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“That’s your takeaway?”
“I tend to have a one-track mind around you, Trouble.” He winks. “Let me know when you book your flight, Miss Independent. But do me a favor?”
I nod before even knowing what he wants. “Sure. What’s up?”
“Try first class. Just for fun.”
“Maybe out of curiosity.” I shrug with a cute smile. “Also, I’ll need our new home address so I can catch a ride from the airport.”
Dex shakes his head. “No ride. I’ll be there to pick you up.”
After one more kiss to my forehead, he’s through the door, and once again, I’m alone in the quiet, wondering ifaloneis something I’m going to have to get used to.
21
Lennox
Dad and I sit in the driveway inside his beat-up Honda. He cuts the car engine off and unbuckles, but he doesn’t open his door. Instead, he reclines a few degrees and tucks his hands behind his head.
“Aren’t we going inside?” I ask, clutching the bag of canned apple filling Mom sent us to the store for.
“Give her a few more minutes. She’s probably frantically running through the house with air freshener as we speak. Don’t want to spook her.”
After dinner—and my confession about my unexpected marriage to Dex—Mom ushered us out the door saying she forgot a few ingredients for the apple pie a la mode she was planning to make. The shopping list was premade pie crusts, apple pie filling, and vanilla ice cream. It was clear she just wanted an excuse to kick us out of the house so she could sneak a cigarette.
I laugh. “You should just bust her. You know exactly what she’s doing.”
Dad smiles. That warm smile that easily gives him away—after thirty years of marriage, he still finds Mom completelyadorable. “Your mother sneaks about four cigarettes a year. Only when she’s really upset. After the bomb you dropped on us tonight, I’ll sit out here patiently while she smokes an entire pack.”
Exhaling, I hang my head. “You guys like Dex,” I mutter. “Don’t forget that.”
Dad grumbles something inaudible under his breath.
“Okay, asked and answered… Do you wish I married Alan instead?” I place the plastic bag between my feet and recline to match Dad’s angle. He reaches across the center console and pats my knee.
“Did you love Alan?”
My heavy heart aches like it always does when this comes up. The guilt hasn’t absolved, but the truth is getting easier to tell with each day. “Not in the way he deserved.”
Dad’s eyes are forward, the flickering lights hanging on either side of the garage illuminating his face. It’s time to change the bulbs. “And Dex?”
“Yeah,” I breathe out. “I love him. I haven’t told him yet.”
Dad pulls down on his face, tugging on his skin. “Do you see the central issue we’re having? You haven’t admitted to your husband that you love him?”
I groan. “I already explained how sudden everything was and why.”
“I understand helping your friend with a legality, and I’d understand falling in love with your friend. It’s this gray area you’re in that has me worried. Does Dex feel the way about you that you do about him? Because I’ve seen men like him go to greater lengths than falsely professing their love to see a deal through.”
“Daddy, you don’t understand. He’s different.”
Dad’s smirk starts small and then stretches all the way across his face. He rolls his head to the right to stare at me, a little glean in his eye.
“What?” I ask.
“Moments like this, it’s like you’re sixteen again, or eighteen, or twenty…twenty-two…twenty-three… So many sweet memories of me wanting to take your boyfriends out back like Old Yeller. You telling me they aredifferent.”
“Fiiine,” I grumble. “So we’ve had this conversation before.” We both laugh. “You don’t believe an old broken record, huh?”