Page 20 of Takedown Artist
I hand him his cup of coffee, and he takes it with a grateful sigh.
“Oh, this is perfect,” he says after his first big sip. “Your mother took away my creamer. Says it’s bad for my health.”
“Oh shit! Sorry, Pops.” I reach for his coffee, but he pulls it out of the way.
“Now, now. I don’t tell your mother everything. Well, most things but not this. You sit yourself down and tell me why you’re up this damn early. Is it Micah?”
“Micah? Why would you say that?”
“I got eyes, don’t I? It’s like you think we were never young, son. I see how you look at him.”
“Jesus, Pops. You don’t have to make it sound as if it’s something it’s not.”
My face heats, and sweat beads on my forehead.
“Oh, you’re not head over heels for that young man?” He raises an eyebrow in my direction.
Damn. Am I that obvious? Now I’ve got two things to stress about. Does Micah know? I’m screwed.
“Don’t even try and deny it,” he tells me with an amused grin.
“Does Mom know?”
“Are you kidding? Who do you think told me?”
“Oh God! This is terrible. You can’t say anything, Pops. Not a word. He can’t know.”
“Hmm and why can’t he know exactly?”
I don’t give him a snarky reply because I have manners, but I kind of want to.
“It’s complicated. You’ve met him. He’s got issues with trust and he’s been hurt bad in the past. Growing up wasn’t good for him. Not like it was for me. He needs time, Pops. I simply need to be patient until he’s ready.”
“Uh-huh. Ready, huh. When do you think that will be?”
“No idea. I’ll figure it out when I get there.”
Pops sips his coffee for a few minutes in silence, and I brace myself for some incoming advice. Probably something that’s gonna hurt, but I still need to hear it. Pops’ advice is like that. Sometimes painful, but usually necessary and always backed with love.
“You know, I knew my Morning Glory was the one five minutes after I met her,” he says with that soft look he gets whenever he’s talking about Mom. I get it. I want that someday too. “But your mom, she wasn’t so sure. Took me quite a bit of time to talk her round to my way of thinking. Almost lost her.”
“What? You never told me that.”
“Well, you didn’t need to know. Now you do.” Pops runs his hand over his head. Yeah, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in this house. At least he’s still got some hair left.
“I hesitated. That’s where I messed up. She thought I wasn’t serious. I thought I was being patient but I was just being scared.”
“I’ve never seen you be afraid of anything, Pops.”
“Well, then you aren’t lookin’ too close, are ya? Everybody gets scared. That’s just human nature.”
“And you think that I’m afraid? With Micah?”
“Son, if you don’t go after what you want, it’s a guarantee you won’t get it. Sure, it’s a risk, but that’s life. Staying safe is easy. Comfortable. But then you never get to move forward. Waiting’s not the same as patience. I hope you don’t find that out too late. God knows I almost did.”
“Our situation isn’t the same, Pops.”
“Okay. Well, I’m sure you’d know better than me. I do wonder though.”
