All along, my loved ones had told me this. Lee had told me this. Yet it took this conversation with Samuel for me to finally listen. Lee’s words at Grange Manor came at me, hard and fast.
“You’ll find him. And when you do, that’s where you’ll find your peace.”
The question remained, if I could accept that what had happened to Henry was an accident, could I accept the same about the car accident that had injured Lee?
* * *
The plane landed in torrential rain, bumping several times along the runway before pulling onto the taxiway and stopping. Blaize and I tore down the steps and into the car waiting for us.
“I miss Miami,” he moaned.
“Well, now that you’ve done your Mr. Fixit routine, you can go back to Miami.”
“Are you? Fixed, that is?”
“I got my closure.”
“Over Samuel, yes. But what about Leesa?”
I gnashed my teeth together. “I don’t want to talk about Lee.”
Blaize’s deep sigh filled the cabin. “You are a fucking asshole, you know that?”
I ignored him. We moved off. Blaize plucked out his phone and started tapping, probably answering emails. I stared out the window. It was New Year’s fucking Day, for Christ’s sake. Work could wait. Then again, Blaize was, and always had been, a workaholic. Christmas Day, Easter, Thanksgiving. Didn’t matter to him what day it was.
The rain had lessened to a miserable drizzle as the car pulled into my driveway. We trudged inside and hung our damp jackets over the banister. I switched on the heating and made a pot of coffee. The weight of Blaize’s stare burned the back of my neck. I busied about for a few seconds, then turned.
“You clearly have something on your mind, so spit it out.”
He slid onto a stool at the breakfast bar and tossed his phone on the counter. Several notifications appeared. He swiped the screen, clearing them. “Has it occurred to you that walking out on Leesa at a time she needed you the most was a shitty thing to do?”
My teeth gnashing took on a whole new level of enamel erosion. “I didn’t walk out on her. She told me to go.”
“We all say lots of things during times of stress. Doesn’t mean they’re true, or that, in the cold light of day, we might see things differently.”
“She knows where I live.”
“Jesus Christ.” Blaize shook his head. “Youbroke up withher.Therefore,you’rethe one who needs to grovel. On your fucking hands and knees if need be. It can’t be easy for a woman like Leesa to come to terms with what’s happened to her.”
Can’t be easy for a woman like Leesa… a woman like Leesa.
My heart stuttered, my mind running in circles. Could it be…?
No. Surely not.
Except…
I fisted my hair. God, Iwasa fucking asshole. A gigantic fucking asshole.
“Bro, you’re a genius.” I mashed my hands to both of his cheeks and kissed him. “I have to go.”
His eyebrows squished together. “Go where?”
“To see Lee.”
Blaize threw his hands in the air. “Finally he sees sense.”
I grabbed my car keys and strode to the front door. I wrenched it open to a man, his hand in a fist, ready to knock.