I remained stalwartly silent, wishing I could be anywhere else but here.
“Sooner or later, you have to accept that you’re not responsible for other people’s choices. Worse, sometimes you can’t fix what’s wrong with them.”
He looked me dead in the eye when he said it.
“I’m not responsible for my daughter’s choices or the outcomes of those choices. You’re not responsible for your father’s. But you are responsible for the choices you make. And that includes walking away from the best thing that will ever happen to you.”
“Look, Lou, this has been a nice chat and all—”
He clapped me on the shoulder. His grip was solid, firm. “You couldn’t save your mom from an accident any more than you could save your dad from addiction. Now you worry you won’t be able to save anyone else. Or stand losing someone else.”
My throat was tight, and it burned.
Lou’s grip tightened. “Somewhere, deep down is a man stronger than your father ever was. I see it. Your grandmother sees it. My daughter sees it. Maybe it’s time you take a look in the mirror.”
FORTY-ONE
THE NEW NAOMI
Naomi
Knox: Look. I know I could have handled things differently. But trust me. It’s better this way. If you or Waylay need anything, I want to know.
Knox: Liza probably already told you, but the security company is installing the alarm at the cottage Saturday. What time is Waylay’s soccer game?
Knox: Are you okay?
Knox: Just because we’re not together doesn’t mean I don’t still want you and Waylay to be safe.
Knox: You can’t avoid me forever.
Knox: Can’t we be fucking adults about this? It’s a small fucking town. We’re gonna run into each other sooner or later.
I pried open one bleary eye and peered at my phone screen.
Satisfied it wasn’t a certain dead-to-me Morgan brother, I swiped to answer. “What?” I croaked.
“Wakey wakey, Witty,” came Stef’s cheery voice from half a world away.
I gave a muffled groan in response and rolled over.
I had the covers pulled over my head in a juvenile attempt to block out the entire world. Unfortunately, it had the unintended consequence of also surrounding me with the scent of him. Sleeping in a bed we’d shared while I’d fallen for the farce was not conducive to anything but a downward spiral.
If I was going to survive this, I needed to burn these sheets and buy Liza a new set.
“Judging from your effusive greeting, I’m guessing you haven’t yet dragged your Definitely Getting Over Him Today Ass out of bed yet,” Stef surmised.
I grunted.
“You’re lucky I’m not on the same continent as you right now because your time is up,” he chirped.
“What time?”
“Your ‘woe is me, I miss my stupid hot fake boyfriend’ time. It’s been five days. The acceptable mourning period is over. You are officially being reborn as New Naomi.”
Being reborn sounded like a lot of work.
“Can’t I just wither away as Old Naomi?” Old Naomi had spent the last few days putting on a fake smile for Waylay and library patrons, then spending a few hours a day half-heartedly trying to clean up the wreckage in the cottage. All while avoiding thinking about Knox.
I was exhausted.
“Not an option. It is six thirty a.m. your time. Your day starts now.”
“Why are you so mean?” I groaned.
“I’m your mean fairy godfather. You have a transformation to begin, my little caterpillar.”
“I don’t want to be a butterfly. I want to smother in my cocoon.”
“Tough shit. If you don’t get out of bed in the next ten seconds, I’m bringing in the big guns.”
“I’m out,” I lied.
He said something derisive in French. “In case you need a translator, that was French for bullshit. Now, I want you to get your lying ass out of bed and go take a shower because Liza reports that your hair is greasier than the deep fryer at a sports bar on wing night. Then I want you to open that Sephora order I sent you and snap the fuck out of this funk.”
“I like funks.”
“You do not. You like game plans and to do lists. I’m giving you both.”
“Having friends who know you really well is overrated,” I complained to my pillow.
“Okay. Fine. But I want it on record that you made me do this.”
“Do what?”
“You have an eleven-year-old girl looking up to you. Do you really want to teach her that when a boy hurts your feelings, you give up on life?”