“For how long?” I frowned. Chloe never mentioned that. She also wasn’t the type of woman to just go with the flow and let Liam get hammered on a daily basis. He scratched his face that was now covered with beard and smiled.
“Four days,” we both chuckled. “On the fifth day she put every bottle up there. Then Liam got older, and it seemed safe just to keep the alcohol there. Go get us a drink.”
“Are you allowed to have one?” I asked walking over to the kitchen. It was way easier to make jokes than to get down on my knees and beg for forgiveness.
“I am not an alcoholic, asshole.”
I poured us both a drink and went back to him, offering him one glass. “My mom is. An alcoholic.”
“I would be too, if I had a son like you.”
“Oh, yeah?” I cocked my head sideways. “What does your mother think about that nest around your mouth?”
“Who cares? My woman likes the extra tickle.”
Around my third drink, I had finally loosened up enough to talk.
“I don’t even know how to start apologizing after so many years.”
“Yeah, some nerve you have.” He smiled, but I saw the sadness on his face.
“You have to let me say it.” He looked at me for a moment, then he nodded. “I know it won’t change anything, but I am sorry. I was so stupid.”
“You were stupid? What about me? I made my pregnant girlfriend go to a frat party and I got wasted. I should have stayed home with her, not drink with your sorry ass all night.”
“She begged us to stop.”
“I know.”
“I lost control. I should have stopped.”
“At first, I didn’t remember much, but then the memories started coming back. I was the first one to lose control, Ty. Not you.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t break my spine. You didn’t almost kill me.”
“We were both to blame. The one thing I can’t just let slide is the fact you never came to see me. Not once. I couldn’t walk. I lost the life I imagined for myself and you just hid away.”
“I couldn’t handle it. Seeing you like this. In a way I still can’t handle it.”
Liam poured me another drink.
“I was a willing participant, Ty.”
“But you didn’t put me in a wheelchair.”
“Hey. I have learned to live with my disability. It’s not that hard anymore. I have a woman and a son. I love them and they love me. That’s more than you have. And Chloe said it earlier. We moved on.”
“Eavesdropping, huh? You still can’t leave her alone in a room with me.”
Liam reached over, grabbed me by the shirt, knocked something in the process and grinned in my face.
“I can’t walk but I can still give you a shiner to remember me by for the next few days.”
Chloe appeared seconds later completely awake.
“What are you two doing?” She walked over to us to see what fell down to the floor.
“We are just messing around,” I said.
“If Liam wakes up because of you, you will be putting him down.” She slapped my shoulder. I leaned back in my chair.
“Do you really like the beard? It looks like a bunch of squirrels tangled their tails and then died there.”
“I said she liked how it felt between her legs, not how I looked with it.”
“I shouldn’t have offered you booze.” Chloe sat in Liam’s lap and drank from his glass.
They looked in peace. Happy. And I couldn’t stop looking at them.
We spent the entire night together in their tiny living room. Talking about the past. Talking about everything I missed around Liam’s surgeries. I told them everything there was to tell about Hannah. Chloe told me Kieran came and left her an insane amount of cash and told her he would help her find a new job.
At some point, Liam woke up and came to us. He crawled into my lap. I assumed he did it because his father’s lap was still occupied by his mother.
“Uncle Ty, you came.” He dug his little fingers into my ribs as he hugged me and I saw stars from the pain that erupted in my body, but I just patted his back. “Are you staying for breakfast?”
“Yes, Ace. I am.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Hannah
Two months later
“This one costs more than you are willing to pay, but you have one more room in the back,” Sandy, my realtor explained. “It’s small, but you can use it as a storage I guess.”
Why she thought I needed a storage room, I didn’t know. I also couldn’t tear my eyes away from the reindeer headband she was wearing. She looked ridiculous in her grey business outfit and that thing on her head, but Christmas was my favorite holiday too, so who was I to judge?
Sandy opened the door to show me the small room she was referring to. There was an old couch and a TV inside, which made an idea to pop inside my head.
“Do you think the owner would be open to the idea of selling?”
“I don’t know,” Sandy frowned at me. “Not to sound rude, but do you have the money to buy it?”
“I do. I just sold my old apartment.”
Technically, Dad had bought the Boston apartment, but I had no doubt he would be okay with me investing the money here.
“I could ask,” she hesitated.
“Could you do it now?” I smiled and real excitement rushed through my body for the first time in a very long time.
Sandy walked away and I used the time to make a phone call on my own.
“Hey, Dad,” I whispered. “Can you talk?”
“Yes. What’s up?”
“Do you think it would be a good idea for me to buy an office with a small room I could turn into a bedroom?”
“It depends…” I cut him off mid-sentence.
“Someone used it basically as a living room. There is a TV and a couch that I will have to replace, but it could work. I will put a bed in there and a small wardrobe. I will have to install a shower in the bathroom too. I can’t run to your place every day for a shower.”
“To your place?” He repeated my words, and I could hear the smile in his voice.
“Well, yeah. I don’t live there anymore, Dad. I want to have a home of my own.”
“Are you buying a home or an office?”
“I am buying an office I will temporarily use as a home.”
“How much does it cost?
“No idea. It’s not for sale. I asked Sandy to call the owner and ask him if he would be willing to sell.”
“Hannah…” he dragged.
“I know. I know. He will probably want an unholy amount of cash now, because he will know I want it.”
My father released a breath. “It’s not a bad idea. The execution is bad,” he paused for a moment. “Can I come over and negotiate the deal for you?”
“Yes, please,” I said with relief.
Dad and I moved past our differences in the last two months since I came back. We talked about how people’s feelings towards him and his work affected me as a child. I told him about Tyler, sparing him the details around the fuck buddy arrangement and the entire gravity of his illegal activities in Boston. He didn’t like the fact I was involved with someone who broke the law, but he didn’t condemn Tyler either.