Page 50 of Broken Butterfly
Fallon starts laughing. “God, I hate that jackass. Of course, that’s what he would say.”
“Dad, Elizabeth isn’t with Jayson. She’s with me.” I guess now’s a good a time as any to fill him in on all the stuff I’ve been keeping to myself. “She and I started dating and we kind of moved in together.”
Dad looks totally taken aback. “You’re not living at the condo with the boys anymore?”
I shake my head no. “I moved in after—” Fuck, I can’t tell him about the baby or all the other shit that went down. “Yeah, I moved in with her and have been staying at her place. About four weeks ago, her memories came back.”
“That’s where I come in,” Fallon explains. “She needed time to get her head on straight, so I whisked her out of town, and we got the hell out of Dodge. Once I felt she was ready to come back, I called my boy up and flew him out to Barcelona to meet up with us.”
Dad sits forward. “Hold up. You’ve been in Spain and you didn’t tell us?”
I cringe slightly at his tone just as I used to when I was a boy if he was upset at me. One thing I never want to do is lie to or disappoint my dad.
“It was a very last-minute thing and I had to leave immediately. But yeah, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, and Australia,” I inform him, thankful for the passport they made me get when our families had planned for us to go to London together the summer after we graduated high school.
“Huh,” he mumbles and sits back. “So, you and Elizabeth?”
“Yeah, Dad. Me and Elizabeth. I love her and she loves me.”
“About damn time. I’ve watched the two of you dance around each other almost your entire lives. I’m happy for you, Son. How is Jayson handling it?”
“Jay can go fuck himself,” Fallon casually says. My dad scowls at Fallon’s language but remains silent. He knows how Fallon is and lets it slide, just like I do. “Jay thinks that because she has her memory back, she’ll run back to him.”
“You know he and Julien are home, right?”
“I know, Dad. We’re going to drop by tomorrow, but they can’t know we’re here yet.”
“It’s going to be a shit-show is what Ry isn’t saying. Myself? I can’t wait,” Fallon gleefully grins, the light from the fire casting a devilish glow on his face. Fallon thrives on chaos.
We hear female voices and Elizabeth’s laughter as she, Mom, Brea, and Jamie come outside. Dad and I table the rest of our conversation for later.
My mom has her arm wrapped around Elizabeth’s shoulders and their heads are together. I scan Elizabeth’s face to make sure I see no worry or tension, but all I see is her beatific smile and bright green eyes. As soon as she gets close enough, I snag her wrist and pull her down into my lap.
“Everything go okay?” I whisper in her ear.
“Yeah,” she whispers back, and because she smells so damn good and I missed her, I tilt her chin up and kiss her soundly.
“I knew it!” Brea shouts. “Every time your name came up, Lizzie would blush,” she announces, looking pleased with herself.
My mom says, “Oh, my sweet babies, finally together,” and starts crying again. Dad pulls her to him and pats her back.
“Mom, that’s just gross,” Jamie complains and fake gags a little to make her point. “You make it sound like incest.”
“Lizzie knows what I mean. She’s always been like a daughter to me,” she sniffles.
I feel Elizabeth tense up in my arms.
“Fallon and our son were just telling me about their trip,” Dad cuts in.
“What trip?” Brea asks.
“Why does it feel like we’re in trouble?” Elizabeth asks me. I settle her back against me and shrug.
“Girls, apparently we missed something while we were inside,” Mom says.
“Did you drop out of college?” Jamie exclaims bluntly.
“Our son forgot to mention that he was in Europe with Fallon and Lizzie. And they’ve been living together.”
