Page 118 of This Life and All the Rest
“That’s my buddy,” he says softly. “The one who’s going to check you out.”
The soundsof Lennon crying and calling for me play in my head on repeat.
All I could do was sit on my bed with my bandaged head in my bandaged hands. It took every single ounce of restraint to keep from going after her, and the only reason I held back was because I knew it would be bad for her if I did.
I tell myself she’ll be okay by tomorrow.
As soon as she opens her luggage and sees my note, we’ll be okay.
“You alright over there?” Trent asks from the driver’s seat.
“Yeah. Just thinking.”
“She’ll be okay,” he tells me. “She won’t stay mad long.”
He’s so full of shit with his optimistic nonchalance. I saw him crying this morning. He’s just as torn up about this as I am. I open my mouth to call him out, but then I shut it again.
What’s the point? We’ve only got two hours until we reach the drug treatment facility. I’m not going to waste that time ribbing him. Instead, I cut to important shit.
“I’m in love with your daughter, Trent.”
I freeze and watch him. His body stays loose, his hands resting on the wheel. He doesn’t even scowl. But he’s a Navy SEAL. He’s probably going to snap my already weakened neck.
“I know,” he says finally, and my jaw drops. He glances at me and then gives me one of thosedadlaughs. “You kids aren’t very subtle.”
I roll my eyes.
“Well, I just thought you should know, you know, since we’re technically stepsiblings or whatever. I don’t want you to be caught off guard when I start dating her.”
“What makes you think I’m going to give you permission to date my daughter, Macon Davis?”
“Because I’ma good kid who’s going to be a good man,” I say, throwing his words from the night of his bachelor party back at him. His lips twitch up at the corners. “And because no one will ever love Lennon the way I do. I love all of her. Even the parts that she doesn’t show the world.”
“But she shows you?”
“Yes, sir, she does.”
I say it without sarcasm or snark, and it rolls off my tongue easily. Because it’s true. Trent doesn’t answer right away, so I wait him out. I give him space, just like I always do with Lennon.
He needs time to think it over. That’s fine. I’m not going anywhere. At least not for the next ninety days, or however long they’ve got me in this treatment facility. But not after that, either. Lennon Capri Washington belongs with me. She knows it. I know it. Everyone else will figure it out soon enough.
I don’t mind waiting.
* * *
Present Day
“Everyone thought I knew,” Lennon says quietly, staring at the envelope in her hand.
She looks over at me.
“You and Dad and Drea...You all thought I knew you had gone to rehab and I just...What?... Hated you anyway?”
I shrug.
“We all thought you knew, yeah, but I think everyone just figured you had your reasons, and your reasons weren’t necessarily ours to know.”
I close my eyes against the memory of her crying out my name.
