Chapter 25: Chapter 25

Not that he says anything; he merely shrugs.

“You should put ice on it,” John says quietly.

And suddenly, Ryan doesn’t exist. John cups Alex’s sharp chin between two large fingers and a fat thumb, turning his face into the light to examine the bruise, and he frowns. For all the world, he looks like a man examining his son’s bruises from a rough football game, not a man examining the bruises that he put there in the first place.

“You should put ice on it,” he repeats, and lets Alex go.

Ryan isn’t sure what to make of the expression on John’s face. He doesn’t have Alex’s face, so he can’t apply the same rules. He doesn’t know what John is thinking—can’t even imagine what it is, spinning around in that clever head—and he can’t very well ask.

But if it were Ryan’s father, he would swear that the expression was a sad one.

Alex says nothing, but he does react. He turns on his heel and leaves the kitchen. John does not move, hand still raised slightly as if to reach out and stop him.