Page 19 of Rex's Honor
“Thank you for your service,” Judy said with a poised smile.
He wanted to hate the woman as much as he resented his parents for destroying what he believed had been the perfect marriage. The perfect family.
“You’re welcome.” His heart ached for what he had once been and what a fool he’d been. He hadn’t chased after Tilly because he wanted to follow his dream. No. He didn’t stay to make it work because he was afraid and made it impossible for her to come after him.
He swallowed. Hard.
But his parents had betrayed him, a thought that still burned a hole in his gut. Even now, he could perfectly recall the day he’d found his mother with Mr. Bettencourt. A son, no matter the age, doesn’t unsee something like that. He wondered if he’d found out some other way and didn’t have to be the one to tell his father if he would have reacted differently.
He slipped into the limo, Tilly sitting next to him, his father and Judy sitting across. His lungs burned with every breath he took. His father and his father’s wife were strangers to him. He had no idea what to say, much less how to act.
“Your father tells me you left the Air Force and now work for something called the Aegis Network.” She patted his father’s leg. “Gerry, did I get that right?”
His father nodded, staring at Rex with questioning eyes, though what they questioned, Rex didn’t know.
“He also tells me you’re in some training or school to be an arson investigator with the local fire department. That must be fascinating.”
Rex arched a brow. “How’d you know about that, Dad?”
“You’ve forgotten I know Decker Rigg’s father.”
“Keeping tabs on me?”
Tilly pinched him, and he flinched, though not necessarily at the physical pain.
He deserved more of a pinch since the words tumbled out of his mouth before he could think about how they would sound.
“Sorry, Dad. That’s not what I meant.” He rubbed the side of his leg and laced his fingers through Tilly’s.
She tried to pull back, but he didn’t let her. He needed her warmth and her strength if he was going to get through this without being too much of an ass.
“You meant it like that. I was always up your ass about everything when you were a teenager and worse when you went to college.” His father smiled, shaking his head. “Remember when I tried to bribe your academic advisor to give me your grades when you refused to sign off on them?”
“You were a bit of a control freak.” The corner of Rex’s mouth twitched into a smile. “I purposely maintained a status quo average just to annoy you.”
“I know. Smart-ass kid,” his father said.
“I know an adult who is just like that,” Judy said with a bright smile.
It was impossible to hate the woman. She seemed perfect for his dad, and he really had no reason to dislike her. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She hadn’t broken up a marriage.
Fuck. He needed to change his attitude and his thinking.
A long, thick silence filled the limo. Rex looked out the window as they pulled into a familiar neighborhood. Not his old one, or Tilly’s, since his mom and her dad had bought a new place together, but it was only a couple of neighborhoods away and still within the country club. That had to be awkward at the Holiday Ball.
“Thanks for coming,” his father said with a throaty tone, his eyes glossed over, threatening to tear. “I won’t pretend to understand how you felt ten years ago. I had my pain to grapple with, and I don’t think I was a very good father to you or your siblings during the divorce. But I know what this will mean to your mother.”
“She doesn’t know I’m coming?”
Tilly squeezed his hand. “She’s been asking for you, and we all said we’d try to find you, but we didn’t want to get her hopes up.”
“I hope I don’t give her a heart attack,” Rex mumbled.
“That’s not funny,” his father said, though there was a lightness to the words.
“It’s inappropriately funny.” Rex coughed, nearly choking on the phrase his mother used to toss out whenever the locker room talk got out of hand or a sexist joke would be told in front of her.
The limo pulled into a house on the fifth tee box. “They bought old man Walker’s place?”
