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I watched him slump into the couch. It was clear that the cold façade was a cope for something. But I had no clue what it was.
That is until he sighed.
“Can I tell you something, McKenzie? Something I’ve wanted to say, but I have no idea where to begin?” he asked.
“Sure…what is it?” I replied.
He looked around, and then he spoke to me. “I’ve been a terrible father.”
My eyes widened slightly. I didn’t have a response for that. I mean, he could’ve been better to Emily, and I assumed neither of them was on good terms because she wasn’t here. But still.
“What…do you mean?” I said. I didn’t know where to take this.
“I’ve been terrible. The truth is, McKenzie, at first, I liked you because I thought you were cute, but then I realized that…you’re one of the few people I can confide to about how I treated Emily. I should’ve been a better person, but I wasn’t,” he said.
That’s right. When I played at Emily’s house, her dad rarely was around.
“Yeah, I don’t remember you all that much at the old place. But that was also back when I was in high school, and I didn’t really like talking to parents back then. Hell, I barely talked to my own back then,” I replied.
He laughed. “Well, yeah, but the truth is, you didn’t know what happened back there. I was a terrible father to her, and it was because of both stresses and, well…the past?”
The past? What kind of past? I tried to form words, but then, he continued.
“I just wished that I could’ve been better about the stress. I took it out on her a lot, and it formed a rift in our relationship. It was similar to what happened with her mother. I wish I could forget, but it’s not easy,” Aaron said.
I nodded. I grasped his hand and squeezed it. “I feel the same way. But…I guess it’s more I had you pegged all wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
I sat back, flushing at my words. Maybe it was the alcohol or the slight regret I felt whenever I remembered how he was in the past.
My eyes looked around. “I guess I always just thought you were some cold father who was a total workaholic. Emily told me that you were just a dick, and she…she didn’t like talking to you, but the truth was, maybe it’s also the fact that in a way, I always saw you as a father figure too,” I flushed crimson.
“What do you mean?” Aaron asked.
“Well, I spent time here because of Emily, and despite your rough and callous behavior, I did like you a lot back then. You were always there to pick up Emily and me from practice whenever you could. It’s not the same for my parents,” I admitted.
My heart lurched talking about this. Why the fuck was I trauma-dumping on Aaron? But then he took my hand and held it tightly.
“Continue,” he stated, with a warmer tone than his usual cold boss voice.
“Right…well, you know that my mom was always busy. You were a workaholic, but she was even worse. She basically left me home alone from the time I was seven until she passed away from a heart attack a couple of years ago. She never seemed to care, and I guess maybe it was because of me, or maybe because of my own father,” I told him.
He looked at me and held my hand again, gently squeezing it. “That’s right, he wasn’t in the picture, right?”
Did I tell this man the truth? Where my father really was?
I bit my lip and nodded. “Yeah. My dad…killed himself when I was seven—a drug overdose. The guy was an addict, and my mom refused to acknowledge it, so it…it was hard. But when I was here with you and Emily, in a way, I felt like I had a family.”
Dammit. The tears fell. I tried to wipe them clean, but it was no use. But then, Aaron reached out, wiping them slightly.
“It’s okay to cry, McKenzie,” he said.
I did so, and I just let it go.
“I guess it’s because I always thought that you were a good guy underneath it all, that I wanted to be around you. So, it wasn’t just because you were attractive, but also because…you cared,” I told him.
I couldn’t stop. As much as I tried to quell the tears, they kept falling. But instead of crying alone as I did before, Aaron reached out and hugged me, holding me close, and then I sobbed in his arms.
