Tangled Truth(32)

“Something like this,” Eva admitted. “And you? She always implied you had a drinking problem, but it was this, wasn’t it? Looking back on some of the things she said—”

The older man coughed and sputtered in a way that would have been comical if not for the situation. “This? You’re giving your old man way too much credit for ingenuity, honey. Hell, I only wanted her to…” Realizing his audience, he shook his head and bit his lip as he considered how to phrase himself. “I asked her to do something I think most married people would not think twice about. Nothing like this, just something…people sometimes do for each other. She never would. She’d told me once very early on never to ask again. When I did break down and ask again, finally, after fifteen years of marriage, she told me I was damned to burn in hell as a Sodomite.”

“Um.”

“No, no. I wasn’t asking her to—”

“It’s okay, really, I’d rather not—”

“Not that kind of sodomy. Her definition was…different.”

“Oh, wow.”

“Honey, do you want some more wine or anything?” Drew was loyal up to a point, but at that moment he would gladly have chewed his own hand off to escape the conversation, and he was fairly sure both Eva and her father felt the same way but were trapped by a web of mismanaged communication.

She glared up at him and tightened her grip on his arm until he was in pain.

“It wasn’t this,” Mr. Godfrey said, making a cutting gesture with his hands that took in the picture, himself, the two of them. His eyes were squeezed shut, a grimace locked onto his face. “And it was nothing bad. She’s just crazy. I’m sorry, sweetheart, I know she’s your mother and I shouldn’t say that, but—”

“It’s okay, Daddy, I know she’s crazy.”

“Can I start over?”

“Oh God, please do.”

He took a deep breath first and slowly opened his eyes. “This is beautiful, and if it makes you happy, I’m happy for you. And I’m proud of you for being your own person. I hated having to leave you with her, peanut. I really did, but the court was never going to give you to me and I didn’t want to make you have to get up there and testify, choose between us like that. Knowing that you can come out of that and still have the strength to do something like this and let people see it…that amazes me. You amaze me. And you,” he said, a scowl instantly transforming his face as he pointed at Drew, “that doesn’t mean I’m not pissed as hell at you for doing this to my little girl. I really do want to kick your ass all over this room right now, pal.”

The words rang around the three of them. Then Drew nodded, slowly, and held out his free hand, thankful it was the right one. Mr. Godfrey glared at it before taking it and giving it another power-shake that came very close to breaking bones.

“Understood, sir,” Drew responded, struggling not to grin as he shook the cramp from his abused hand.

“I don’t have to be consistent when it comes to stuff like this,” Mr. Godfrey explained. “Because she’s my daughter. But I’ll hold off on the ass-kicking. For now.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Eva muttered. She was blushing, the high red color topping each cheek in a vivid dash that played beautifully off the color in her dress. “I think we could probably all use some more wine right now.”





Chapter Ten



“Head. I’m pretty sure he was talking about head. So that means that the whole time they were married, she never once—”

“Drew, oh my God, please stop. Please, please stop now and never speak of this again. Please?”

“But fifteen years, honey. Fifteen years.”

“It might not have even been the rope thing,” she marveled, securing another plastic wineglass in her hand and throwing it in the trash can Drew was wheeling along behind her. “This whole time I thought it was because I was tied up, but maybe that part didn’t even matter as much as the fact that I was giving Andy head? I’ve given plenty of guys head since then, I never even had an issue with doing that.”

“I thought you never wanted to speak of it again?” He detoured to pick up a litter of flyers and napkins from the corner of the gallery’s larger room, pitching them neatly into the trash can from a distance of eight or ten feet.

“The part about my parents, yeah. I think that’s everything. The cleaning service can get anything else when they mop up.”

She put the last cup in the nearly full can then ambled over to sit on the table the caterers had been using. With a sigh of relief, she eased her high, peep-toe pumps from her feet and let them clump to the ground.