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Avery and I pull apart just as he takes a step forward, his brows furrowing even more and his eyes darting back and forth between me and Avery. “Dad, what the fuck? Are you drunk?” He looks at Avery. “Areyou?”
“Lucas…” Avery says as she takes a step towards him and holds her hand out to touch him, her eyes wide and unblinking.
“WHAT THE FUCK?” He repeats and she flinches, dropping her hand.
“Okay, you have about one more fuck, Lucas Daniel,” I warn him. Not that I really care if my kids swear but they certainly weren’t going to do it at me.
“You’re shitting me, right? You…and…you have a girlfriend! And…Avery? What is going on?” He yells.
“Lucas…” Avery’s worried eyes dart to me for help and I wish I knew what to say. I was supposed to have time to plan for this conversation. He was not supposed to find out until I told him and I curse myself for not waiting until we were behind closed doors before I kissed her.
“We should talk, Son.”
“Talk about what? Why you’re mauling my best friend in a corner like some horny old guy?”He says with an incredulous look.
“Lucas,” Avery snaps. “Stop it.”
“Stop what? This is fucking weird.” He shakes his head. “I don’t like it. Don’t do this again.” He points between the two of us and I realize that he thinks this was just a one-time thing brought on by too much alcohol.
Avery and I share a look before I turn my focus back to him. “Lucas…” I think about going along with it, but I don’t know if that would just make things worse in the long run. “Avery and I have been…seeing each other,” I tell him because the thought of insinuating that Avery was just a drunken accident or fling does not sit right with me.
He blinks his eyes several times. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” He takes a step toward me and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the look he’s giving me. “What?” His voice is low and angry and at this moment, I don’t think he sees me as his dad but the guy that touched the woman he believes belongs to him on some level.Fuck.“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” He screams.Yes, screams.“You’re…” He points at Avery. “AVERY? That’s who you’ve been seeing? You’ve been sneaking around my back with my best friend?” He spits through gritted teeth. “And on top of that, the woman I spent years being in love with?” He darts his eyes to Avery and I can only assume the anger there is brought on by hurt and maybe a little embarrassment. “And you? MY DAD? I wasn’t good enough for you, so what, you decided to go for the older version of me?”
“It was never about you not being good enough—” Avery starts.
“Save it,” he growls at her. “You are the fucking worst for this, Avery. I’ve been nothing but a good friend to you and you mess around with my dad? I can’t even look at you.”
“Don’t talk to her like that,” I snap at him. “I raised you better than that.” I see her lip trembling and the devastated expression on her face. He goes to respond when I pin him with a warning glare that I hope he heeds. “You and I should talk alone.”
“For what? So you can apologize for stabbing me in the back? I’m good.” He puts a hand up before running a hand through his hair. “I’ve looked up to you my whole fucking life only for you to do…this?” His lips form a frown and he shakes his head. “How could you do this? OF ALL THE FUCKING PEOPLE IN THE WORLD?”
I sense Avery moving next to me and when I look over at her, her gaze is focused on the floor. “Avery, can you give us a minute?”
She nods before looking up at Lucas with tears shimmering in her eyes. “I never meant to hurt you,” she chokes out and I hate that I can’t comfort her right now. He doesn’t look at her as his angry gaze is still trained on me. “I know that’s not enough but…I’m so sorry.” She sniffles before walking down the hallway toward her room.
“How did this happen?” He snaps when we see her enter her room. “When?”
“Last summer.”
“A year? This has been going on for a fucking year?”
“We kissed last year and that was it and then winter break…” I tuck my hands in my pockets, not wanting to get into the details. “Things got more serious when she got home for the summer.”
He chuckles as he looks at me with such disappointment. “You’re the guy she met up with after her graduation party.” He puts his hands over his eyes and lets out an angry groan. “You are unbelievable! How…youknewhow I felt about her.”
“Yes,felt, you’ve been saying for years that you don’t have those feelings for her anymore.” I point at him. “I am not trying to deflect blame but you said you were over her.” I cross my arms over my chest. “How about you be honest with me about it?”
“Like you’ve been honest with me?” He argues.
“I wasn’t expecting things to get this far. I thought…” I sigh. “Fuck, I don’t know. I thought I just needed to get her out of my system. Once. One time.” I lean against the wall. “But things changed.”
We stand in silence for a minute before he speaks. “You could have anyone. Whyher?”
I hear the sadness in his voice and this is what I was afraid of. Not his anger or the yelling, but the thought that I’ve hurt my son so deeply that we may never recover from it.That he feels betrayed.
“I don’t want justanyone.”
“And when were you going to fucking tell me?”
