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Shaking her head, Lily storms up the stairs. A few seconds later, the house shakes with the slamming of her door.
Alex and I look at each other. All I see on his face is heartache and defeat.
And I’m torn… aching to comfort him, but also needing to go to my best friend.
I’m in a tangled mess.
Chapter 32
ALEX
I’ve got a full day ahead of me today, but before I head out to the studio, I decide five days is long enough to let my daughter hide in her room holding a raging grudge against me.
Despite the family discord, my creativity has been soaring. Penny’s idea of having customers commission projects with their own items has really taken off. I’ve had to limit those orders to four per month, and now I have a waiting list that’s stretching out to two years.
I’ve been working on a new experimental project—a woodland series of sculptures. Instead of working with recycled trash, I’m using elements from nature like hollowed-out tree stumps, branches, moss, rocks, abandoned bird nests, and leaves mixed with wire and polymer clay. I create forest scenes inside the stump, with sculpted critters, ghosts, birds, faeries, and tiny cottages. I finally gave in and replied to the art agent who’s been hounding me, and when I showed her pictures of the first completed woodland scene, she went wild and begged me to create more for an exhibit she booked for me early next year.
My very first exhibit. It’s fuckin’ surreal.
It’s a scary shift when something that’s been therapeutic for me my entire life has suddenly become my job. If turning my art into a career gets to a point where all the joy and reward is stripped from it, I’ll quit and go back to creating only for me. I won’t trade passion for a stress-filled paycheck.
Speaking of stress, here I am in the hallway, knocking on Lily’s door.
“Lily?”
“Go away.”
“Enough bullshit. I’m coming in.”
I open the door to find her sitting on her bed with her laptop on her lap. I’m not surprised when she doesn’t look at me when I walk in.
“What do you want?” she asks, eyes still glued to the screen.
“You’ve avoided me long enough. We’re going to talk.”
“I have nothing to say.”
I grab her laptop, shut the lid, and toss it to the side. “I do.”
Sitting on the edge of her bed, I look around her room. She’s got really cool black-and-white paintings of ravens and black cats hanging on the walls.
“I like those.” I nod toward them.
“Penny painted them for me.”
I smile. “I didn’t know you liked cats. Do you want one? We could go to the shelter.”
“I’m allergic,” she says bitterly. “Something you’d know if you’d been around.”
Nodding, I say, “You’re right. I’m sorry I missed so much of your life. But I’m trying to make up for that.”
“By ruining it? Thanks.”
I wonder if Bri acted like this when her parents were dead set against her dating me. I hate to admit it, but now that the shoe’s on the other foot, I can relate to why her parents were so worried about her.
“I’m not trying to ruin your life, Lily. I’m trying to protect you. I know you think I suck, and you’re probably right. But whether you want to believe it or not, I love you. I’ve loved you from the moment your mom told me she was pregnant, and I never stopped.”
“You don’t have to say that.”
“I know I don’t. But it’s important to me that you hear it. Because I think under that little piranha attitude of yours, you want to be loved.”
She shrugs and picks at her nail polish.
“You can’t keep ignoring me, Lily, and you can’t just hole up in your room every time something happens that you don’t like. You keep reminding me you’re an adult now. Then you gotta act like one.”
“You’re not exactly Mr. Maturity yourself.”
“Hey, I’m not gonna deny it. But I’m working on it.”
I wish she’d let her guard down and open up to me. Even when things are good between us, there’s still that underlying degree of anger in her, simmering just below the surface.
But I also understand that in her eyes, I abandoned her. And in a way, I did. Maybe history really does repeat itself, and I was destined to abandon Lily just like my parents did to me. If my parents suddenly came out of the woodwork wanting to be in my life, I’d tell them to fuck right the hell off.
“Look, we have to talk about what happened the other night.”
Finally, she looks at me. “I’m sorry I lied to you, okay? It was stupid.”
“Glad we agree on that. I don’t like that you felt like you had to lie to me, though. I want us to have the kind of relationship where you can tell me anything.”
