Page 162 of Fighting the Pull

He turned to look at Tom, who was sitting in a wing chair catty corner to where Hale was in the corner of a couch in the back part of the living room, which felt like a cozy alcove considering the expanse of the rest of the room.

The men were on bourbon.

“Yeah?”

“Son, you called me not too long ago,” Tom reminded Hale. “And you were in a state. You seem better. But you said you wanted to talk.”

Hale knew this was coming.

Even so, he wasn’t prepared to deal with it.

He had called. He’d wanted to talk.

Now he wasn’t so sure.

“Are you going to be in the city for a while?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Can we set something up later?”

Tom nodded. “We can. But for my peace of mind, I’d like to understand where your head is at.”

He owed him that, so he gave it to him.

“I got home from Europe. I was jetlagged. Vulnerable. I went into Dad’s study. No clue why I did. I normally avoid it, for obvious reasons. And it messed me up. But I called you. Then I called Elz. I got my head together. I can’t say it’s all good, because Dad killed himself in there. I can say it’s never going to get better, because Dad killed himself in there.”

Watching him closely, Tom noted, “Gen told me your mother showed.”

He drew in a big breath and said, “Yeah. It was unpleasant.”

Tom let that go and hit something even stickier.

“Did you open the box your father gave you?”

Hale looked down at his bourbon then threw it back.

“Hale,” Tom pushed.

He looked to Tom. “No. I’m thinking of letting Chloe open it.”

“He didn’t leave it to Chloe. He left it to you,” Tom stated. “Gen and I talked about it. We want you to open it. With us there. And Duncan.”

“Tom—”

“Think about it. It might be closure.”

“And it might be a mindfuck,” Hale retorted. “Wearetalking Corey Szabo. He was a master at mindfucks.”

“It certainly worked out for Duncan and Genny,” Tom noted.

Hale was pleased as fuck Tom was happy and whole again, living with Mika, adding her and Cadence to their family, enjoying his life, building their lives together.

But what worked for Duncan and Genny was the box his father sent to them after he offed himself, which made it impossible for Tom ever to get Genny back.

Hale’d grown to love Duncan. He was a good man. It was whacked, but they were all family. Even Tom and Duncan had become good friends. Tight.

But in Hale’s mind, that was a testimony to who Tom and Genny were, what they instilled in their kids, how they’d navigated their divorce, both of them moving on, that the family just grew in numbers and in love.

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