Page 17 of Until I Have You

I know he’s right.So, I agree.

We retreat to his office where Edwin pours me a couple of fingerfuls of a very nice scotch.

My eyes gravitate toward a bookcase shelf that is full of photos of the Lyons family over the years.

Pictures from his wedding to Sonia, the twins looking like raisins in their first few hours of life, photos of his older children from various phases in their lives.

My eyes freeze on a photo of Edwin with a tween version of Abigial, the two of them dressed in their Sunday best.

She’s standing on the tips of his shoes, grinning ear to ear.

Must have been a father daughter dance or something special like that.

I tear my eyes away.

She might be a grown woman now, but she’ll always be Edwin’s child, and that’s how I should see her.

“How are you settling in so far?”My friends sits in the leather arm chair across from me.

“You know jet lag gets worse with age?”

“Haven’t you been in New York for two weeks already.”

“I’m getting old, Ed.”I swig my scotch.

“Don’t say that.Because if you’re old, I’m old.And I don’t feel old.”

I eye my friend.

He’s recently fifty and looks good for his age despite all our antics from previous decades.“The children help with that, maybe.”

“No, no.The children definitely donothelp with the aging.”Edwin has a soft smile on his face.

He wouldn’t trade it.I know the feeling.

“They’ve got me up at strange hours and have me worrying again in ways I haven’t since Abigail was a kid.”

I try to veil my thick swallow.

“No, Sonia is what keeps me young.”He gives a slow nod.

“A woman?Keeping you young?Dream on, mate.”I chuckle.

Edwin’s onyx eyes find mine.“The wrong one will suck the life out of you, sure.”

I grimace, thinking of Bonnie’s mother.“Don’t remind me.”

Esme made quite sure that I lost a few years of my life by the time we divorced.

Edwin sips his liquor and places the cup on his knee.“Look, man.I know it’s hard to get back out there after someone betrays you the way Esme did.But…”

I look down into my drink.

Esme was the beginning of the end for me.At least that’s how it felt for a while.When I found out what was happening, my kingdom crumbled around me.

“You know, a woman would be good for you.And for Bonnie, don’t you think?”

I get a vision of Abigail in the back of my brain and wick it away as quick as it arrived.“I do.Although dating is a monster I’d rather not have to deal with, you know?”

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