“I did call you before I came by,” she says. “I called and called, and your phone kept going to voicemail.”
“Well, I didn’t hear it,” I say, reaching in my back jean pocket for my cell phone. It’s not there.
I don’t usually carry a purse, just my house, store and car keys on a ring and my phone and debit card in my pocket when I go out.
“Where the hell is my phone?” I ask as I spin around the kitchen looking for where I usually sit it down. Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen it since we got home from fishing…
“Want me to call you?” my mom asks, pulling out her phone from the purse hanging on her arm.
“Yeah,” I say as I continue searching.
She puts the device up to her ear and says, “It’s ringing.”
I run around the entire downstairs listening for it vibrating or ringing. I start to think I may have left it in Xavier’s rental when I head up the steps to check my bedroom and then my bathroom.
“Oh shit!” I exclaim when I finally spot my lime green case…completely submerged in the toilet bowl. “I’m going to kill him!” I say aloud.
And you can bet your ass I’m going to make him stick his hand in the toilet water to pull it out when he gets back.
Xavier
My dad is in the driveway, a garden hose in his hand, washing his classic Dodge Viper when I pull up at the curb in my rental car.
I wanted to call Cassidy from the gym and tell her what Coach said as soon as I left his office, but then I remembered that will be impossible after I got revenge for her throwing mine in the lake.
So, I’ll just have to keep the news bottled up while I visit with my parents.
My dad raises his hand to his brow, shielding his face from the setting sun when he looks over and I step out of the driver’s seat, shutting the door behind me.
“X-Man!” he exclaims in recognition. Dropping the hose, he walks over and meets me halfway up the driveway for a masculine embrace. “We thought you had forgotten the way home! See? Planes fly year-round, not just during holidays.”
Just for that, I lift him off his feet because I know it drives him crazy that I’m slightly larger and stronger than him.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” he huffs with a slap on my back. “Put me down, you big mama’s boy!”
Chuckling, I lower him to the ground again and let him go, noticing there’s even more gray in his black hair than the last time I saw him.
“How you been, Dad?” I ask because he’s right, I usually talk to mom when I call home since he’s not big on phone conversations.
“Good,” he says. “I’ve been doing some coaching for your sister and a few guys at Havoc to help pass the time. You been by to see Macy yet?”
“Yeah, I just saw her at the gym,” I reply.
“Did you know she’s on a streak? Ten wins and no losses. That’s incredible, right?” he asks.
“Yeah, it’s incredible,” I agree, happy for my sister and a little jealous of how close her and my dad are because she had her mind set on a fighting career before she could drive. They spent a lot of time together while I went across country for college and then law school.
Dad looks around me at my rental car and then asks, “Where’s the wifey?”
“Ah, Camilla didn’t come with me this time,” I explain.
“Oh,” he says. “Is she sick or something?”
“No, nothing like that,” I say. “It’s just that she probably won’t be coming with me to visit anymore.”
“Why? Did your mom do something to piss her off?”
“No, Mom didn’t do anything,” I assure him. “It was me. I, ah, I left her.”
“You left your wife where?” he asks.
“I left her, left her. We’re not together anymore.”
Dark eyes that resemble the same ones I see in the mirror every day narrow to slits. “Why the hell would you do that?”
“We just grew apart,” I say rather than admit to him the truth. It’s too fucking embarrassing to say out loud, much less to my uber-masculine father, of all people.
“Grew apart?” he repeats. “Did you move out?”
“Yeah.”
“Have you tried to work things out?” he asks. “Like with couples therapy or whatever?”
“No.”
“Why not?” he asks.
“Because I don’t think that shit is going to work for us.”
“How do you know unless you try?” my dad questions. “You loved her enough to want to spend your life with her. Otherwise you wouldn’t have married her. So don’t you think you should at least try to see if you two can work things out?”
“Look, Dad, not everyone finds their soulmate and lives happily ever after like you and Mom, okay? Some of us pick the wrong person and it doesn’t work out.”
When he crosses his arms over his chest with his feet shoulder-width apart, I immediately recognize it as his lecture stance. “Do you think everything has always been perfect between me and your mother?”
“No, but…” I start, and he steamrolls right over me.
“But nothing! You made a vow, son, for better or worse. Worse happens to the best of us. Still, even when you argue or whatever, that’s not something that you can just up and walk away from. We raised you better than that.”
“It’s more complicated than an argument,” I explain.
“Listen, I’m about to tell you something that I never wanted anyone to know, especially you and your sister.”
“Okay.”
“A long time ago, your mom and I went through a rough patch.”
“Did you forget to take out the garbage or something?” I joke because my parents hardly ever fought when we were growing up. I’m pretty sure I heard them screwing more than I did arguing.
“No, I fucked up, and your mom kicked me out,” he says, looking
