13
BRING A SWIMSUIT
JAMES
“Why didn’t you tell me it was this bad?” I asked, trying to rein in the anger and guilt that I felt. “You could’ve told me.”
Clyde didn’t look at me. “I didn’t tell anyone because no one was supposed to know.”
“Clyde,” I said, sitting down on the chair and facing him. “I can help—”
“No,” he answered, finally meeting my eyes. “No, James. You’ve done enough for my family and I can’t—I won’t accept it now. I’ll go back to work as soon as I get out of this damn hospital and it’ll be alright.”
I closed my eyes and leaned back in the chair. It was a mess.
“I take it Mia doesn’t know that her tuition fees for the next semester aren’t paid yet and her father is paying off his debt, so you can’t pay for your own medications.” I glanced around the room and said dryly, “Or the hospital bill.”
Clyde sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. He looked tired and exhausted. At least he was alive. I should be thankful for that.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Promise me one thing, Clyde.”
“What’s that?”
“Walk out of this hospital and have one of our traditional dinners at your house. Do that and you don’t have to worry about anything.” My throat burned but fuck it, he was the only person who had ever looked at me and saw my worth when even I couldn’t. He was the father I had never had. “I give you my word.”
Clyde gave me a sad smile and reached out to ruffle my hair. “It’ll be alright, son.”
“Dad?”
We both froze and turned towards the door where Mia stood in her school uniform wearing a shocked expression on her face.
“Hey, Pumpkin.”
She blinked and looked at both of us. “So no take outs for a while, huh?”
After a few minutes of awkward silence, Mia was seated in the chair closest to Clyde’s bed and her friends Emma and Caleb shuffled at the edge of the bed. I wasn’t surprised to hear that Emma drove Mia to the hospital, but I didn’t know they would come up to meet him.
Seeing the way Clyde hugged Emma and shook Caleb’s hand, they were all close.
“Where’s Summer?” Clyde asked after Mia talked about school and I tried my best to glare at the book I was holding. They both were avoiding the elephant in the room and avoiding talking about it.
“She got detention. Again. She told us to go ahead and oh—Mister Clyde, you better start walking because I’m hosting Mia’s birthday party this weekend,” Emma said, offering him a lilac pink envelope which smelled fruity. I wondered if there was glitter too.
“I’m not having a birthday party anymore,” Mia said, frowning at her friends.
“Come on, Clyde will join us for a few beers, won’t he, James?” Caleb asked, winking at me, and I wanted to hurl the book at him for ever thinking I was on a first-name basis with him.
“No, he won’t,” Mia said firmly. “I’m maintaining his diet and I don’t want to have—”
“Pumpkin. You’ll turn eighteen only once in a lifetime.” He patted her hair and I once again looked away, clenching the book in my hand. “Go spend some time with your friends.”
No one wanted to argue to a forty-year-old father who just had a surgery for an aneurysm, so we left the room. Before I could grab a can of dark black coffee and hot chocolate, Emma stopped me, handing me the similar pink envelope with my name written in cursive with a glitter pen. Oddly enough, it was adorable. But I won’t ever tell her that.
“This is for you.” Somehow, she managed to sniff down at me with her small frame. She crossed her arms. “Only because Mia likes you and my mom wanted me to invite you.”
Her mom? Must be none other than the icy Dorothy Moore. Renowned retired actress who moved from the city of fame and glamour, Los Angeles, to a small town with creeks, like Coral Springs, to settle with her family. Which included just her and her daughter, Emma.
Ah. It was going to be an interesting party.