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“Okay, well, let your dad go next. He can ask your boyfriend.”
Oh shit. Oh god.How is it possible that my mom can make this worse even though she’s getting up and walking to the cabin? This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. “N—no, Dad, I don’t think Leon wants to play.”
“No, that’s okay. Go ahead.” Leon crosses his arms, almost like he’s daring my dad to make this bad for him. I think there’s something going on. Something was going on with him in the hallway, and he didn’t want to talk about it, so I let it go. It’s almost like he wants to invite disaster—the whole self-imploding thing his sister was talking about, though I thought we were okay. “I pick truth.”
Fuck. My. Life. With. A. Marshmallow. Toasting. Fork.
“Alright.” My dad crosses his arms, imitating Leon’s stance. “I want to know what your intentions are with my daughter. I want to know what’s going on between you and her and how long it’s been going on. I want to know where you met, where it’s going, and what your parents think of all this, or if you’ve even told them because I don’t really want to know that we’re the last to find out she’s squirreling away some mystery man who she brings to the family cabin instead of calling her own parents to come and see her when she finally, at last, has some time off. And I couldn’t get any of it out of her in the boat this afternoon, which is strange. She’s not someone who holds things back from her family. So, I want answers. They had better be good ones, and it had better be the truth.”
There is no way I’m going to let this continue. I nearly leap out of my chair. “Dad! Seriously! Truth is one question, and we are off-limits. Grilling Leon is not okay.”
A warm hand lands on my knee, stopping me from saying anything else. My lips compress instantly, but it’s more to keep in the purr that I feel rising in my throat at Leon’s touch than anything else. Yes, a bloody purr. Like I’m so far gone I’ve become a cat now.
“It’s okay,” Leon tells me. “You wanted them to know. They’re your parents, and they have a right to answers.” He takes a breath. I think everything might be okay, but god, I’m so wrong. “There was a time in my life when the only thing I had was my honor, and I still hold that above all else, so here’s my word as a gentleman. I don’t want to admit this because it isn’t easy, but I won’t sit here and lie to you.”
Yup. This is going straight to shit so damn fast.
“I’ve known your daughter for a year. We met at work becauseI’mher arsehole boss. My intentions are entirely dishonorable and have been since the start when I asked her to fake marry me to save me from getting deported because I would rather die than go back to Ireland.”
I hang my head and barely manage not to rake my hands up and down it.
“Your daughter is full of grace, and she’s got the purest heart of anyone I’ve ever known. She’s smart and brave and courageous. She has never once complained about anything I asked her to do at work. I don’t give her the menial tasks because I’m trying to humiliate her. I give them to her because I trust her more than anyone else. Trust for me doesn’t come easily. Actually, it doesn’t come at all. I don’t deserve her. This wasn’t supposed to be about deserving. It was supposed to be about a ring on her finger and her name on the paper to save me, and when it was all said and done, I was going to divorce her and pay her what I bribed her with to do this dirty deed as a bonus through work so I could also write it off because I’m a real bastard.”
“Leon…”
He’s not done. He’s going to answer the rest. “As for my parents, in the name of honesty, my father was an insufferable prick, and the best thing he ever did was shucking off his mortal coil. I have no relationship with my mother, so the chances of me telling my parents anything about us are zero. I live with chronic pain, and I probably always will, compliments of my past life.” He holds up his hand. “This is just what you can see.” The firelight plays off the twisted, discolored skin.
“Sometimes I brainstorm what I’d like to tell people if they saw it, which they generally don’t because I usually wear a specially made, costly as hell prosthetic overtop. My sister calls it an accident. What kind of accident? Trampoline? Python bite? Boy-genius-gone-wrong-in-the-chem-lab kind of mishap? Anyway, that’s crap humor, but it does amuse me, and if I can find amusement in something like this, then maybe there’s hope for me yet.” He takes a deep breath, and holy shit, I think things are about to get even more honest. “I’m likely fucked up beyond measure. Yet, somehow, when Darby looks at me, she can see past all that, and she makes me want to be more. It’s impossible to keep her out, and I feel entirely ruined by her already. She makes me want to be the man she sees when she looks at me, even when I can’t find him.”
