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“Mom?”
“We’ll talk about it later, honey.”
Out in the kitchen, Danny took another angry chomp out of the sandwich. “Every time I’ve been late it’s been legit, but she doesn’t seem to care. As far as she’s concerned, I’m guilty as charged.”
“Have you been thinking about Lauren much?” As usual, Richie’s question was thoughtful and reserved, but it still brought Danny up short. He considered his answer, his brow creased with uncertainty.
“Thinking isn’t a crime.” Danny regretted his gruff tone as soon as the words were out of his mouth. “Sorry, Dad. Do I think about her? Sure, I do. I can’t help it now—Heather brings her up every chance she gets.”
“Hmm.” The corners of Richie’s mouth turned down.
“That’s the second time you’ve ‘hmm’-ed me.”
“Back then, you were so in love with Lauren, your mother and I worried the two of you would just elope and run away. Made your mother crazy. When the two of you broke up, I knew how much it hurt you. But you never talked about it. Ever.”
“I was eighteen, Dad. My first broken heart. I don’t do that touchy-feely stuff now. I sure didn’t do it back then.” Danny polished off the last of the sandwich.
“I know. It’s never been easy for you to talk about things like that. But just because you don’ttalkabout something doesn’t mean you don’tfeelit. Maybe this whole thing is bringing back all the stuff that ate you up inside while you pretended it didn’t.” While he talked, Richie took some plates out of the drying rack, wiped them with a towel, and put them in the cabinet.
Leave it to his dad to hit the bullseye. Danny stared down at the counter.
“You had nowhere to put it. You didn’t have an outlet like Lauren did with her music.”
Danny grunted, a formidable—and unintentional—imitation of his father’s ‘hmm’ rumble. “Yeah. She poured all her anger at me into her music. The jerk who broke her heart.”
“Not every song she wrote is about you, you know.”
Danny felt his neck redden as he realized how self-indulgent he sounded.
“She broke your heart, too,” his father said as he dried a glass and put it away. “But maybe you should listen to a little more of her music. You might be surprised what you hear. Might give you some perspective, maybe even a little closure.”
It will take more than a few songs to get that kind of closure. He leaned against the counter, morose.
“And maybe talking about it a little more might help, too. Keeping it bottled up isn’t going to help anyone.” Richie folded the dishtowel and hung it on the hook by the stove.
Inside, Danny conceded his father had a point, but before he could continue that thought, the door to the kitchen squeaked open. Heather came in. Her eyes were shiny.
“Am I interrupting?” she asked.
“Not at all,” Richie said. He got up and brought a random dish from the counter to the sink and rinsed it off. Danny was pretty sure it had already been washed.
“I’m sorry I lost my temper,” Heather said. “It’s just been a really stressful week.”
“It’s okay.” Danny didn’t mean it. It really wasn’t okay. He was embarrassed she’d behaved like that in front of his parents, but holding a grudge wasn’t going to fix it. “Why don’t we get the boys and head home?”
“Okay.” Heather looked over at Richie, her face contrite. “Richie, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…”
Richie held up a hand to forestall the rest of her sentence. “Don’t you worry about it. Everyone has a bad day once in a while.”
After stronger hugs than the boys wanted from their father, especially Lucas, and a heated discussion culminating in a best two-out-of-three Rock, Paper, Scissors match the boys decided that Matty would ride home with his father and Lucas and Tommy would go with Heather. On the drive home, Matty chattered away for a little bit but then put his headphones on to listen to music.
Left to his thoughts, Danny went back over the fight, how he’d been feeling, and what his father said. He finally decided his father had a point about clearing the air with Lauren. If he opened up a little about how he was feeling, that might make all the difference in the world. Trying to deliberately avoid his ex, and some of the emotions that were bubbling up, was just making everything worse. He needed to address this head-on. They had to talk. Clear the air for real.
By the time he got home, Danny was comfortable with his decision. He got into bed and mumbled a good night to his wife. Then he fell into a deep sleep and didn’t wake up until the alarm went off in the morning.
ChapterEighteen
On Wednesday, Danny left work at the end of his shift and drove across the city to the Somerset Hotel. A smartly dressed security guard and a concierge waited at the elegant marble desk. Both looked up and smiled as Danny approached.
