Page 12 of Ice Around the Edges

He put his face down in her shoulder, and I saw him shudder.

“Oh, love.” She sighed deeply. “I hope you get what you want this year.”

I turned my head away, looking out the window to give them some semblance of privacy. When she called out the goodbye to me from the door, I had enough time to turn and see her wave before she was gone.

Alone with Dixon, I had no idea what to say.

He cleared his throat.

“You could have just told your father to go to hell when you believed what he thought was real. You could have, but you didn’t.”

“No, I didn’t, and there’s no excuse for that.”

“You were a coward.”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t want to be disinherited.”

“No.”

“And so you threw me away, because the thought of losing me was easier than the thought of losing your family and your money.”

“Yes.”

At least we were clear on everything.

After long minutes of thundering silence, I told him to go.

“Why would I go now?”

I shook my head. “It changes nothing. I mean, it was awesome of your Mom to hop on the family jet and make the trip from LaGuardia to O’Hare, but nothing is fixed. You still left, I still stayed… we have completely different lives.”

He shoved his hands down in the pockets of his jeans and moved closer to the bed. “I want you to come home with me.”

“I could never do that.”

“Why not?”

I shook my head. “’Cause what am I, above all else?”

“I don’t know. What?”

“You know.”

“No, I don’t fuckin’ know,” he said, suddenly irritable.

“Yeah, you do.”

“Evan, I––”

“I’m a romantic. You know that.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I do know that.”

“So you know that us, together, that was done so long ago.”

He cleared his throat. “I don’t accept that.”