I am stunned into silence. My eyes are brimming with tears, but I’m not sure if I’m crying for myself or Leon or because this whole thing just went way the heck south, and I don’t know how to fix it. This was not how I wanted my family to find out about us and the marriage and everything else. I don’t think he was trying to sabotage anything. I think he just…had the words in his mouth, and they were like an explosion. Something he couldn’t keep inside anymore. Not a confession but the truth all spilling out because it couldn’t be contained anymore.
My dad runs a hand through his graying hair. He looks way less uncomfortable than I thought he would. And he’s not mad. I can see that through my haze of tears. “Well, shit, that’s heavy.” Understatement of the entire existence of the world right there. His face is soft. That’s a shock to both of us, I think, but I can’t actually look at Leon right now because I know if I do, all these tears I’m holding back—some painful, some proud, some I can’t put a name to—will become a flood. “I’m sorry about all of that, and I hope I have a chance to make up for it just a little by being your father-in-law. Welcome to the family. We’re going to love you.”
Okay, I know my dad is for sure shell-shocked now because that is not a normal thing to say. That is not a normal reaction.
“Dad, no,” I groan, finally forcing my tongue to work again. “He said fake married. But we’re, uh…looking into options for that.”
My dad shifts in the lawn chair, not just because they’re butt-numbingly uncomfortable or because his leg is hurting him. “I didn’t really know what to say, so my welcome to the family sticks. Unless you hurt my daughter. Then all the scary dad threats and buckshot in the ass stuff applies. But not really. Because I don’t own a shotgun, though I could borrow one. However, I would probably shoot my own foot off, so probably not, unless I could actually shoot it off. The damn thing’s been giving me so much trouble. But also, probably not. So we’re going with the honor thing you were talking about.”
“Dad!”
He stands up and walks over to Leon, leaning heavily on his cane. He claps him on the shoulder, and Leon freezes. All his lean muscles bunch up and go rigid, but I can’t see his face. I’m scared to see his face. “It’s going to be alright, son. I think you need to hear that more than anything. You seem like the good type, and someone needs to tell you that—someone who has seen enough of life to know. If my daughter married you, I’m sure there was a good reason. All the money in the world couldn’t motivate Darby to do something that wasn’t already in her heart. Welcome to the family.”
That’s what does it and pushes me over the edge. My tears dribble down my cheeks. I feel like my chest could burst, and I have no idea how Leon is taking it. He’s silent, but that’s his way. He wouldn’t lose it in front of my dad, but when was the last time someone told him it was going to be okay? When was the last time he felt a sense of family? I didn’t know he didn’t talk to his mom. It’s just him and his sister, but she’s not a dad figure, and she never will be. Also, he’s older. He’s the one who does the looking after, and he won’t have it any other way. He can’t see it any other way, even if she’s sassy and keeps him in line. She probably tells him she loves him all the time, but does he let himself believe it? When was the last time someone told him it was okay, that he was safe, and they loved him?
My dad lifts his hand off Leon’s shoulder, and I get out of my chair, walking over on legs that feel rubbery. Thank goodness it’s only a few feet between us. I can’t sit in his lap and hold him. I also can’t fall to my knees, throw my arms around his waist, and hide in him. Not in front of my parents anyway. I settle for a hand on his shoulder, but he’s warm through his T-shirt, and he’s trembling. He’s trembling, but he doesn’t push me away or try to evade me. It’s only another second before my hand turns into arms that wrap around his neck as I lean into him from behind. Kissing the top of his head, I hear his sigh.
It’s okay. You’re safe. I could love you if you’d let me.
When was the last time Leon was able to trust anyone but himself? Maybe Kitty, but anyone outside their tight circle? He leans back hard against the chair and then lets out another sigh, a softer one this time but just as weighted. He lifts his hand and sets his fingers over mine, and they are fire.
My mom comes walking back out of the cabin, right on freaking cue. She walks over to the fire, and the three of us are deadly silent. She blinks, looking into each of our faces. Her eyes linger the longest at my dad standing next to Leon’s chair. “What did I miss?” She has the bush pie makers in her hand and a bag of supplies in the other.
“These two got fake married so he wouldn’t get deported, and this is actually her boss that I was sitting here insulting the whole time, so that’s awkward, but everything might work out,” my dad said in classic dad fashion, filling her in.
The bag drops from my mom’s hand, probably doing a number on the loaf of bread and the jar of jam in there, and the bush pie makers clatter to the ground. She uses her favorite saying, which is so, so classic mom fashion. “Holy smokies and mustard.”
And yeah, that’s about freaking right.
