“Grandma made me go. I’ve only been once,” he says, looking down at his socks. This is a man who has believed all his life he could fix anything with hard work. But mental work is as important as the physical.
“Dad, I’m proud of you. Mom would be proud of you too.”
He sniffs and looks up. “When you were born, your mom and I decided that no matter what, we would help you accomplish anything. We wanted you to know that nothing was impossible for you.”
“You have, Dad. And I can’t describe how much it has meant to me. You taught me how to believe in my abilities. To work hard and prove myself.”
He scuffs his foot along the ground. “I haven’t given you a chance to do that, have I?”
I squeeze his hand. “You have supported me every step of the way, but now I have to do some things on my own. And you have to trust that I can. And that if I can’t, I will ask for help.”
“You promise?”
“I promise. I’ll always need helphandling some things.” I tease. “But my personal relationships are not one of those things.”
His face scrunches up. “Does it really have to be Sean Bentley?”
I bite back a smile. “It really does. I get to choose, for good or bad. If my heart gets broken or not. That’s my choice. You need to trust my judgment and stop scaring him away.”
He grimaces. “About that. My therapist was talking about addressing the past, and…I should probably tell you something.”
The tone of his voice has my knees buckling and I grip the edge of the table. “What?”
“The first day of school, when Sean embarrassed you like that? I nearly went down to the school and yelled at him. Mrs. Beatty wouldn’t let me.”
“Dad!” Thank goodness he was stopped.
“But then he came over the week before prom asking to talk to you. I remembered how upset you’d been that first day, and I lost it.”
I blink. My brain is trying to reconcile the past with what my dad is telling me right now.
“I told him he wasn’t allowed anywhere near you. That he couldn't take you to prom.”
My head spins. That must have been after he asked me at school. “You’rethe reason he stood me up? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I couldn’t.” His voice cracks and tears spill down his weathered cheeks. “I thought it better you hated him instead of me. The guilt ate at me, and I planned on telling you when you came home, but you looked happy, and I didn’t want to hurt you again.”
I never told him about Trent. I simply said I’d had fun with a friend. Whether that friend was Sean or his brother, my dad never knew. Never asked.
“Dad…” I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how he could sit there that night watching me fall apart and not say anything. That’s what hurts. Not what he did-it was long ago, and everyone is entitled to a few mistakes-but that he lied about it for so long. I scoot away from the table. “I get why you did it, but I don’t approve of the way you lied to me.”
He nods, not even looking up at me.
“I’m sorry, London, I thought I was doing the right thing.”
“You were wrong about Sean back then. And you’re wrong about him now.”
He nods again. “I hope so, darling. I hope so.”
I hope so too.
Chapter 26
Sean
“Youmadethis?”Michaelasks, running his fingers along the smooth walnut desktop.
“I did,” I say, a stirring in my chest. Who knew it felt so good to accomplish things that mattered?
