Chapter 29
“What are you saying, Pops?”
Mr. Cross winced under Asher’s intense stare. “I’m saying I was a jerk. I regretted my words the moment they jumped out of my mouth, but I never found a way to take them back.”
“You never found a way to take them back?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Instead you just pushed me away and acted like you hated me?”
Mr. Cross confirmed Asher’s question with a grunt.
“So all this—” Asher gestured between himself and Mr. Cross, “—hostility has been for nothing? You let me believe you hate me, let this go on for years, because you were too stubborn to say you were sorry?”
Another grumble from Mr. Cross was all the answer Asher needed. He released my hand, jolted up from his seat, and rushed out of the house, slamming the door behind him so hard, the windows rattled.
I let out a shuddering breath, and Mr. Cross leaned his head back as if the encounter had drained him of all his energy.
“Are you all right?” I asked him.
“That went well,” he muttered.