Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 104151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
“We do love you.”
I shook my head. “Dad kicked Sarah out of the house. That’s not love. That’s control. You have to love us even when you can’t control us, or else it’s not unconditional love.”
“That wasn’t about love, Eve. That was about respect. That was about following rules. Sometimes, there’s tough love, and that’s how you learn valuable lessons in life. It wasn’t easy to leave you at the rehab center, but we did it out of love. Not control. Not anything else. It was tough love. Tough for you and tough for us.”
I started to speak but swallowed my words. Instead, I sipped my hot chocolate and let her words replay in my mind. Perhaps she had a point, too.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
LIONEL RICHIE, “SAY YOU, SAY ME”
Kyle
“Is she home?” Adam asked as I carried the phone onto the deck to watch the first snow after tucking Josh into bed.
Clifford jumped into one of the rockers.
“I think so, but I don’t know for certain.” I brushed the light dusting of snow off the chair and sat down.
“She’s an adult. Bring her back here with you when you come home.”
I chuckled. “Just like that, huh?”
“Yeah, man, just like that.”
“She just got out of rehab. I don’t want to fuck it up. I don’t want to fuck her up.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I was an enabler. She’s going to need a good support system.”
“You and Josh. I’ll be here to help too.”
“You drink like a fish,” I said.
“I don’t have to drink around her.”
“It would feel selfish, like I’m thinking of myself more than her. I can’t love her like that.”
“Can you really love her if you’re not with her?”
“Yeah, I can let her go. It might be the best way to love her.”
“Do you think she’ll see it that way?”
I brushed a little snow off my leg. “Not at first, but eventually.”
“I bet Josh’s mom thought the same thing. She knew you’d eventually be okay and that you’d discover that her leaving you was for the best. Right? How many days have you thought that?”
Zero days. Until I met Eve.
“We’re okay,” I said.
“What if Melinda showed up on your doorstep tomorrow? Would you take her back?”
“No.”
He laughed. “Why?”
“Because …”
“Because you love Eve? But that makes no sense if you’re leaving her. You might as well give Josh one woman who loves him.”
“Melinda doesn’t love him.”
“I bet Eve does.”
I didn’t reply.
“Kyle, you’ve said it so many times. That boy thinks Eve hung the moon just for him. Don’t lie to him. Let him see that she loves him but also that she needs both of you to take care of her, too.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Do you give an eighteen-year-old with an alcohol addiction an instant family? Take her away from the only home she’s ever known? Hope that she finds a job? Hope that she continues to love me and my son the way I love her? Would I be setting her up to fail? If so, that would feel really fucking unforgivable.”
Adam slowly hummed. “When you put it like that, I start to reconsider my recommendation. What happened to us? We used to seize every moment and deal with the consequences after the fallout. Are we … old?”
I laughed. “Not old. More mature. We, well, I have real responsibilities.”
“I take offense to that.”
“Take all the offense you want. I stand by my comment.” I grinned, and it felt good to joke with my friend because the gravity of my emotions surrounding Eve had been suffocating.
After the laughter died, Adam blew out a long breath. “You’re going to take a hit on buying a house and turning around and selling it so quickly.”
“I might keep it and rent it out for now.”
“Then you won’t have a down payment for another house unless you drain your savings.”
He didn’t know my savings was already partially drained from Eve’s rehab.
“Josh and I don’t need a lot of space. We’ll rent something small for a few years. I’ll sell my fishing boat and a few other things.”
“So that’s it, huh?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You sound pretty set on your plans. No Eve? Just you and Josh?”
I stared in the direction of her house, but through the dark mixed with flurries, all I could see was a single light that had to be coming from her bedroom window.
“I thought Melinda and I were on the same page. For nine months, she made me think we were on the verge of living the dream. I was so wrong. So I don’t trust my judgment anymore.”
“That doesn’t mean you should stop taking chances.”
“It’s not just me,” I murmured. “I’m risking Josh’s heart too.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
KENNY LOGGINS, “MEET ME HALFWAY”
Eve
I returned to work.
Dad told everyone at church that I’d been on a mission trip in Guatemala.