I offered him my brightest smile. “Hi, Daddy.”
As if they picked up a clue from his posture, the breeze stilled, and the night birds grew quiet. A shadow moved behind him.
“Anna!” my mom cried. She tried to step around my dad, but he crossed his arms and spread his feet. A bulwark to his castle.
“Hi, Mama.”
The wind picked up again, and lightning flashed in the distance as I opened the back car door for Jack. He leaped out like he’d been sitting on a spring, eager to stretch his long legs. His nose immediately went to the ground, checking the unfamiliar scents as he wandered behind the car.
“Whatcha doin’ here, girl?” my father demanded.
“Wayne,” my mother scolded, but she might as well have been talking to a wall.
“Can’t a daughter want to visit her parents?” I answered, moving closer.
“Depends,” my father said. “Why are you here? Why didn’t you come earlier? It’s been months since you’ve been widowed. City life ain’t all you thought it would be without some rich sugar daddy payin’ your bills?”
I hadn’t expected an especially warm welcome, but neither had I expected to be blocked from my childhood home like a trespasser.
“Wayne, it’s fixin’ to storm. Let her come in out of the weather. Please?” Her gentle touch on his elbow got his attention, and he softened slightly.
His mouth twisted, but he turned sideways, allowingjust enough space for me to pass. The moment I did, my mother immediately wrapped her arms around me, the first genuine affection I’d felt in a long time outside of Mallory.
“Come in and get a cup of tea,” she said predictably. “Then you can tell us what brings you here. Have you been okay? Are you still living in the same house? How long will you be staying? How?—”
“Too much yammerin’,” my father grumbled loudly as he sat in his armchair by the stone fireplace.
“I’m fine, Mama. But I’ve decided Nashville isn’t the place for me anymore.” It was the truth, if not the whole truth. But then, this wasn’t a court of law.
“So, you’ve decidedwe’reworthy of you after all this time?” My father sipped from a small Mason jar, most likely from a batch of his own moonshine. “After we weren’t good enough for you years ago?”
Maybe Iwason trial after all.
“It’s not like that, Daddy.”
“The hell it ain’t,” he barked. “We weren’t good enough for you. You always wanted to hang out at the Allen family’s place. And whenthatwasn’t good enough for you, you hooked your wagon to some no-good politician, buyin’ into all that crap he promised you. How’d that work out for you, huh?”
His words stung. Even if it hadn’t happened exactly like that, there was still truth to some of it.
My mother sank into her worn rocker, her fingers flexing on the arms of the chair with her head bowed. “Wayne,” she pleaded softly.
“I never meant to hurt you,” I said, the urgency punctuating my words. “I loved growing up here.”
“Not so much that you didn’t think twice about turnin’ your back on it. On everything I built here.”
“This was never the life I wanted.” The words tore loose from me before I could stop them. “Did you ever once ask me whatIwanted?”
His eyes flashed. “The earth is in your blood, girl. You can deny it all you want, but you had a gift for growin’ things. Instead, you turned your back on everything I taught you for some dandy who had everything handed down to him. Never worked an honest day in his life. He never loved you. You were just a plaything for him.”
I couldn’t stop the tears that dripped down my face. How did he know? He didn’t give Mason the time of day when I brought him around. And somehow, he had pegged Mason for exactly what he was.
But why was he holding it against me?
Daddy had always been suspicious of everyone after he moved here. He preferred to avoid the world unless he had to, such as going into town for supplies. He’d always been strict, but never cruel. Had the isolation extinguished his sense of humanity?
His scowl deepened. “Not a visit once from you when you came to town, struttin’ around in your fancy clothes and car with your slimy husband. Like we were the dirt beneath your shoes.”
“That’s not true, Daddy! Mason wouldn’t let?—”
