Page 275 of Darling Venom
This, too, felt like parting from a limb without warning.
I kept the key she’d given me in my pocket just to torture myself. To remind me of our final moments together.
Rather than hitting up a bar like I wanted, I ended up on my couch.
Beside Terry.
Watching a rerun of some eighties show neither of us enjoyed.
I knew he had something he wanted to say, on account of the fact that, every time a commercial break hit, his lips parted and he huffed out a breath from the back of his throat, only for nothing but hissy air to escape.
The show resumed. We went back to watching characters we didn’t know the names of doing things that made no sense since we’d started the episode midway.
Did this count as father-son bonding?
If so, I wanted a refund.
Finally, Terry put us out of our misery, latching on to the remote and shutting off the television. “You have something you wanna say?”
“Sounds like you’re the one with something to say. Huff any harder, and they’ll need to recast you as the wolf in The Three Little Pigs.”
“It’s a crowning achievement in my life, the fact that the only book my adult son has ever referenced to me is a children’s tale.”
“You’re welcome.”
He tossed the remote aside. “I noticed you read Darling Venom.”
“A while ago.”
I swallowed, recalling the water Terry had left me that day. Such a little thing, yet I couldn’t shake it.
They say there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Someone should’ve warned me better before I invited my father into my house.
“Miss Richards fought to preserve every part that mentions you as Kellan wrote it. Those are his words, untouched. Just thought you should know.”
“You want us together.”
“You want the two of you together,” he corrected. “I’m just an exhausted bystander.”
“The fact that she worked hard to preserve Kellan’s vision of me changes nothing.”
In fact, I figured she would.
After all, she was warm, sweet Charlie.
Reliable to a fault.
Until our breakup.
Terry ran his knuckles along his jaw, head tilted. “And what would?”
“If I knew, I wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“If it’s not about Kellan, it’s about… Oh.” He laughed, patting me on the shoulder. “Your brother was right.”
“About?”
“About what you’d be like in a real relationship—unable to commit. Fine. I share some blame in this. Why would you let yourself lose control when it’s all you’ve seen me do, only to end up a deadbeat addict?”
