Until the End (Sea Breeze #9)(54)

This time I sat down. I needed a minute.

“This isn’t how we wanted you or Amanda to find out. We were going to go through with the divorce and slowly ease you both into having family dinners where I attended. We intended to be careful with your emotions and let you accept it over time. However, Tawny decided to run off, so everything changed.”

“So you’re still married to her?” I asked, looking at my parents’ hands still joined.

“No. She left the signed divorce papers on the kitchen table with a note that she couldn’t take Larissa. And that was it. Nothing else.”

Shit. How was the woman I adored more than life related to this heartless bitch? It was a question I had asked myself more than once over the years.

“Larissa is going to come stay here. With us,” my mother said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“What?” I asked, again thrown into shock.

Mother tilted her head and leveled her eyes at me. “You know I love that child. Once I got over everything, I started letting Amanda bring Larissa around. I’ve grown attached. She needs a mother right now, and I intend to give her the love she needs. If Amanda is okay with it, I’m going to turn her room into Larissa’s. My hope is Tawny will grow up and come back to be a part of her daughter’s life. But until that day comes, I will be this little girl’s mother. She laughs like my own baby girl did once, and when she smiles she looks just like the daughter-in-law I love dearly. She even has Willow’s mannerisms. And then I see your father in her too. Nothing about that little girl isn’t lovable.”

Larissa was charming. But my mother was willing take her in? And love her? Holy shit, the woman really was a saint. I’d always put my mother on a pedestal, but now I saw that she deserved it. Shaking my head, I stood up. I needed to go home and talk to Low. She would help me deal with all this.

“I can’t . . . I just . . . I need to go,” I said, then turned and walked to the door.

“I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry that I lost myself and that I put too much on you as you were growing up. I messed up, Marcus. I’m sorry, Son. But I do love you, and I am so damn proud of the man you’ve become. You have a wonderful mother.”

I stopped and turned to look at him. I needed to say this, and I needed to say it now before I let this fester until I blew up.

“Cherish her, then. For the rest of your goddamn life you’d better cherish that woman. If you ever hurt her again, you won’t get a third chance. I’ll make sure you don’t get much of anything. I was a kid when you left her last time. I’m a grown man now, and you’d better not f**k this up.”

I didn’t wait for him to speak. I left the house.

Willow

Larissa was tucked in tight on the bottom bunk of Eli’s bunk bed. She had been asleep for the past ten minutes. Eli, on the other hand, was just now finally giving up and closing his little eyes. I knew he was waiting on Marcus, and I tried everything I could to get him to go on to sleep. But he was determined to kiss his daddy good night.

The front door opened and closed, and Eli’s little eyes snapped back open. He looked at me with a sleepy smile. “Daddy’s home?”

I nodded. “Yeah, baby, he is,” I whispered.

Marcus filled the doorway, then walked into the dark room. He pulled me to him and kissed my head. Something was wrong. I could feel it in the way he was holding on to me. Like I was his lifeline.

“Daddy,” Eli whispered, and Marcus’s head turned. He let me go and went to stand by the top bunk as Eli rubbed his eyes and sat up.

“You still awake, buddy?” he asked.

“Waiting on you,” Eli said, as if that made complete sense and Marcus should know this.

“I’m sorry, dude. I had to go see Grana and help her with something. Tomorrow it’s movie night. Me and you,” he told him, ruffling his hair, then kissing him on the forehead.

“Can Momma and Larissa watch it with us?” he asked.

Marcus paused a minute. I wondered if Tawny had returned. “Larissa is going to go visit with Grana tomorrow and stay there a little bit. But Momma can watch it with us. I bet she’ll even make us popcorn,” Marcus told him.

Why on earth was Larissa going to my mother-in-law’s? To swim with Amanda? It just seemed odd. I mean, she’d been there before, but still, why now?

“Will you, Momma?” Eli asked.

I smiled quickly and nodded. “Yes, sir. I might even make brownies, too.”

Eli did I small whoop and gave his dad a high-five.

“Shh, you two. Larissa is asleep,” I reminded them.

Marcus leaned over and kissed Eli’s cheek. Eli lay back down while Marcus pulled his covers back up. “Sleep tight, buddy,” he said. “I love you.”

“Love you too, Daddy,” Eli replied.

Marcus bent down and brushed Larissa’s curls off her face, then kissed her forehead. “My princess has some hard days ahead. But I think things are going to be okay,” he said quietly as he stood back up.

His hand slipped into mine and he led me out of the room.

He kept going until we got to our bedroom. Closing the door, he locked it, which was a habit most nights. Eli had once walked in on us doing things we’d had a hard time explaining. We were more careful now.

“My parents are together. Tawny and Dad were getting a divorce because of this. Tawny split when she found out that with joint custody of Larissa, she didn’t get child support. Dad offered to give her the house in Mobile, but she said she didn’t want that. She also left a note, with the signed divorce papers, saying she couldn’t take Larissa.”