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Yes, thank God. For everything.
NERVES HADJAMES READYto make a U-turn and head home, but Lainie’s hand in his gave him the courage to walk up the porch to his parents’ home. It had been two weeks since the episode with Victoria Irwin, who’d sustained a flesh wound, thanks to Kenzie’s shot. She’d hit the woman’s hand holding the gun. Lainie’s case was well and truly wrapped.
Just like his heart. He planned to ask her to marry him on Thanksgiving Day, but today, his father had asked to see them both.
They entered the front door. “Dad? Mom?”
“James, Lainie.” His mother came from the kitchen and hugged them both. “So good to see you. Your father’s in the den.”
James nodded and refrained from letting Lainie go in first. He could do this. Take it on the chin like a man. So to speak.
He walked into the room, head held high. He stood while Lainie went to his father and hugged him.
The man patted her on the back.
“I’m all forgiven for speaking my mind then?” she asked him.
“All forgiven.”
James’ heart lurched. Why couldn’t his father say those words to him?
Lainie looked at him. “I could go help your mom in the kitchen?”
“I’d like you to stay if you don’t mind,” his father said.
“Oh, okay. Sure.” She sank onto the couch, hands clasped between her knees.
James leaned against the doorjamb and crossed his arms, fully aware of what his body language was saying. Then he sighed and dropped his hands to shove them in his pockets. “What’s up, Dad?”
His father rubbed his chin and cleared his throat. “I ... uh ... owe you an apology.”
James stilled. “Go on.”
“I just want you to know I’ve been full of regret but wasn’t sure how to repair the rift between us. I know it was my doing, but my pride was a fierce force to reckon with. I guess after Lainie lit into me about how I was treating you, calling it abuse ... well, it made me stop and think. And ... the short version is, I’ve been an idiot and need to ask you to forgive me. I understand if you need to think about—”
James walked across the floor to his dad’s chair, grasped his hands, and pulled him to his feet. Then wrapped him in a hug so tight his father gasped. James loosened his grip and fought to get words past the lump in his throat. “I’ve missed you, Dad. I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye, and we’ve always argued more than talked, but I’ve still missed you. I love you and I forgive you. Please forgive me for giving up on us. For making choices out of spite. That was wrong and I’ve regretted it, even though it led to my current career, which I can also say is my calling. I’m just sorry for the way it all came about.” The words tumbled from him, finally free after being locked inside him for so long.
Sobs shook his father’s shoulders and his arms clung to James’ waist. James looked up to see his mother swiping tears with her hand towel and Lainie had grabbed tissues from the end table.
Finally, his father pulled himself together and leaned back to clasp James’ face in two hands. “You’re a good man, Son. A godly man. The kind of man I prayed you’d grow up to be. The kind of man I want to be. And while I’m ashamed I haven’t been that for you, I thank you for the reminder that I want to be one.”
James flushed, his heart so full of peace that he thought he might explode from it. Instead, he patted his father on the back and nodded to his mother. Her face radiated her sheer joy, and James wanted to hold on to the moment forever.
Slender arms slipped around his waist and Lainie hugged him. “You did good,” she whispered.
“All right, you two,” his dad said, “I’m going to go wash my face. Will you stay and eat with us?”
“Of course.”
Once he was gone and James’ mom had returned to the kitchen, James kissed Lainie. He needed her like a drowning man needed a life raft. “Thank you,” he said. “I don’t know that this would have happened without you.”
“I’m glad speaking my mind worked out this time.”
He laughed. “Always speak your mind with me.”
“Same.”
“Thank you for never quitting. For always trying and never giving up. You inspire me.”
