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Lucas paused. “Do you think I hate you?”
The boy shook his head. “No, if you did you would have left us with that crackhead DeeAnn.”
Lucas sucked in air, feeling like the world pressed in on him. “Right. I don’t hate anyone, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some things between your father and me. Things you wouldn’t understand.”
“Michael says Dad is dead,” Chris said, his blue eyes welling with tears. “That’s not true, is it? We’re kind of scared.”
Michael’s spoon clattered on the table, but he didn’t say anything.
“Your father isn’t dead. And he’s not going to die.”
“His leg got blown off,” Michael said, his voice quiet in the chattering cacophony of the busy restaurant. “I heard Mom tell Grammy and Grampy weeks ago. She was crying and said he was in Germany and then told them about the operations he would have.”
Chris turned terror-stricken eyes on his brother. “His leg got blowed up?”
“Wait a sec, guys,” Lucas said, holding up his hands and waving them before scooting his chair back toward the table. He glanced over at Addy who cradled her cappuccino in both hands, her deep eyes brimming with concern. “Let’s take a deep breath and I’ll explain some things to you, okay?”
Both Chris and Michael swallowed, their eyes glued to him, as they nodded simultaneously.
Lucas glanced over at Addy. “I’m about to piss Courtney off with this, so you vouch for me when she tries to shank me.”
Addy bit her lower lip before saying, “I don’t know what Courtney’s intentions are, but I think easing your nephews’ fears trumps any promises made, and for what it’s worth, as a senior counselor in my victim’s therapy group, I can say honesty is a good policy when facing fear.”
Lucas nodded and looked back at his nephews. “Your mother is a good woman, and when she was in high school her parents were killed.”
“We already know that,” Michael said.
“Yes, but I was there with her when it happened, and a lot of false hope and promises were given to her by doctors and nurses… and none of those promises came true. They told your mother that her mother would live and get better. She didn’t. Having hope yanked away really hurt your mother, so she truly thinks she’s doing the right thing by protecting both of you.”
“Our dad… is he, uh, going to—” Chris’s voice thickened and his lower lip trembled. “I don’t want my daddy to die.”
“He’s not,” Lucas said, stretching out a hand and patting Chris’s. “They thought your father was fine and moved him from Germany back to the US, but he grew sick when he got to Virginia. An infection developed from some wounds he received in his stomach, and he didn’t respond to the doctor’s treatments. For a while, it looked bad.”
“But now it doesn’t?” Michael asked.
Lucas shook his head. “He’s doing much better, and they found the right combination of medicines to fight the infection. He’s growing stronger every day and your mother thinks that after he’s fitted with a prosthetic, they will clear him to come home to finish his recovery.”
“What’s a prosetic?”
“Prosthetic,” Michael corrected, tapping on the glass tabletop. “It’s a fake leg. You’ve seen runners with them. Remember?”
“That cool spring robot-looking leg?” Chris knitted his eyes together. “That’s what Dad will have?”
“Or something like that,” Lucas said, glancing again at Addy. Her face had assumed an ethereal quality, reminding him of Reubenesque paintings gracing cathedrals. Her soft eyes smiled at him, and suddenly all inside him wasn’t about wanting Addy beneath him. A piece of him was satisfied at that moment to be near her, to be able to reach out, and draw warmth from her. “But I want you to take your frustration at your mother for not telling you and put it up on a shelf to be forgotten. She is what she is. This wasn’t about not trusting you… it was about loving you so much she didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Wow,” Addy breathed, turning a smile onto the two boys who looked oddly lighter than they had in the entire time he’d been with them.
“So are we good?”
Michael pushed his hair back and leveled his gaze at him. “Thank you for telling us, but you didn’t tell us about what happened between you and Dad a long time ago.”
At that moment, Lucas knew he couldn’t put his brother or sister-in-law in a bad light… and explaining the cheating and betrayal would tarnish their images which felt like the wrong thing to do. “You know, your mother and father were meant to be together. Sometimes we think we know what we want, but God has a better plan for us. He had a better plan for your parents and put them together. And thank goodness He did. He made you a family.”
Chris nodded his head. “So what you’re saying is that you’re glad Mom and Dad got together because now you can marry Addy.”
Addy choked on her water.
“That’s not exactly what I was saying, but it’s kind of right,” Lucas said, popping her on the back and trying not to laugh. “So are we good here?”
