Page 15 of Reclaiming his Honor
“That’s between your mother and me. I want to talk about you. How long have you been drinking that much?”
Lewis rolled his eyes. “It was a wedding. My sister got married. Everyone else was celebrating, too.”
“No one else was as drunk as you.”
“Sure, they were.”
“No, you just think they were. I could bring that bartender out here and she’d tell you herself, no one else at that reception was drinking the way you were.”
“This is a lot like the pot calling the kettle black.”
“More like the pot warning the kettle there’s no going back.” Mac shook his head. “The biggest regrets of my life have to do with alcohol. Losing your mother. Losing you and your sisters. Losing everything that mattered in my entire life, until I didn’t even want to live anymore.”
Lewis’s eyes were molten with anger. “Fucking boo-hoo. You didn’t give a shit then, and you sure as fuck don’t give a shit now.”
Mac felt like he was beating his head against a wall, but he would continue to do it over and over again if it meant he might eventually get through to his son. He tried a different tactic. “You’re right. I loved getting drunk more than I loved anyone or anything else. That’s what alcohol does. It makes you love it, and only it. I still love alcohol. The difference is, I know alcohol no longer loves me. It’s out to destroy me. To take everything that matters away from me. And I’m not going to let that happen ever again.”
Lewis rolled his eyes. “Spare me the lectures.”
Mac pounded his fist on the table, making the silverware rattle. Other patrons turned their heads to stare,and he moderated his voice down from where he’d originally wanted to pitch it. “Listen to me! I might be the only person in your life who understands what’s happening to you. You don’t understand it. You’re watching it happen like it’s happening to someone else. You tell yourself it was just this one occasion, just this one circumstance that it got away from you. But this wasn’t the first time you’ve done something you regret. And you’re ignoring the bigger picture. I can help you, Lewis.”
Lewis leaned forward and said in a harsh whisper, “I don’t want your fucking help, do you understand me? When you left, you forfeited being my father. Callie and Shonda might let you back in their lives, but you don’t get to decide what happens with mine. I do.” He stood abruptly and stormed out of the restaurant.
Mac folded his hands on the table in front of him until his knuckles whitened, and watched his son walk away. The waitress appeared beside him. “Can I get you anything to start off, sir?” she asked. “A bloody Mary? A mimosa?”
“Black coffee and a water.” He handed her his menu. “And I’d like the number one special.”
She walked away, giving him a clear sightline to the hostess stand where Ellie stood. He raised his hand and called her name, delighted when her face lit up and she crossed to him. Maybe this would be easier than he imagined.
He stood and pulled back the chair on the opposite side of the table. “Good morning.”
“Morning.” She sat down. “I was supposed to meet Turner for breakfast.”
Mac’s stomach fell, but he forced himself not to show it as he took his own seat. “Tell me you don’t want to eat with me, without saying you don’t want to eat with me.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
He waved her away. “How did you two meet?”
She looked at him skeptically. “You really want to know?”
He nodded, and she began. “The kids and I were living in Mobile with my cousin, Ursula, and her husband, Roger. I was going to nursing school during the day and waitressing at night to pay the bills. Ursula had gotten me the job. It wasn’t far from the house.”
A far-away look came over her face. “One night, Ursula was walking home from work alone. We both did it all the time. It wasn’t far, but women had been going missing, black women from that side of town.”
She stared at her hands in her lap. “Ursula never made it home. She disappeared. For months and months everyone was looking for her. We just got confirmation this past year she was one of Arnold Godak’s victims.”
Mac nodded. He knew all about it. There’d been a time he feared Ellie had been killed by Godak, because her trail had gone cold in Mobile at the same time Godak was active in the area.
It was Mac who’d interviewed Godak repeatedly at the prison, and who had gotten the location where the bodies were buried. He’d done it to look for Ellie. He had no desire to take credit for that work, his role seeming trivial when Ellie had lost someone important to her. “I’m sorry to hear that. Ursula was a special person.”
Ellie smiled. “She was, wasn’t she? I loved that woman.” She shook her head. “Took us in without hesitation. Just wanted to know what we needed, and she’d do her best to provide.”
“I’m glad you had somewhere to go.”
“Anyway, Turner was the lead detective on her missing persons case. He kept me up to date on what was happening with the search, and when they thought she’d fallen victim to the serial killer who was terrorizing the city, he comforted me. He’s a good man, Mac.”
His stomach twisted with his need to contradict her. “If he was in Mobile, how did he end up with you in Orange Beach?”
