Eli ran a hand through his hair, feeling the weight of the question. “I don’t know. And I don’t—” He was about to say “care” but that wasn’t true. He cared a lot. “It’s hard to imagine, but is it fair that the sins of the past should affect the people of today?”
Jonah lifted his eyebrows. “Is that from the Bible?”
“Honestly, I don’t think so.” He frowned. “Maybe. Look at me. I’m so busy, I can’t remember scripture.”
Busy obsessing over Kate, he thought, but didn’t add that. He merely made a mental note to stick his nose back in the Word of God, where he got his best life advice.
Jonah tucked some insulation in the kitchen wall. “Whatever happened, it must’ve been pretty bad for the hatred to still run this deep.”
“I guess,” Eli said, turning to the next pile of insulation.
“So how does this whole old feud affect things with Kate?” Jonah asked.
The question made Eli pause and wonder if this wasn’t where Jonah had been headed all along.
“Things with…there are no ‘things’ with Kate. We’re friends and…” His voice faded in the face of Jonah’s look.
“I wasn’t born yesterday,” Jonah muttered.
“I know when you were born,” he said. “I was in the room.”
“Then be real with me. You and Kate have something good, huh? It’s more than just a friendship and after-dinner walks?”
It had started with friendship and after-dinner walks, Eli mused. But the chemistry, attraction, and bond had formed fast and furiously. He could still remember their one and only kiss.
Eli felt a soft smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Yeah. It really is good. It’s amazing, actually.”
Jonah’s expression shifted ever so slightly. Eli caught it—a flicker of emotion, a moment of hesitation. “That’s…that’s great, Dad. I’m happy for you.”
Eli’s heart cracked at Jonah’s tone, like there was something more behind his words.
“Well, don’t celebrate yet. We live thousands of miles apart, and my mother would…” He tapped the electrical box on the wall next to him. “Blow a fuse and burn the place down—literally, I’m afraid—if she found out I’m in love with?—”
He caught himself, but it was too late. Jonah’s whole face froze in shock. “Wait…what?”
Eli held up a hand. “Hey, it’s early days and it’s just an expression and I don’t even know…” Lying was not in his nature and God hated it. He sighed. “Yeah. I might have fallen in love with her. Or I’m on my way. And she doesn’t know that yet, but she will.”
Jonah stared at him, then turned away, his jaw tight as he suddenly gave all his concentration to the utility knife he had stabbed into the pink fluff.
Eli stepped closer, sensing his son retreating inward. “You okay?”
Jonah swallowed hard, toying with the knife, visibly fighting an emotion Eli hadn’t seen from him in years.
“Yeah, man, yeah, of course. It’s just that…it seems sudden. I mean, she was here for, what, three weeks? Four?”
“I’ve known Kate for thirty years.”
“Long before Mom,” he murmured.
Oh, boy. That’s where this was going. “Not too long. We said our last goodbyes to the Wylies in 1995, I started my last year at Georgia, and met Mom pretty early that fall.”
Eli closed his eyes for a second, remembering the first time he’d seen Melissa DuBois walking across Tate Plaza. He was broken those months—his father under investigation and being charged with crimes Eli didn’t understand, his heart still bruised from Tessa’s thoughtless rejection of his love.
Melissa—Missy, as she was called by her friends—was the brightest thing he’d seen for months, and he just wanted to bask in her glow.
“Hey, it’s cool, Dad,” Jonah said. “I don’t expect you to be alone forever. It’s just…”
“I’m not alone,” he said simply. “I have two great children, awesome sisters, and a mostly great mother.”
