Page 112 of The Life We Left Behind

“You sure?” I finally asked, giving up all pretense of making a graceful exit from this situation. Not that choking on a hot dog would have been all that ladylike.

Honestly, I didn’t know if a hot dog had ever been allowed in this house before. Either Regina really was gone, or Jasper was doing whatever he could to try to make a connection with his grandson.

Trace nodded, taking my hand and kissing my knuckles before he turned back to his father and hitting him with a glare I’d never seen on his face before.

The message was clear.Don’t speak again until my son has left.

Was it wrong that there was something hot about that?

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

TRACE

It was official. My father had lost his mind. Because there was no other way that he could think having this conversation in front of my son was a good idea.

As Delaney slipped away from the table, an excited Cade following at her side, I turned back to the man who had always seemed so much larger than life to me as a child. Not because he was the life of a party, or filled a room with a happiness that couldn’t survive without him. No. My father had always struck this awe-inspiring image with me, even as a child. I’d always wanted to be like him. He was what I’d thought a man should be. That was until I was old enough to see the cracks in the facade. The areas where he was lacking that I’d been blind to as a child. The most important ones.

“You can’t possibly think that was appropriate.” The coldness in my voice shocked even me. I didn’t sound like the man who’d walked into this house not even an hour before.

“I’m sorry, son. I couldn’t think of any other way to start what weneedto discuss.”

I watched him carefully. He seemed like he was sorry, but I’d been fooled by him before.

“She’s gone,” he suddenly blurted out. “And we’re in negotiations about how her return to this family could be possible.”

I rolled my eyes. I was a grown man, but I couldn’t help it.

Of course, he wasn’t going to leave her.

“You know, when Booker told me that you were going to leave her this time, I almost believed him. Got to keep up the family appearances, though, right?”

He winced as the accusation struck him as hard as I’d wanted it to.

“It isn’t like that,” he said quietly, looking like a shadow of the man he’d once been in my eyes. “Your mother and I have both made mistakes. Some days I think that all the troubles we’ve had as a family all fall down to me. I was the first to do wrong. I broke her heart long before she tried to break mine.”

I should probably ask what he was talking about. But the thing was, I didn’t care. It struck me then just how right Delaney had been. There was no making my way out of this situation without therapy, and I was determined to put everything I had into it. I wasn’t going to continue this cycle of hurt and hate that my family had spiraled into. I wouldn’t bring that into the family I was creating for myself.

I stood up from the table, dropping my napkin on the surface as I did.

“Thank you for inviting us today. I appreciate that you did what you could to try to make Cade feel comfortable.” I waved my hand around the food that my father had their cook prepare on the brand-new grill that now sat on the patio. “But I’m taking my family, and I’m not coming back. You’ve made your choice, and that choice doesn’t include me, my son, or the woman I’m going to make my wife someday soon. Goodbye, Father.”

I’d only made it two steps before I heard his chair clatter back onto the patio stone. “Trace, wait!”

The only reason I stopped was because I needed us to say whatever needed to be said right now. I was deadly serious about the fact that I was done with both of my parents.

“I know that what she did?—”

“You know nothing!” I shouted. “How can you ever understand what she’s done to me? He’smy son! And she kept him from me. She stole them away, and then she maneuvered me into a marriage with that evil bitch who made my life miserable for years.”

My father looked confused, but he didn’t ask what I meant. Probably because he didn’t want to know. I doubted there was anything I could say that would make him change his mind about what he wanted to do, anyway.

“Trace, Cade is my grandson, and I would love the opportunity to be in his life.”

“No.”

I started to walk away again, only to be stopped by my father’s hand on my shoulder.

“No?”

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