Page 96 of Gravity of Love
Probably twenty percent of the anger he had for his dad was for the way he’d treated him, the other eighty percent was that he wasn’t there the weeks before she passed. He was gone. Cora was by his mom’s side. He’d always thought that was because his dad didn’t care, but now, now he didn’t know if that was because he cared too much.
While he was at the office, alone, he’d had time to think. His mind was trying to reconcile what Cora told him at the rehearsal dinner with the man he knew, but he was struggling, so he’d looked up the civil lawsuit against the hospital. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Cora, but he needed to see, to read for himself instead of from a third party. And he got what he was looking for. He saw the photos of what his dad did to those security guards, he read the reports. The damage he’d done was much worse than a broken nose and dislocated shoulder. His dad fucked them up. He knocked out teeth and broke fingers, ribs, and one of their orbital bones. And they were both big men.
Cora also said that his mom told his dad she wanted him to get his shit together and be strong for him and Tristan. Was thatwhy he’d stayed away those two weeks? Because he couldn’t do that?
And then there was Frankie. In addition to his legal research, he watched some of the show she’d talked about. She’d saidThe Summer I Turned Pretty, was like her diary. From what Liam could tell, the main character, Belly, was in love with two brothers. Liam skipped ahead, and it seemed like in the third season she chose the youngest brother and was going to marry him, so that hadn’t been reassuring. He wasn’t sure where Zion fit into that narrative or plotline and he wasn’t that enthused about finding out.
“Okay, I tried to be jokey, but I’m just going to ask you, what is wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m fine.”
Poppy reached up and touched the end of his nose.
He recoiled. “What?”
“Just making sure it’s not growing, Pinocchio.”
His eyes cut to hers.
“Okay, it wasn’t my most clever, but I’m trying here.” Poppy’s arms flew up in exasperation. “You know, you’re allowed to benot fine. And I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you this, but not only can you have feelings, you can actually talk about them.”
When he didn’t respond, she exhaled as her head dropped back in exasperation. As soon as she straightened back up, she said, “Okay, can I at least know what flavor offineit is we’re dealing with?” She twisted so she was facing him, tucking her knees up under her. “Is itweddingfine,familyfine, or is it—” She paused dramatically. “—Frankiefine?”
Hearing her name out loud stung more than he’d expected. He wasn’t sure if it was the sound of it or just that someone else had said it, confirming that Frankie was a real person and not a symptom of his own unresolved crap. He tried to mask the reaction, but Poppy was unnervingly observant.
“Okay, got it,” she stated decisively as she snapped her fingers and pointed at him with finger guns.
“Got what?” He played dumb.
“Got that you are upset about Frankie.”
He shook his head. “I’m not.”
“You do know you’re a terrible liar, right?” she explained. “Like, epically abysmal.”
“It’s just…it’s complicated.”
“When is it not?!” she asked as if it was the most common thing in the world to feel the way he was feeling and have the problems he was having despite not being privy to either of those pieces of information.
“Okay, so what did you do?” she sing-songed.
“Me?” He turned towards her. “Why do you think I did something?”
“Because you have a penis,” she stated matter-of-factly.
Hearing his baby sister use the word “penis” in reference to him caused him to inwardly cringe.
She must have noticed because she rolled her eyes. “Grow up, you’re an ER doctor.”
“So?” He didn’t know what his profession had to do with hearing his sister refer to genitalia in his presence.
“So, what happened? Give it to me. My own love life is Shit City, but I’m actually scarily good at giving others relationship advice. Like,scarilygood.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He shrugged.
“Of course itmatters!” Her hands flew in the air, but then she lowered them again and took a breath, seeming to try and calm herself. “Can I ask you justonequestion?”
“Sure. You just did.”
