“You got kids,” High said. “Hope like fuck you and Dot stay strong. Shit happens and you don’t and you gotta put your kids through a split, you don’t just rent any place where they gotta lay their heads. You give ’em a home. You find the right one. I looked. Didn’t find it. While doin’ that, found Millie. Her place is nice. Not my scene but it’s hers, she loves it. So that’s where we are. And when I have my other two girls, that’s where we’ll all be.”
“Got all the answers,” Alan clipped irritably.
“Got ’em because there are answers,” High replied.
The man crossed his arms on his chest. “Right. That’s good. ’Cause, see, I need more answers. You got a history, man. In that history, it’s clear you got no problem walkin’ away from things that matter. Walked away from Millie. Walked away from your family. History like that repeats itself and you’re livin’ proof of that shit.”
High again stood silent and motionless to give himself time to talk himself out of laying the hurt on Dot’s old man.
When he found control, he spoke.
“You look at me, you know the man I am ’cause I reckon you see yourself in me. So you know I’m not a big fan of explainin’ myself to anyone and sure as fuck not a man who’s comin’ at me like you’re doin’. But you mean somethin’ to Millie and you’re gonna be in my life for a long time so I’m givin’ you this respect. Once. Just once, Alan. Not fuckin’ with you. You keep comin’ at me like this, it’s not gonna be good.”
Alan’s eyebrows went up. “So now you’re threatening me?”
High shook his head. “Bud, you walked into my store on my turf and came at me with this shit. I pulled up the patience and shared where I was at. I get this is new for you. I get you’re lookin’ after Millie, which is another reason why I’m eatin’ your shit. What you gotta get is that your wife and Millie’s girls are all down with me bein’ back. You give me a shot, I’ll show you it’s good for you to be down with that too. But advice. Look around at how the people who matter to Millie, who know the real history, are behaving. And do it bein’ careful. ’Cause not only am I not gonna take more of your shit, I got a job of it bringin’ Millie back to happy and I’m not lettin’ anyone fuck with that. Not even you.”
“Can’t say you’re impressin’ me,” Alan fired back. “Me askin’ pertinent questions and you makin’ threats.”
High took a step toward him and it said a lot the man didn’t move a muscle.
“You’ve got no fuckin’ clue,” he stated low.
“I got a clue, Logan,” the man returned. “I heard everything Millie said about what you did to her when you two got back into each other’s lives. No decent man treats a woman like that.”
“You got no fuckin’ clue,” High repeated.
“Know we nearly lost her to your shit.” He lifted up his brows again. “She does somethin’ where you feel she needs taught another lesson, what’s she gonna get?”
“You know, you turn the tables, you know this shit isn’t any of your business.”
“You’re wrong,” he spat, losing it. “Millie’s absolutely my business. Been in my life for twelve years, Logan. Longer than you had her. Through that time, I watched her exist. Saw the mess you and your brothers made of her before she went to Paris. You turn the tables, man, and tell me again it isn’t my business.”
It sucked, but the man had a point.
“She kept comin’ back for more,” High told him through gritted teeth.
“Way I heard it, you kept comin’ back to give her more.”
“And she took it. Took it. Held on tight. And didn’t let go.”
Alan shut his mouth.
And there was High’s point.
“It would suck, what you got with Dot isn’t what I feel for Millie. What Millie gives back to me,” High said. “I’d want that for Dottie, to have something like that. She’s a damn fine woman. She deserves that beauty. I’ll tell it to you straight, when I saw Millie again, I had no idea the heartbreak my girl’s been dealin’ with for twenty years. What she sacrificed to give me all I got. But even if that shit wasn’t there, I wouldn’t care. The dance we danced when we hooked up again was fucked right the hell up. But it was a dance we had to dance. A dance that led us outta hell and back to beauty. Lotta folks work the hurt out a lotta ways. Even if Millie didn’t have the best reason in the world to get shot of me twenty years ago, I’d be back in her bed ’cause that’s what we got. That’s what we’ve always had. That’s what we been missin’. And older now, a fuckuva lot smarter, we know not to let it go.”
High stopped talking and Alan didn’t start.
So High kept going.
“Straight up, you got this kinda love for my girl, I dig that. But she’s walked through fire, man. That’s done for her. You don’t like my threats, don’t be a threat to what I gotta build for my woman.”
Alan held his gaze steady.
Then he looked to the fan belts.
High leveled his tone when he spoke again.
“Millie’s the kinda woman who deserves everything in life but life chose to fuck her and not give her the one thing she wanted most. Only way she can get even a little of that is through your kids and through mine.”
Alan looked back to him.
High went on, “I know you don’t like this now but we’re a team. We got a goal we gotta see to the rest of our lives. We both love Millie and we both got the job to find a way to give her what she deserves. You’re not with me on that, bud, that’s your problem. But I’m not gonna let you make it Millie’s. You don’t like me. Pretend. But I got a big job ahead of me. I’m not expendin’ a lot of effort on you.”