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“I’ll see you soon, Lucas.” Danny hugged him.
“Dad? Can I talk to you for a minute? Man to man?”
If Lucas hadn’t looked so serious, Danny might have laughed. “Man to man? Of course. What’s on your mind?”
“I just, well…” Lucas hesitated. “I was thinking about when I messed up Mr. Fiorino’s car with my baseball. You always told me that mistakes happen, and we learn from those. And when you make one, you gotta own up to it.”
“You’re absolutely right. You’ve got to take responsibility.” Danny tried to hide his discomfort. It was hard to hear one of the life lessons he’d tried teaching his son turned back on him. In fact, “hard” was a colossal understatement.
“And then you have to make it right,” Lucas said. “Fix whatever got broken, even if what you did was an accident. Even if fixing it is hard.”
His son’s expression was earnest and thoughtful, and Danny could tell he’d been thinking about this for a while. Danny glanced from his son to the car where his wife sat waiting, torn between paternal pride and eviscerating guilt.
“When did you get so grown up?” Danny asked.
“C’mon, Lucas! We gotta go!” Matty hollered from the car, shattering the moment into a thousand pieces.
“Shut up, Matty!” Lucas shouted back.
“Your mom’s waiting,” Danny said.
Lucas gave him another quick hug. “I miss you, Dad.”
“I miss you, too.”
Danny stood in the driveway, watching their taillights disappear and feeling very empty and alone. One way or another, he had to decide.
ChapterThirty-Six
Danny had only been home for an hour and was still agonizing over what Heather—and Lucas—had said. And if the person pounding on his front door didn’t stop, they were getting punched in the face. He flung the door open, ready to tear whomever it was a new one—but he bit his tongue when he saw Joey standing there. He glared and his brother stared right back, unflinching.
“You gonna invite me in? Or just make me stand on the friggin’ front steps?”
“What do you want?” Danny had really had enough of family for one day, but he stepped back, letting his younger brother into the kitchen.
“Wanted to see if you were okay. Was a rough time at Ma and Dad’s.”
“I don’t need a shrink.”
“Debatable.”
Joey went to the refrigerator without asking and took out two beers. He put one on the laminate kitchen table in front of Danny and opened the other for himself. Danny looked at his brother for a long time. Joey just waited, unperturbed by the silence.
“I wish Ma would stay out of it,” Danny said. “She went to the studio the other day and unloaded on Lauren.”
Joey swallowed his beer wrong and started coughing. “Jesus H. Christ. That explains a lot. At least she’s talking to you. Do you remember when she found out that her friend Edie cheated on her husband? Ma never spoke to her again.”
The word “cheated” got Danny’s hackles up. “Look, if you came here to lecture me, then save it and get the hell out—”
“—That’s not why I—”
“—because I’ve really had enough of being judged by everyone!”
“Well, if you’d shut the fuck up for a second and listen, maybe you’d know why I was here.” Joey used his Army voice, and the authority in it brought Danny up short. He shut his mouth, swallowing whatever else he was going to say, and held up his free hand to show he wasn’t going to interrupt.
“It’s an ugly way to say it,” Joey said. “But straight up, you’re married, and if you’re sleeping with Lauren, you’re cheating on your wife. Doesn’t matter if your marriage is in trouble or you’re separated or whatever. And honestly, bro, I don’t like what you’re doing. But I want you to know that I’m not judging you one way or another. I get it, sort of. I was little, but I remember what you were like after Lauren left.”
Danny looked down. He thought he’d done a better job concealing his misery back then. He’d tried to hide it, ignore it, bury it, and he’d believed it had worked. Clearly, he’d been wrong—he hadn’t hidden his broken heart from everyone nearly as well as he suspected.
