Page 86 of Gone for You

He blows out a breath and shifts so we can see each other. “Thank you.”

Chapter 39

Ethan

“Dad?”I holler, keeping hold of Liv’s hand as I walk through Dad’s front door.

“Back here!”

I tug on Liv’s hand to follow me. She’s looking around the house I grew up in, taking it all in. It’s obvious a man lives here because, especially since Jessie passed, there are very few women’s touches around.

“Hey,” I say, voice gruff.

He turns from the stove and his eyes light up when they land on me, quickly darting to Liv and then down to where our hands are joined.

“Ethan.” His voice is sad. Tired. Same as he looks.

“Dad, this is Liv. Liv, my dad, Paul.”

Dad comes over to Liv, shakes her hand. “Hi Liv, it’s nice to meet you. Wish it was under different circumstances, though.”

“Same.”

“I know you have lots of questions for me, and as much as I’d rather shoot the shit for a while, get to know your girl, here, I think we need to get settled in and get rid of the elephant in the room.”

He places a pan of sausage gravy on the table along with a big bowl of hot biscuits. The table is already set, a 2-liter bottle of Coke in the center. He’s never been a coffee drinker, his caffeine source always came from pop. Liv doesn’t even flinch. Just pours each of us a glass and one for herself and starts digging into breakfast.

“This is delicious,” she says around a mouthful.

“Ethan mentioned your love of breakfast foods,” Dad replies, completely amused by her.

“Dad, can we eat and talk? It’s driving me crazy.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything and nothing. I don’t know,” I say, shrugging my shoulders.

“As you know, your mom was from Mexico. She left right after you were born and I never heard from her again. Not until just a few days ago.”

“What? You talked to her?”

“Not her. Her daughter, actually. Well, I talked to Valeria a little bit but mostly just your… well, sister, I guess. She was asked to contact me by her mother – your mother. Valeria wanted to talk to me before she passed. She’d been with Hospice for some time and was coming to the end.”

“She was sick?”

“Yes. Cancer. It started in her bones and spread through the rest of her body quickly.”

I push my food away, appetite that was barely there in the first place now completely gone. How do you grieve the loss of someone you never knew? Worse yet, someone you spent a good portion of your life hating? “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

He sighs, leaning back in his chair. “I’d planned to. I was going to see her, get a feel for what she wanted and then call you, let you make the decision. No matter how old you are, you’ll always be my son and I didn’t trust her intentions. Wasn’t sure what her end game was with reaching out to you.”

“I’m a grown ass man, Dad. I think I could have made that decision on my own.”

“I know you could have. But call me crazy, her record isn’t the best when it comes to being a good person.”

Liv reaches over, places her hand on my leg and I relax just slightly. “Okay. That makes sense but still…”

“I know, I know it wasn’t the right thing. Especially since she never woke up after I left. I kept thinking she would, then I’d bring you to her but it just never happened. She passed away in her sleep last night.”

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