my name?”
He nodded and exhaled a breath. He knew why I was here.
“Go ahead, do what you came here for. I deserve it. There’s nothing you can do that will make me feel worse.”
“God, I came here wanting to hit you. But I can’t. You don’t deserve even that. I just came from Grace’s apartment. You fucked up, man. Big time. Hope is a mess, she’s broken.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” he yelled. The other guys in the driveway looked over. He lowered his voice. “I know how bad this is. Hope is the best thing that ever happened to me. She’s it for me. It was a moment of weakness. I can’t even forgive myself, let alone ask her to forgive me. I know I smashed my life to pieces, I know what I did.”
“What are you going to do about it then?”
“Hell if I know. Hope won’t even look at me.”
I looked at him and decided that maybe I did need to punch him after all. If only to appease my sense of honor, so I reared back and punched him in the nose. It made a satisfying crunch before blood gushed from it. He staggered back a few steps holding his nose.
“You think about what you’re going to do to fix this. You owe it to her and to your son.”
“What happened to not punching me?” He winced and pressed a dirty rag to his bleeding nose.
“I didn’t like your answers. Besides, you deserved it.”
“I think my nose is broken.” He grimaced.
“Good, now maybe you’ll feel some of the pain Hope is.” I wiped my hand on his shirt and walked back to my car.
“Back to the office?” my driver asked.
“Yeah, the office is fine.” I had a mountain of work to finish, but my mind wouldn’t get off Grace.
Once I was back at the office, it was clear I wasn’t going to get much more work done. I dialed my best friend Shaileen’s number.
“Logan. To what do I owe this pleasure?” She laughed into the phone.
God, I missed her. “Hey Shai, just missed you, that’s all. Plus, I could use some advice. How’s the baby?”
“I miss you, too. When are you coming out my way again? The baby is great. I’m as big as a house now.”
“I’ll come out soon. I want you to meet Grace.”
“Is she why you called?”
“No, not exactly. I think things are finally okay in that area.” I launched into the whole story about what happened today.
“Hmm, so you think punching him was the best thing to do?” She laughed.
“Probably not, but at the time, it made me feel better. If you could have seen Hope, you would have done the same.”
“Who are you and what have you done with Logan? I have to say I’m loving the new you, baby.”
“It’s all Grace. She makes me want to be better. She won’t accept less than that.”
“A good woman will do that for you. Same thing with a good man.”
“Is it bad that I want to help the guy? He seemed genuinely sorry. He completely realizes what he’s done to his family.” I chewed my lip. I hated not being fully certain, especially right now when this affected Grace.
“Tread lightly. It’s a touchy area. You don’t want Grace to feel like you’ve taken his side over Hope’s.”
“No, I don’t. Because I haven’t taken his side at all. I’m still mad enough to murder him. But maybe they can fix this.”
“I like this new you. I like that you finally have a heart. I always knew you had it in you. I’m proud of you, honey.”
“Thanks, Shai. So when’s the wedding?”
“In a month. I sent your invite to New York, but you obviously aren’t there. You’ll come?”
“Of course, I’ll come. Like you could keep me away.”
“I already asked Smith, and he said yes. I want you both to give me away. It only seems fitting, you two bastards are as close to family as I have. “
I heard the tremor in her voice even though she was trying to make light of it.
“Shaileen, it would be my honor to give you away. I’ve always loved you; from the very start, I knew you were someone special, just not my someone special. I’m so