Page 25 of Rex's Honor
His father reached out and squeezed his forearm. “I know you think your mother’s nuts for wanting you and Tilly to date for the time you are here. She feels responsible for your breakup. Always has. And you know, Tilly’s father felt the same way.”
Rex breathed slowly. “That’s one of the things that will keep coming to the surface. I can’t help it. Whenever I look back, I’m still angry. Not because of you or Mom, but because Tilly didn’t seem to care what my mother and her father were doing to our families.”
“Of course she cared, but because she stuck around, she saw how jovial her father had become, and over time, we all developed an odd friendship. But it didn’t happen overnight. If you had been here, you would have seen how everyone struggled. I always say how I wish we had ended our marriage when you kids were young, but I can’t change the past. And there are good things that came out of it.”
“I have no idea how you can say that.” Rex raised his glass in a sarcastic cheers.
“That’s where you refuse to see the bigger picture. Had we divorced back then, you and Tilly might have never happened, and she was the best damn thing that ever happened to you. I agree with your mother. You need to give you and Tilly a second chance.”
“Jesus, I can’t believe you just said that. It’s one thing to take her out to put a smile on Mom’s face, but you really expect me to do anything but pretend?”
“True love—the kind that never dies—doesn’t happen all the time,” his father said. “I care deeply for your mother. She gave me three beautiful children and our life together had some good times. But we didn’t have that kind of love. She found it with Tilly’s father and I found it with Judy.”
Rex groaned.
“I know that’s a tough pill to swallow. But let’s get serious. Your mom and I were pressured to get married. She was pregnant and I was told that’s what I was supposed to do. I don’t regret it. Any of it. I can’t because I wouldn’t have you or your brother or sister. You and Tilly might have been young, but I know real love when I see it and it’s still there if you let it fill that closed off heart of yours.”
Rex set his glass on the table and stood. “No offense, Dad, but you don’t know me. I’m not the same man who walked away.”
“Maybe not. But I know Tilly.”
Rex shook his head. “Perhaps, but I don’t really know any of you anymore, so I’d appreciate it if you’d back off the Tilly thing. I’ll take Tilly out for Mom, but I won’t pretend I still have feelings for her.”
Actually, he’d have to pretend not to have any feelings for her, at least to himself.
Tilly smoothed down the front of her miniskirt, doing a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn in front of the mirror. Louisa had been kind enough to let her keep some of her things in the bedroom she’d called home between college and her travels with the Peace Corps before getting her own apartment in Bethesda. Since Louisa had gotten sick, Tilly had made a point of coming home every weekend and tried to make it home for dinner at least once a week.
Gathering her hair and holding it behind her head, she contemplated putting it up.
Rex preferred it down.
She reached for a ponytail holder and a clip. Twisting her hair, she pulled it back, leaving a few strands out to fan her face. Satisfied that Rex would hate her outfit and her hair, she left the comfort of her bedroom and made her way downstairs. Dinner would certainly prove to be interesting to say the very least. She knew Louisa would play matchmaker, but what she didn’t count on was Rex’s willingness to play along.
Keyword: Play.
“Don’t you look stunning,” Louisa said, sitting at the head of the table in the dining room, her IV drip perched next to her. Louisa did her best to look as pretty as possible by wearing a little makeup, styling what hair she had left, and wearing designer shawls to cover her comfortable pajamas that didn’t give her bed sores. Most nights she actually ate in her room with Judy, a staff nurse, or one of her friends who came to visit. But when the family showed up, she did her best to make it to the dinner table.
“She’s always the prettiest girl in the room,” Judy said, sitting to the left of Louisa, Gerry in the seat to the right.
The table sat ten comfortably, and her father had always sat at the opposite end, but no one ever sat there now and the waitstaff never set a place setting.
God, she missed her dad. He’d been her rock, even when she hated him for what he’d done. There’d been so many tears. So many fights. So many threats of never speaking to him again. But when she saw how happy her dad and Louisa were together, she couldn’t bring herself to cut them off like Rex had.
She wanted her family. Needed them. Numerous therapy sessions later, she’d learned to forgive.
Tilly wasn’t quite sure where to sit. Most dinners included other family members that scattered around the table, giving her plenty of options. She usually sat next to Judy, but what if Rex wanted to be across from his father?
“This is all wrong,” Louisa said, waving her arms frantically. “Judy, dear. You should be sitting next to your adoring husband so the two lovebirds can play footsie under the table.”
Swallowing the sarcastic remark, Tilly took her seat, leaving a space between her and Rex’s mother, while Judy scurried across the room to be by Gerry. If someone had told Tilly twelve years ago that she’d be forced to date Rex, she would have laughed hysterically at the absurdity of it. She’d loved him back then, so she thought they’d be together forever.
Now she just wanted to get this over with, even though her heart was still filled with the same love that had never died.
She figured maybe three or four dates and they’d be able to say they’d given it the good old college try but that the spark no longer lingered.
Shit, she didn’t want to do that to Louisa. She knew what this meant to Rex’s mom. The dating would have to last as long as she did.
“Where is the prodigal son?” Tilly asked.
