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(I imagine they did.)
He took a sip and asked his son, “Who hurt Wyn?”
“One of her friends. Not a nice woman. Hated me even before I left Wyn, and she let Wyn know it.”
Guillaume’s brows shot together. “Hated you? But why?”
“She had a lot of reasons, and she shared those with Wyn too.”
“Of course, Wyn stopped this madness,” Guillaume said with surety.
To that, Remy shook his head. “No, she just bitched to me about what the woman would say.”
Guillaume tensed in his chair. “Why on earth would she do that?”
“Because she thought I hung the moon. And because of that, she thought I could take people talking shit about me. It was me being a goddamn idiot that proved to my wife I’m human.”
“You hang the moon, Remy.”
Remy went solid.
“For her, for your children…for me,” Guillaume carried on.
“Dad—”
“Do you not think you do?” Guillaume demanded.
“I know I don’t. No one does.”
“You do.”
“Dad—”
Remy’s body gave a jolt as his father abruptly surged to his feet. “You do.”
Surprised—and worried—by his father’s reaction, Remy murmured, “Please, sit down, Dad.”
“When a parent hurts you, the only thing you can think is what you did wrong to deserve it.”
Right.
There it was.
“Dad, sit and let me get you another port.”
Guillaume sat, but he said, “It’s important you know this.”
“I’m not perfect.”
“You are to me. To Wyn. To your children.”
“Not anymore to Wyn or the kids. I broke our family apart.”
“Then you fixed it,” Guillaume retorted. “Perfection isn’t perfect, Remy. Mon Dieu. There’s perfection in righting a wrong. There’s perfection in taking an incorrect turn and finding yourself on an unexpected but beautiful journey. Even if there’s pain along that journey, if it takes you where you’re supposed to be, it makes it no less perfect. The woman who sat at your side, spending half the dinner leaning into you thinks you light the night sky. The children who act as sentries for you know no other world but that one because that is all you gave to them.” He shook his head. “You’ve always been so hard on yourself. Now, I know why.”
Quietly, Remy rebuked, “Neither of us can blame her for everything.”
“We can’t?” Guillaume asked.
“Dad, she’s not going to be with us much longer.”
“I don’t wish to talk about your mother,” Guillaume decreed.
Remy’s lips thinned.
Even if he didn’t want to talk about Colette, his dad wasn’t done with their last subject.
“Has it occurred to you that in messing up, as you say, you gave your children permission to do the same? There’s also perfection in understanding you don’t always need to be perfect,” Guillaume asserted.
Remy studied his father a beat because this was absolutely a point to consider.
But not about himself.
He then reminded him, “I hurt all of them.”
“It’s impossible to live without hurt, Remy,” Guillaume rejoined. “Surely you of all people know that. You learned it early enough.”
And that was self-recriminating.
But he had no shot at a response.
At that point, Sabre strolled in, greeting, “Hey. You guys are still up.”
Guillaume and Remy looked to Sah, but it was Remy who spoke.
“Love you, but, son, I expressly told you not to go there with Nat.”
Sabre’s face got hard as Guillaume inquired, “Why on earth would you do that?”
“She’s having a tough time of it lately,” Remy told his dad.
“I’m sure I’ve not met a single woman who does not find time less tough when a handsome man pays her attention.”
“There are times when that’s the case,” Remy replied.
“Ridicule,” Guillaume returned.
“There are times, Dad,” Remy stated.
And it took another beat before Guillaume’s face paled.
Then his gaze moved to Sabre. “You handled her with care, fiston?”
“Yeah, Pépé,” Sabre assured.
“Now that you got her home, lay off,” Remy ordered.
“Gonna be hard, since I think I talked her into transferring to U of A next semester,” Sabre retorted.
Jesus Christ.
“Sah, why would you do that?” Remy demanded.
“Because she needs someone looking after her.”
“You’re there for a semester and then you’re gone, Sah. She’s in her freshman year.”
“Then Yves will be there next year.”
“What if he goes to ASU to stay close to Theo?”
“If he goes to ASU, I’m never talking to his ass again. But Nat needs to get away from this place.”
“That’ll take her away from her family, Sabre,” Guillaume pointed out.
“Yeah. And it’ll also take her away from Loyola, where the guy who raped her also goes,” Remy fired back.
Guillaume made a pained noise.
Remy was stunned.
“She told you that?” he queried.
“Yeah,” Sabre grunted.
“Why is he still—?” Remy started.
“Listen, Dad, it’s hers. It’s all hers. She gets to handle it how she wants. Okay?” Sabre clipped.
“How much did you guys talk?” Remy asked quietly.
“It took some work, but she opened up. I’ve known her since we were little. It’s no surprise.”
Maybe not, but his son had to be half miracle worker to get the shy girl who’d been there that night to open up about what had happened to her.
