Rob looked up at his son. Then dropped his head and shook it. “Your mother call you?”
“What are you doing out here?”
“Workin’ on the boat.”
“Don’t give me that crap. Dad, Sydney’s been gone for the last two years, you can’t keep shining her and trying to bring her back to life. You need to let it go.”
His dad barely paused at his task. “I don’t give up that easily, son,” his father announced bitterly.
Matt watched his father for a minute. Considering if his words were deliberate. “What is it this time?” Matt asked flatly, staring hard at his father.
“The alternator isn’t charging.” Rob pointed with his screwdriver.
“Can’t you get a new one?”
“It’s a four-hundred-dollar part!” Rob complained.
“Well, it’s not going to burst back into life because you fiddled with it, dad. You’ll need to completely rebuild it or get a new one.” Matt was starting to lose his patience.
“How’s Liz?” Rob asked almost immediately.
“She’s fine.” Matt shook his head. He couldn’t believe he’d left her today to help with something so pointless. “And why does mom think she has no right to tell you to get rid of this thing?” he snapped.
“Is that what she said?”
Matt pressed his lips and then muttered a curse. “Not in so many words.”
Rob held up the screwdriver and stalled as if he were looking for the right place to aim it. Then he chucked the thing back into the tool box. He looked up at his son and gave him a single nod and slap on the back. “Let’s go inside.”
When Matt and his father got back to the kitchen, Ben was there with Francis. His brother held just about the same look Matt had when he walked in.
“Dad, what’s going on? You messin’ up my clean work already?”
“Alternator went,” Rob said bitterly.
“That’s like a four-hundred-dollar part!” Ben shouted.
Francis shot her husband an angry look and threw her hands in the air.
“I know, I know.” Rob held his hands up in defense. “Look, maybe I can fix it.”
“What’s the point, just buy the new part, like we all know you’ll end up doing.” Francis threw her dish rag on the counter and stormed out the back door.
Rob shot Matt and Ben an exhausted look and followed behind, leaving the two brothers alone in the kitchen.
The silence in the room intensified with every second that passed by.
“We could stand here till winter or we could talk,” Ben offered.
“Is there a third option?” Matt muttered.
“No.”
“I didn’t come here to talk to you.” He pulled his keys off the kitchen counter and headed for the back door. “Tell them I had to get back.”
Ben sighed. “Matt, you can’t keep blowing me off. Not until you at least give me a chance to explain. You’ve already given as much to Liz.”
Matthadgiven Liz a chance to explain. A chance to somehow make him understand the reasoning behind the lie. “I did. And it didn’t end well for her.”
