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“Where’s Mitzi?” asked Lawson, joining his brother on the couch.
“Workin’ late.” Speaking through a smirk, he added, “She said she needed to take advantage of how weak I feel right now. It’ll be harder to keep me down in a few more days.”
“You good?”
“Law, I’m fine. More interested in why you’re here.”
“Creed Nash,” he stated simply.
Atticus frowned. “Name rings a bell but…fill in the blanks?”
Lawson did as he was asked. When he was finished, Atticus freed a heavy sigh, running his hand across the length of his abnormally heavily stubbled cheek.
“Wow. Didn’t see that comin’.”
“Obviously, I only know what I’ve been told—but how I understand it, he’s never been around. Now he’s claimin’ he’s got rights. Does he?”
“I’m not an expert in family law. Judge would know better than me—but unless he can prove paternity, pretty sure he’s got nothin’.”
Lawson nodded, somewhat reassured.
“You think he’s going to try to stick around?”
“God, I hope not.”
“What about you?” asked Atticus, eyeing his brother carefully.
Lawson propped his elbows on his knees and bowed his head, burying his fingers in his hair. He let the question hang in the air for a minute. Both brothers knew clarification wasn’t needed.
Finally lifting his head, he met his brother’s stare and admitted, “I love her.”
“That’s not news, and we all know it.”
A ghost of a smile pulled at the corner of Lawson’s mouth. It wasn’t exactly that he was in denial about how well his family knew his heart—he’d just gotten used to a reality where nobody talked about or challenged him on it.
“Maybe if there was someone else I’d be forced to move on, but there isn’t. The other night…seein’ you in that hospital bed…I don’t know. It just feels like maybe my chance is starin’ me right in the face. And maybe it doesn’t work out in my favor, but if I don’t try, I’ll never know—and it’s the not knowin’ I’m most afraid of.”
“Well, it’s about damn time.”
This time, Lawson’s smile broke through as he leaned back against the couch’s cushion. “Guess that brings me to the second reason it’s your door I darkened and not Judge’s.”
“What’s that?”
“You know her address.”
They were interrupted by the buzzing of Lawson’s ringing phone. As he dug it out of his pocket, a part of him wondered—hoped, even—if it was Nora-Jean. Her name hadn’t lit up his screen in years. That night was no exception.Ashlynn Rodgerswas the name he saw instead. His disappointment, unrealistic as it was, made him physically ignore the incoming call, cutting it short.
“Who was that?”
“No one,” he muttered, too distracted to question why she was calling. “No one important, anyway.”
Lawson hung around for a few more minutes, until Atticus got a text that Mitzi was on her way with dinner. With no desire to explain himself to Nora-Jean’s best friend, Lawson expressed his appreciation and then took his leave. Rather than head to the address he’d been given, he stopped at Gypsy’s for a bite to eat and a beer to calm his rising nerves.
Thursday night meant there would be a game on at Shelbyville’s favorite watering hole. Any other Thursday during football season, and it wouldn’t have been unusual to find Lawson amongst the crowd—regardless of the faceoff—but this wasn’t just another Thursday.
He sat at the bar and barely tasted his burger, too consumed by his thoughts. He polished off his first beer as he finished his dinner then ordered another, the place a little fuller at kick-off. It took him nearly a quarter to consume his second beer. When he was asked if he wanted another, he declined and indicated he was ready for his check. He left Gypsy’s in his rearview just as the second quarter began.
When he arrived at Nora-Jean’s apartment complex, he occupied a vacant parking spot, killed the engine of his truck, and exited the cab without delay. He’d procrastinated long enough. He’d made up his mind. It was now or never.
