Trusting Liam(72)

“Well I don’t know about that. From what I saw when the girls showed up with Rhys for Thanksgiving, Kennedy’s pretty miserable herself.”

My eyebrows rose. “He came with the girls?”

“I wouldn’t go reading anything into that. It was very much a we-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-him situation since he’s still staying at their place.”

“Still doesn’t change the fact that he’s there, which means she’s probably no closer to making a decision.”

“Maybe not,” Eli mumbled. “If you want my suggestion, I would go talk to her.”

“I can’t do that, Eli. I told her I was stepping back, and I need to stick with that.”

He tilted his head to the side and looked at me like he thought I was making a mistake, but didn’t say anything else as he stood and began walking out until he got to the door. “My other suggestion is for you to take the rest of the day off, you need this weekend away from the office, and the weekend is starting right now for you.” Eli stepped out of my office, but popped his head back in. “And by ‘suggestion,’ I mean that’s an order from your extremely stern boss.”

I smiled and huffed, but listened to what he said. Gathering up my stuff, I drove home, changed, and grabbed my board to head out to the beach. I usually only surfed in the early mornings, but since I wasn’t able to distract myself with work at the moment, I needed to do something to clear my head.

I’d only been out there for about thirty minutes when I caught sight of a man not far up the beach, standing up, watching me. Instead of paddling back out, I hung my head and walked over to him.

“Is this the day for people to give me lectures? Should I go see Brian after this?” I asked sarcastically, and dropped down next to where my dad was standing.

Once he was sitting down next to me, he asked, “What other lecture?”

“It wasn’t really. Eli just wanted to know how I was doing with the Kennedy situation, and told me he thinks I should go talk to her. And then he ordered me to leave early for the weekend . . . so I came here. Speaking of, how did you know I was here?”

Dad shrugged. “Saw your car. I had to run an errand since your mom’s and my anniversary is coming up, and saw your car on my way out and back. Decided I’d stop to see why you were here—but I figured it had something to do with Kennedy.”

I sat there for a couple minutes trying to figure out if I wanted to ask him what I’d been thinking for the past couple weeks. Dad just sat there waiting for me to begin. “When it was you . . . what did you do? And would you do it again?”

“With your mom and Chase?”

“Yeah.”

Dad exhaled slowly and leaned back so he was holding himself up on his elbows. “Well. When I found out she was pregnant I asked her to leave, and that was it for us for a long time. I knew you weren’t mine, and it didn’t take more than a minute to figure out who your dad was. I’d known how Chase felt, and I saw how your mom looked at him. While Chase waited for your mom to decide between the two of us—before she knew she was pregnant, and after—he did what you’re doing. He stepped back. And if he were here, I have no doubt he would tell you how big a mistake that was.”

“Mistake?” I blurted out. “Why?”

“Because your mom ended up taking a long time to decide. Even after Chase found out that we had broken up, she still told him she couldn’t be with him, and didn’t tell him that she was pregnant for months.”

“Months,” I echoed, my voice dead even though I was fucking terrified that Kennedy would draw this out for the same amount of time.

“Months,” Dad repeated. “By the time your mom was ready to tell him, and ready to give him a chance, they didn’t have very long before he died. He missed a lot of time with her because he stepped back. If he would have pushed it more, or been around instead of hiding from her, I have no doubt your mom would have broken down sooner.”

“And what were you doing during that time?”

“Staying away.”

I laughed, but it didn’t sound right. “So are you saying it was a mistake for you to do that too?”

“Nope,” he said simply, and I looked back at him.

“How is that supposed to help me right now? You said Chase would’ve regretted stepping back, but you stepped back and didn’t regret it.” I paused for a second, and then said, “But at that time, it wasn’t really a decision between the two of you anymore since you and Mom were broken up. So your situation wasn’t exactly the same as mine.”