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“Tell me if I’m warm.”
Finally, Cal turned and met his gaze. “Am I that obvious?”
“It’s not obvious, Cal. Don’t forget, I’ve been there myself, in the exact same place.”
As if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, Cal stood tall. “He left. He left all of us.” He emphasized each sentence with a finger poke at the air. “I don’t know how you can be friends with someone like that.”
“You still don’t get it, do you? Even after listening to the kids in the program tonight. Can’t you understand why Mark left? That without his salary, neither you nor Ali would have been able to go to school?”
Cal shrugged. “So? We’d have survived.”
“Not good enough. V and Mark want to give you something better than what they had growing up. Which was basically nothing. Until they were taken in by a nice family, they were just surviving. Why do you think they took you into their home?”
“Because they felt guilty. I figured when the novelty wore off, they’d forget about us.”
“Seriously? And did that happen?”
“Not yet,” Cal said, sounding a shade belligerent.
Finn shook his head. “After all this time, you can’t possibly believe that.”
The kid shrugged.
Finn jumped up to sit on the counter. “Are you going to tell me what’s really going on with you? Why you backed out of school? Why you’re acting out like you’ve been doing? And don’t feed me some line of bullshit. Give me the truth.”
Cal pulled out the chair at the workstation. He kept his distance, but at least he wasn’t running for the hills. When he sat down, he lifted his head and anguish-filled eyes stared back at Finn. “I’m afraid. I’m afraid if I leave, I’ll never be able to come back. That Veronica will realize how much better her life is without us, without me, holding her down.”
Finn let out a long exhale. “You know that’s just ridiculous, right?”
“I suppose.” But Cal didn’t sound very convinced. He picked at the granite with his fingernail.
Finn met his eyes and said, “You need Veronica to think she needs to watch over you. It’s the only way you can guarantee she won’t go away and leave you, too.”
The kid swallowed, his eyes reflecting a childhood filled with hurt and fear. He blinked hard, and Finn could tell he’d finally hit home.
He jumped down from the counter and moved closer. Cal thankfully didn’t retreat. “Do you understand how unfair that is? To Veronica. And to yourself.”
Cal swallowed again, harder. “I don’t know what I’d do if she… I couldn’t go through that again. Or Ali. I need to make sure—” His words choked off.
Finn stepped even closer. Cal’s eyes were filled with tears.
He laid his arm around the boy’s shoulders. “You won’t have to. Your big sister will never let you guys go. Whether you’re living under her roof, or at school, or you’re an old man of thirty-two like me. She will always be there for you. You can bet your university money on it.”
“I don’t know,” Cal said, his voice cracking. “I’ve done some pretty horrible things.” He gazed up at him with an overwhelming sadness. “I’ve been such an asshole.”
“Stop. Everyone does things they regret. Everyone fails before they succeed. You’re going to fail sometimes with girls, with your job, with your family. It’s inevitable. But that’s how we learn. The person we become is based on all of the mistakes we’ve made. How you chose to use those mistakes to shape the person you want to be…well, that’s what truly makes the man.”
Cal looked doubtful. “Have you ever failed?”
Christ knew, Finn had failed many times. His biggest failure…Veronica.
He pulled another chair up to the station and sat. “I failed twelfth-grade math. Had to go to summer school. Vivian was not impressed.”
Cal rolled his eyes. “I’m being serious.”
“So am I. Still, when have I ever needed to bisect a tangent owning a restaurant?”
“Exactly!” Cal shook his fist. “That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to tell V all along.”
