Page 51 of Inked Temptation
“Whatever happened, son, it was with two consenting adults, and if you feel it was a mistake, and I’m not talking about Killian here, I’m talking about you. If you feel like it was a mistake and you never want to do what you did again, don’t. But if you feel that you have guilt or something else washing over you that’s pressing down on your shoulders, you need to talk to him about it.” We all gave my father an incredulous look, and he shrugged.
“I didn’t talk about what I was feeling for thirty years. And it screwed up so much in my life. I almost lost my wife, my kids, and everything else that’s come from that. Don’t be me. Talk. Even if it’s just to apologize or to say that the slate is clean. Talk. Because Killian deserves it for sure, but Archer? You do too. You deserve that honesty.” My dad cleared his throat then and gestured to the game. “We just missed a score. The Avs are up 2-1. I guess it is freezing in hell, with this score and the fact that I’m talking about my feelings with you,” he said and held up his beer. “To the Montgomerys.” He looked at his sons-in-law. “All of them.”
Jacob and Lee just rolled their eyes, and we each held up our glasses.
“To the Montgomerys,” I whispered, echoing the others, and I drank the last of my beer and leaned back against the couch as we changed the subject purposely to something a little bit lighter.
I had made a mistake, but maybe my dad was right. Maybe I should be the one to apologize. Or push things away, and pretend it never happened, but not avoid him.
I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, but as I sat in that room with my family, I realized that I had never been alone.
Killian had been right.
I was home. Not alone.
And that would just have to be okay.
