Frog Tale by JT Schultz

struggled to keep at bay.
    His father chuckled. “She’s a hell of a girl, Luciano. Her father is this country’s sole supplier of sugar and other imports. He saved this country and saved my son. Chloe has to be one of the smartest women I’ve met. So tell me a story.”
    “It’s really unbelievable.” He swallowed back a healthy slug of the amber liquid in his glass. Fate tempted him to tell his father and he debated. The problem was he didn’t want his father to think him weak if his emotions entered his voice or worse filled his eyes with tears.
    “ Try me, I’ve lost and seen more than you can imagine.” He knew his father was referring to the death of his mother. However, Luciano still carried animosity over his father remarrying Ella and didn’t get how his dad could remarry so soon. Something was wrong with that situation but Luciano didn’t have the mental strength or the focus to sort through his father’s marital status tonight.
    “ I’m waiting for an answer,” his father reminded―as if he forgot.
    Another heavy sigh escaped him and the weight on his chest increased. “What happened is the unimaginable.”
    “Did you buy her the necklace?”
    He nodded and took another sip. The scotch burned his tongue and throat, a sidetrack from th e hurt in his heart. “Yes.”
    “So, why don’t you come with Ella and me to see her?” His father’s expression became unreadable. “What are you so afraid of?”
    “ She deserves more than a scarred man.”
    There I said it.
    He hated his looks and resented the fact he’d confessed what had truly plagued his heart and brain. Not even the best cosmetic surgeons could fix the scar the wicked witch had marked him with. “She deserves so much more than me and I couldn’t bear her pity or her rejection.”
    “You aren’t being fair to Chloe, let alone yourself.” His father shook his head and his disapproval became more than apparent. “Tell me this unbelievable story and l et me make that judgment myself.”
    He wanted nothing more than to see Chloe. His heart and soul still longed for her. She was no longer a girl but a woman and according to the talk he’d just had with Albert moments ago, she was very single and slightly out of sorts since she’d heard his voice. Just like days gone by, knowing she was sad hurt his heart and he longed to tell her everything would be okay. However, the knowledge she had become upset after hearing his voice raised more than one question in Luciano’s mind.
    Could she possibly…
    Fear stopped him from finishing that thought, like always. Believing she still thought of him was nothing but a boyhood dream. He stopped his childish and spoiled ways the day he realized he loved her and had become a man.
    “You like her, you say you don’t know her, but I wonder.” His father smiled and his tone held a note of promise. If his dad only knew―doubtful he would believe Luciano’s story and most likely commit him to a padded room in an asylum.
    Downing the remainder of the scotch in his glass, he rose from the chair. “Need me to refill yours?” He darted a look to his dad’s glass, still half full with scotch.
    “No, I’m good.”
    Luciano wasn’t good and definitely needed another drink.
    What am I thinking? I’m not. How can I even consider telling him? Right. He won’t let it drop tonight and I’m just as shook up from hearing her voice as s he is from hearing mine. Great―let insanity prevail.
    Tonight he wasn’t going to get out of this conversation with his father. How could his father suggest seeing her? Luciano wanted to tell Chloe everything, most of all that she still held his heart. In one way the memories were as fresh as if it was yesterday, and yet they seemed a lifetime ago. He had been young, she much younger―too young. Now the age difference was minor and his body ached for her. Picture after picture over the years, she grew before his eyes and seared deeper into his soul. He turned and