Page 80 of Point of No Return

I slide my plate toward him, unscrewing the cap of my water as he shovels food into his mouth. Blood is still scabbed over his lip from the punch I delivered earlier. He was reluctant to spar with me at first, but the anger quickly took over. The reluctance faded, and I let him take that anger out on me. I’m probably going to have a couple of bruised ribs tomorrow. Maybe a good night’s sleep.

Debating whether or not I should, I finally decide on asking him: “Want a beer?”

He pauses, looking me over for any indication that maybe I’ve lost it. We did just spent an entire day sweating alcohol out of his system.

“What do we have?”

I push my chair back and stroll to the fridge, grabbing two cold bottles from inside without looking. I pop the caps with my thumb, setting one in front of him. Taking a long pull from mine, he eyes his own bottle before swallowing a sip. He cringes.

It’s not his preference, but quite frankly,I don’t give a damn.At least he won’t go back for seconds.

“Your girlfriend lost the key to the bar cart, you know.” At the mention of Charlotte- at the fact that he calls her my girlfriend- I stiffen. All those hours working off the tension have suddenly gone to waste.

Girlfriend.

He takes another draw and sets the bottle back on the counter, easing back into his seat. “Wife,” he corrects. “Sorry.”

“Did you stop to think that maybe she’s just hiding it from you?”

His thin shoulders shrug. “I-”

“You were an ass. Even more so when you were drinking.”

He closes his eyes, likely fending off some snide remark about the fact that even though she’smy wife, she likely can’t say anything better about me.

Aleks merely shakes his head, and from the troubled look on his face, I can tell something’s still bothering him. “Did you ever give a shit about Dad?”

There it is:The ugly truth, finally rearing its head and coming to fruition. I sigh, reveling in it as I drag a hand over my face and sip my beer again.

“Whatever our differences with our father, we both know he loved you.” Pain flashes across his face quickly but for the first time since the funeral, the anger doesn’t follow. “I’ll always be grateful for that.”

He nods, more complacency than acceptance. “I always knew you hated him… I never knew why. And then he died and it was like nothing changed.” He looks at me, the frown on his face contorting his features. “You’re the same as you’ve always been.”

“Maybe your brother was right…”Charlotte’s voice is like a blade to the gut, the words too close to home, too real, too painful.

Maybe I am just like my father.

I know why Aleks is upset. For most of my life, it was just Lorelai that raised me while Tyson disappeared into work. Then Aleks was born, and our mother died a few years later… While I grew up knowing her, Aleks was too young to remember much. Our father was all he had. But the father Aleks knew was not the same man I grew up with. And I mourned that loss the day I found our mother bleeding out and suffering so many years ago.

Tyson never laid a hand on Aleks. I made sure of it. The same way I made sure Aleks never found out what Tyson did to me. And I won’t distort that picture of our father now by explaining myself to him. Maybe to Aleks- to everyone- that means that I don’t feel. Because I don’t allow myself to. Letting people in is what got my mother killed. I refuse to let my fate become the same.

“I don’t pretend to have loved him,” I say gingerly though my hands curl into fists. When I do look at him, he’s staring straight forward, eyes on the ground. “But I won’t pretend that I can ever replace him.”

He heaves a breath, swallowing it along with promises of more fights to come. But I’ll take it. I’ll do it for him.

“If you ever…” I start but stop myself, unable to find the right words.

Who am I kidding?

“If you spout some bullshit about being here for me, I’ll leave,” he groans, but he cracks a smile. The first real sliver I’ve seen of him in weeks. “Right now.”

I grin at him, downing the rest of my beer in one gulp. It’s rare that I have more than one drink, but tonight, I allow myself, standing and grabbing another from the fridge.

Popping off the top, I focus on the chill of it between my fingers. “I wasn’t going to.” He huffs a laugh at that. “But… I’m sure that Charlie would be happy to listen.”

I’ve seen the way she cares for him. The gentle teasing, the check-ins with nothing more than a look. Whether she admits it or not, she cares about the kid.

Aleks’ smirks at me. “It’s Charlie now, huh?”

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