“Yeah.” I laugh. “Imakehim call you.”
“Links, I am warning you.”
I reach up, wanting so badly to palm his face to shut him the fuck up, but I pull back. “No, here’s the warning. Don’t pull that shit on my kids.”
“They’re old enough to—”
“Ash, you wanna tell the little fucking worm that it’s none of his concern?”
“Lucas, don’t talk to him that way.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, I might as well be talking to bunch of monkeys playing in their own shit. You two certainly aren’t that smart.”
“Get out!”
“Gladly, but keep in mind, your dumb ass is gonna need to make nice with me ’cause I hold the key to whether or not your children ever deal with you again.”
“You’re threatening her?”
“No threats. That’s how it is.”
“I have some shit up my sleeve, too, Links, so—”
“Robert,” Ashley whispers and shakes her head.
“By the length of your sleeve, something tells me not a whole hell of a lot would fit up it. I’m an open book. Do your worst.”
I look at Ash, “Again, a pleasure to see you. By the way, a trailer full of shit should be here soon.”
“Lucas, I don’t want anything,” she says quieter now.
“I do. I want you to think before you speak and act. They deserve more. Go out and hug your kid. He loves you.”
“I can’t. He’s angry.” Again, Ash sounds hurt.
“Pull it together, Ash. God knows you can fake it.” Unable to help myself, I look at Robertson. “I’m sure you have to do that a lot with him.”
?
Logan and I got a hotel last night and just chilled. He needed that time. So did I, apparently. When we arrive at the Cape, it’s about five at night.
Ava runs up and hugs Logan. “You all right, Loggie?”
“I’m good.”
I follow the kids around back and to find the whole crew is here. I plaster on my smile.
Tessa’s extended family owns a house right next door to her and Collin’s home at the Cape. That’s how she met him. She was running away from me, and the pain I had caused her, and right into him.
They had met before. Three times, actually. Once after the death of a family friend, a guy who she got involved with after the first time I hurt her. Collin was in the military then and in attendance at Toby Green’s military funeral in Syracuse. She never even saw his face. The second time was here. Again, she was running from my high school bullshit. Collin was just a guy who was fixing up an old house. During that visit, her great-aunt passed away. Collin saw the ambulance and came to see what had happened to his kind neighbor and found Tessa, an eighteen-year-old girl, clinging to her aunt’s lifeless body. He pulled her off so the paramedics could take Ann’s body away and held her until she calmed down and a familiar face showed up. The kind face was that of the minister who ran a local summer Bible camp that Tessa had visited as a child, which happened to be the first of the three times they had met, as children.
Collin was raised in a hellish nightmare that made my upbringing seem like a trip to Disneyland. His mother was a drug addicted whore who pimped her kids out for drugs. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she allegedly killed his brother and sister.
Back then, I was so wrapped up in me, but I remember her telling me they were meant to be, that they had met those three times, and that she loved him. I was floored, hurt, pissed, and so angry at her. I was also sure I had hurt her so badly that she was seeking someone to hold on to.
I was wrong. He loved her, protected her, cherished her, and he never hurt her. Collin Abraham was a good man, a good father and, believe it or not, a good friend.
Alex hands me a beer. “Wanna help man the grill?”