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No matter what I did, I could never measure up to him. And now Lou knew it too.
“And, who’s this?” Dad asked.
“This is my roommate, Lou.”
“Nice to meet you, Lou,” Dad said with one of his charming smiles. Lou giggled, and then pulled himself together and offered Dad his hand.
“Nice to meet you too, Mr. Toro.”
“Thank you for looking after my son. He needs some looking after.”
“Dad!”
“Of course. Anything for my Lamb Chop… I mean Quin.”
“And thanks for giving me a call. It looks like I came just in time.”
I looked at him confused and then looked down at myself. I thought I had done a good job of pulling myself together.
“Shall we go? Again, it was good to meet you, Lou. The next time I’m in town, we’ll all have to go out to dinner.”
“I look forward to it, Mr. Toro,” Lou said blushing.
Yea, I was sure he was.
Walking away, Dad put his arm around me. It felt good to feel him there. Though, he might have done it so that he could fix my hair.
“What are you doing?”
“Did you look in the mirror before you came outside?”
“Not everyone cares about looks as much as you do, Dad.”
The truth was that I had forgotten to. And although I had managed to get dressed, it had completely slipped my mind to brush my hair. Baby steps.
As he always did, Dad took me to the best restaurant he could find. Considering we were in East Tennessee it wasn’t like the ones in New York and Los Angeles, but it was nice. For some reason, I could barely taste the food, but that probably had more to do with Cage than the chef.
“So, tell me, what’s going on, Quin? Who’s this guy who broke your heart?”
Despite whatever faults Daddy Laine had, he always listened closely. As he did this time, he seemed to genuinely feel my pain.
“You know, your dad once left me heartbroken.”
“That’s not the way he tells it. He said that you broke his heart.”
“I guess it’s a matter of perspective. It was a crazy time.”
“You mean with the hurricane?”
“Yeah. It was insane. You can’t imagine it. And I was a kid back then. I hadn’t quite figured out what was important. It was your dad who was important… and your mom. What they needed and wanted was what was important.”
“What’s important to Cage is taking care of his mother,” I told him.
“As it should be.”
“But, it hurts. I loved him. And he loved me. He told me he did.”
“I’m sure that he did and that you do. And, that’s wonderful for as long as it lasts. But, loving someone sometimes means letting them go.
