Page 35 of Shades of Henry
When it was over, Kane let out a sigh like a big guard dog who wasn’t going to get to eat anybody today, and hopped off the porch without using the stairs. Then he flopped down, cross-legged on the lawn. “It’s fuckin’ hot,” he said to Henry. “I hope you appreciate this.”
Henry stared at him for a moment, this hulking kid who the family blamed for stealing Davy away.
This good man who had taken care of Henry’s brother when nobody had even seen who he was.
“I do,” he said in a small voice. “I know you think I’m an asshole of the first order, and I am, but… but you’ll never fucking know.”
“Know what?” Davy asked.
“How much I appreciate this,” Henry said, a big lump in his throat. “Like… never. Like… like, you know why Dad kicked me out, went to town on my face—I know you gotta know.” Oh God, the fucking humiliation.
“Sh….” Davy kissed his temple. “I know Mal told Debbie that you were caught having an affair with a junior officer. He never admitted it was him.”
Henry’s chest was so tight. “But… but you know?”
“God, Henry, Kane and I saw right through you when we went back that Christmas. It took us ten minutes.”
“I tried to get out,” he mewled, feeling pathetic. “I tried. I took the test and got the promotion and told him we couldn’t… ’cause my sister had a baby….” Oh God, he couldn’t breathe. This was worse, somehow, than telling Lance. Lance was kind to everybody. Lance was kind to Randy, who was going to rip his dick off one of these days. But this was his family, and they didn’t forgive you, and you got what was fucking coming to you for fucking up the way Henry had.
“What’d he say?” Davy asked softly, that arm, that big brother part of him, never going away.
And Henry hadn’t been planning to say it. Lance knew. Wasn’t it enough that Lance knew? “He forced me,” Henry whispered. “And then I reallywashaving sex with a junior officer.” He felt Davy stiffen next to him, and thought,Good. I know where the line is. That’s what it takes to lose my brother’s love.
And then Davy wrapped his arms so tight around Henry that he shouldn’t have been able to breathe—but suddenly he could. And after a moment, Kane was all over both of them, in the heat of the afternoon, holding him while he lost his shit for maybe the second time in his adult life.
They couldn’t stay like that. It was too damned hot. Davy pulled him up and told him they were walking to the corner to get a cold soda, and Kane trailed behind them while they talked briefly about the case, about Henry’s altercation with Martin Sampson at the end of May, and how he’d found the body that morning. It wasn’t even until they got back to the house that Kane asked the obvious question.
“What in the hell happened to you, by the way?”
Henry just laughed. He’d forgotten all about the dusty hospital scrubs he was wearing, and his regular clothes in the bag he’d left on the porch. He’d even forgotten about his knuckles and the stinging cut above his eye and his cheek and the fact that he looked like he’d been through a meat grinder.
“That,” he said weakly, “is a long fucking story.”
Kane actually looked unhappy about this. “I would seriously love to hear it, but….” He had one of those eyeball convos with Davy again.
“You’re late!” Henry said, his sense of time suddenly coming back to him. “Oh my God! You’re late. We need to go so you can get Frances from day care. Oh Jesus, I’m so sorry!” He’d picked the little girl up from her after-school day care often enough to know what a big deal this was.
“It’s okay,” Davy said with a shrug. “We called up Ethan and talked to her. We told her we were helping Uncle Henry today. She wants to see you sometime this week. She seems to think you need the attention.”
Henry’s tears had finally dried, his eyes finally felt normal, but he couldn’t stop the lump in his throat.
“Thanks,” he said gruffly. “If you guys can drop me off, you can go get her. Tell her I’ll see her soon.”
They didn’t say much during the drive—Henry couldn’t have pinned a thought down with a lawn dart at that point anyway. When they dropped him off in front of the apartment, he was expecting Kane to pretty much drive off before his feet hit the ground, but that’s not what happened. Instead, Kane put the SUV in Park, and Davy got out for one last hug.
“I’ll keep you posted,” Henry told him, because God, didn’t he owe David that much after all this?
Davy nodded and kissed his forehead, like he had when Henry had been lying on the ground with a broken ankle because Malachi had dropped a cow on him.
But now Henry knew how precious this was. “Thanks, Davy.”
“Call us tomorrow—”
“I might be brought in for questioning tomorrow,” Henry told him, swallowing painfully, because after talking to his lawyer and PI and Galen, he knew it was likely. “Those guys Galen found—”
“Are those guys okay?” Davy asked quickly. “Reg and John seemed to think they were okay.”
Henry grimaced. “They’re actually very good,” he said, but Davy’s eyebrow arched because Henry didn’t look like things were “very good.”
