Page 37 of Pulse
“For telling me the truth. I want your life to be about what you want, Ren. Never forget that.”
“Thanks Dad.”
“So, what do you want to do?” he asked after a moment.
“I’m not sure, but I’m trying to figure it out.”
“Where did you disappear to yesterday?”
I sat up straight, his arm falling away. If things were going to go down the way I hoped they would, I had to be straight with him. “I went to see Ash.”
Dad’s eyes widened in surprise. “Ash?”
I nodded. “We’ve got a lot of baggage to get through, but I’m going to see him again.”
“Ren-” he began and I saw the disapproval in his eyes.
“Dad,” I interrupted before he could get going on a father-ishrant. “I know I’ve been difficult the last few months-”
“Difficult? Ash broke your heart.” I gave him a look. “You never said it, but I could tell. A father knows these things about his little girl.”
Once, I would’ve bit back at him about calling me that, but all I did was shake my head. “I don’t know what’s going to happen between us, but I have to get answers. After he disappeared like that, there are a lot of things…It was just unfinished.” I shrugged, not knowing how to explain the inner workings of my heart to my father. “Besides, I always thought he was yourfavorite.”
“Was,” Dad said, narrowing his eyes. “That was until-”
“Yeah, yeah.” I waved a hand at him. “I can handle myself Dad. I need to do this before I can move on.”
He stared at me a moment and sighed. “You’re so much like your mother it’s uncanny. She was stubborn and headstrong, just like you.”
“I know,” I said with a smile. “I know.”
“She was also a hell of a fighter. Not with her fists, but she could cut a man down to size with a handful of words.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
We sat in silence for a while, both of us lost in our own memories of the same woman. Mother and wife.
“I gather you still want to train?” Dad asked after a while.
“Yeah.”
“Then I expect to see you out on the mats in ten minutes.”
Smiling up at him, I nodded. “You’ve got it Coach.”
My future was now one hundred percent uncertain, but the relief that flowed through my body was refreshing. The pressure that had been weighing on my shoulders for the past few months had lifted and I could finally breathe. It never felt so good to be lost in my entire life. I could do absolutely anything I wanted and then some. My future was mine and there was one thing I wanted to tackle before I could even think about what that future might look like.
I needed to go and kick Ash Fuller square in the balls.
I must be into pain because I was going back into the beast’s lair and this time Ash would be the one who’d grovel at my feet.
