Page 195 of Fire & Frenzy
“Yeah. My grandfather left me a voicemail. Maybe there’s hope for my family after all.”
“Maybe,” I joked.
“Okay, bye for real.”
The line went dead and just as I was about to set my phone aside I got a text from Rach.
Rach
Hey, are you doing okay? Haven’t heard from you in a few days.
Me
I’m good. Smoke and I are going to be fine. You probably won’t see me for a few more days… ;)
I set the phone down and walked back toward Smoke.
“So, you called your dad?” I asked as I entered the bedroom.
“She told you, huh?”
I nodded.
He patted the bed. I crawled onto it and settled next to him.
“How’d it go?” I asked.
“It was like talking to a stranger.”
I winced.
“It was awkward as fuck. Not a lot of yelling, which wasn’t what I was expecting.”
“You expected your father to yell?”
“No. I expected to yell.” He shot me a wry grin.
“Why didn’t you?”
He sighed. “I don’t know. Suddenly all the shit between us didn’t seem to matter as much as I thought it did. He sounded…old. Frail.”
“Not the man you remember.”
“Not the man I remember.” He nodded. “Maybe he has changed.”
“What did you guys talk about?”
“We didn’t talk for long. It was mostly superficial shit. The weather, where I live. I mentioned the club and he steered the conversation away. Like it’s still a sore subject for him about how I choose to live my life.”
“Some things never change,” I said quietly.
He scrubbed his jaw and I noticed he was already in need of a shave. “He asked me to come and visit. And he asked me to bring Tavy.”
“Oh.”
“I’m considering it,” he admitted. “I’ll talk to Tavy and see how she feels. I mean, it’s her grandfather, right? I don’t have the right to keep them apart if they want to have a relationship.”
“Sounds like you’re figuring it out.”
