Page 22 of Landon & Shay: Part Two

“I told her not to.” He frowned deeply.

“I’m happy she did.”

Grumbling sounds came from him as he moved around slightly in the bed. “Who’s the girl?”

I glanced at a nervous-looking Shay in the corner. “She’s my girlfriend.” It was a term we’d never used before, girlfriend or boyfriend, but I figured it was a given that Shay was mine, and I was hers. We’d just never really needed labels to express that fact.

Dad eyed Shay up and down and shook his head. “You think you’re good enough to keep a girl happy?”

Fuck you, Dad.

I cleared my throat and stuffed my hands into my pockets, not wanting to be a dick toward the dick who’d had just had a heart attack.

“He is,” Shay shouted, her voice loud and stern. “He’s more than enough.”

“Wait until he crumples,” he muttered, shutting his eyes. “You can always count on that son of mine to crumple and leave you with his mess.”

Shay stepped forward to give Dad a few choice words, but I held up a hand to stop her. It didn’t matter what he thought anyway. He was just an old man with a cold heart. He’d never understood me, and he never would.

Still, I hadn’t had a choice about showing up to check on him. Call it stupidity, but even if I didn’t love my father, I still cared to know that he was all right.

“If you’re not here to tell me you’re back in school and coming to the firm, then leave,” he told me. “I don’t want pity from the most pitiful.”

“I’m an actor, Dad, and I just landed a starring role in a huge film. I’m not going to be a lawyer. I was never going to be a lawyer.”

“What is it with you that makes you so content with being mediocre?” he grumbled.

“He’s not mediocre,” Shay shot in, marching up to his bedside.

“Shay, it’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. It’s not fair, and it’s not right for him to talk to you like that. Mr. Harrison, your son is talented beyond belief, and he is making something of himself. Just because he’s not growing into what you think he should be doesn’t mean he’s not achieving greatness, and the moment he found out about this, he put all his feelings aside and came rushing to see you because he cares for you that much. It’s cruel for you to treat him this way when he showed up in your time of need.”

“Little girl, I don’t know who you think you are, but you are stepping into the wrong territory,” Dad warned.

“As are you,” Shay replied, standing tall. If she was nervous, she didn’t reveal it. She didn’t tremble a lick.

I cleared my throat. “Listen, you’ve been through a lot, so we’re going to get out of your hair. I’m glad you’re okay, Dad. I wish you the best.”

“Don’t call me Dad. It’s clear you have no drive to come back to your roots; therefore, you are not my son anymore. You are nothing to me. Don’t come back here. I never want to see you again.”

He turned away from me and stared out the window without offering another word.

Shay looked at him, baffled by my father’s coldness, but it was nothing new to me. The last time I’d seen him, he had said he wouldn’t be surprised if I took my own life. I wasn’t shocked that he was still harsh, even after a life-threatening issue.

My father’s heart had been damaged long before his heart attack.

We turned around to walk away, and my father spoke once more as we made our way out.

“He’s going to hurt you, and then you’ll be left a fool.”

The words were obviously directed toward Shay, a last-ditch effort to get in a dig at me.

I took Shay’s hand into mine, and I saw the fire still burning in her eyes indicating that she was still ready to fight, but it wasn’t worth it. He wasn’t worth it.

As we left the room, April was standing there with worried eyes. “You didn’t stress him out, did you? His heart has already been through so much. He doesn’t need any added stress.”

I didn’t say a word to her.

---