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Tate glares over at his dad.
‘You can drop that look too. He’s on your side. He didn’t deserve that.’
His father’s right. First Chloe and now Gregg. He’s on a roll today. He angrily scrubs his hand though his hair then covers his face.
‘I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s wrong. And don’t even consider saying nothing because I’m not buying it.’
‘It’s just woman problems, okay.’
Rick smiles at that response. ‘Kind of glad to hear it’s not something more serious. I saw the comments Astrid made about you.’
‘Please don’t even go there. It’s got nothing to do with her. It’s nothing, really. Just some silly... it wasn’t even anything.’ He needs to stop talking. Needs to end this topic before he pours his heart and soul out. ‘I’m grand, okay.’
‘You need to talk, Tate. Are you opening up to your counsellor?’
‘I have an appointment every week.’
‘I know you do. That’s not what I’m asking. When you were in the centre did you talk or did you just sit there giving everyone dirty looks?’ Rick grins as Tate lifts his head to look at him. ‘Yeah. That’s the one.’
‘I’m—’
‘Don’t you dare say you’re grand again. You just kicked the crap out of an inanimate object then rugby tackled Gregg. C’mon mate. I’m your dad. You can talk to me.’
The snort comes out before Tate can stop it. The total dick mood is in force today.
‘What the hell was that for?’
‘You can drop the concerned father bullshit, okay.’
Yeah, he’s a total fucking dick. He knows what he just said will have hit Rick as if he punched him. None of this is Rick’s fault. Just like it’s not Chloe’s fault. Or Gregg’s fault. The complete lack of response from Rick is nearly worse than if he yelled at him, which he absolutely deserves.
‘I didn’t mean that. Ignore me.’
‘Not happening. I can’t believe you just threw that at me.’
He can’t believe it himself. With no response to offer up, he rubs his hand over his jaw and looks anywhere but at Rick.
‘Since the day we adopted you, you’ve been part of this family. You are my son so don’t even go there just because you’re pissed off. Do you honestly think we’d be putting up with your shit if we didn’t think of you as family? You’re not that amazing, mate. Quite the opposite at the moment actually.’
That at least earns a small laugh, but he still feels unbelievably shit for even going there.
‘I’m sorry. I’m being an ungrateful moody ass.’
‘Too right you are. What the hell is going on with you?’
‘I don’t know, okay! I’m—’ he pauses and digs his fingers into his hair. ‘I don’t know. Ignore me.’
‘No. Talk to me.’
‘Just drop it, Dad. I don’t want to talk. I just want to forget about it.’
‘Don’t think that’s working for you or my poor workbench. You really think we’re all going around with our heads in the clouds? Do you really think we don’t see what’s going on with you?
‘I know you have nightmares every night. I know you take Jove to the beach and break down. I know you come back to the house and force breakfast down then work out until you’re exhausted. Hoping you’ll be so tired you won’t have the nightmares? I don’t know. I do know that you’re not getting better.
‘Your mother may think the sun shines out of your arse, but I’m not so naïve. I know full well you were using long before the incident in January. That’s a whole other discussion. What I want to know is what happened in January to escalate that?’
Tate pushes to his feet, wincing as his foot protests after ploughing into the bench. ‘Just leave it, okay.’
