says I only have a few more days that I’ll need the crutches, and I can't wait to get rid of them.
“What’s going on?” I ask as he leans on the railing around the deck and stares out at the large yard I grew up running around in.
“I'm not going to apologize for how I treated you after the two of you split up.”
“I didn’t expect you to.”
“I told you what would happen if you broke my little girl’s heart.”
“You did, and yet you didn’t follow through on any of those threats. Why?”
“Because I knew something more had to be going on. There’s no way the Wyatt I knew would walk away from Charlie after the years and years of waiting to finally make her yours. I just couldn’t figure out why.”
“I did it all for her.”
“You’ve always put her first and I really applaud you for that.”
“What did you want to talk about? I know there’s more.”
“Do you still have the ring?”
“Yeah,” I sigh. “I still have it.”
“When are you going to ask her?”
My attention snaps to Wes and my brows furrow. He can't be serious right now. There’s no way he’d still approve of me marrying Charlie after everything that happened.
“I know what you’re thinking so let me answer your questions. Yes, I still approve. Probably more now than when you initially asked me. You sacrificed your own happiness to make sure Charlie achieved her goals, not many men would do that. You stayed away from the cleat chasers and have been single for eight years. Assuming you didn’t hook up with anyone, you stayed faithful to her even when you owed her nothing.”
“I’ve never been with anyone else,” I growl.
“Good. That’s what I wanted to hear, but I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had dated.”
Wes is quiet for a long while. I know there’s more he has to say, or he would’ve gone back in the house, so I wait him out. He’s been so kind to me over the years, almost like a second dad, and I respect him more than he’ll ever know.
“I’ve been talking to Blake,” he says, breaking the silence. “We want to start building houses on the outside of the loop. There are too many kids to give them each a house, but we think we can get around a dozen or so houses the same size as the current ones.”
“That would be pretty awesome.” I nod my head.
“I was thinking the first one could be for you and Charlie.” He glances over at me and watches me carefully.
