Page 29 of Hot Shot
“No.” I place my hand over his mouth. “No more sorries. No need to apologize anymore. I won’t accept them after this.”
“I need to apologize, to tell you how much I regret?—”
“Show me.”
“Show you?”
“Yes. Show me! Stop hiding here. Stop keeping everything inside. Stop thinking you have to carry this burden alone. What happened to Laura was not your fault. You are not to blame for Laura getting hurt, for having to make the tough decision and tell the doctors to turn the machines off. That is not on your shoulders.”
“But—”
“No.Notyour fault.”
“I don’t think I can do it.”
“You can. You will.”
“But what if I can’t?”
“I’ll be here to help. I can’t do it for you, but I can hold your hand or listen when you need to talk or whatever it is you need to come back from this place you’ve put yourself. This isn’t how your life should be. It’s not what you deserve. I’ll fight for you, Bran, but you have to fight for you too.”
“I can’t ask you to?—”
“You’re not asking! I’m offering, but you have to want my help. You have to want what I’m helping you go after. I can put everything I have into it and get nowhere if you’re not fighting for it too.”
“I don’t know what I want.”
I can tell he does. He’s too fearful to reach for it yet. “You do, deep down you do.”
“What if what I want is impossible?”
“You won’t know until you try. When we were young, there were days when Dad worked us until our legs were jelly and we thought we’d never be good enough, never be tough enough, to make it to a professional level, but we did. We did it because we wanted it and we worked hard for it. Getting your life back isn’t going to be easy and I have no doubt there will be days where you’ll think you don’t have it in you, but I can guarantee you do, I know you, and when you need a little bit more steam to keep going, I’ll be there to share mine.”
“I can’t ask that of you. Not after everything. Except I’m going to. Because, Blake, as much as I don’t think I deserve your support, I don’t think I can come back from this without you.”
“Good thing you won’t have to.”
“And if I want to get us back on the path we were on before I let Celeste detour us?”
“One day at a time. Let’s get you out of your hidey-hole and back to life, then we’ll revisit that question.”
“That’s not a no.”
“It’s not. But it’s not a yes either, Bran. So much has happened and I’m not ready to make a decision about what type of friendship we’ll have going forward. For now, I’m an old friend with a new offer.”
“And I get this week here with you before we venture out into the world.”
“Well, not the world exactly. At the end of this week, we’re doing something you need to do first. We’re going home.”
Branton
We’re going home.
I have no idea what that means anymore. I thought I was building one with my daughter only for that to be ripped away.
Not once but twice.
I haven’t lied to Blake, but an omission is a lie, isn’t it?
