“You haven’t talked to him since your mom disappeared? Don’t you think that’s…a little weird?”
“I’m guessing that my dad made it difficult for him to contact us.”
One of the things she adored about Tate was that he always saw the good in a person. And today, he was still doing it.
“Tate,” she said gently. “You and your siblings haven’t lived with your dad in years. You were already out on your own when your mom disappeared. If your uncle reached out to you, your dad wouldn’t even have necessarily known.”
“He needed some time,” Tate replied with a shake of his head. “His sister disappeared into thin air. He was upset. He needed some space, I’m sure.”
“Away from all of you? Her children? For ten years? You were all upset, too. Tate, maybe Mark doesn’t want to be found. Have you thought about that?”
Tate rubbed at his temple as if a nasty headache had bloomed there. She was probably responsible for it, too.
“I have,” he finally answered. “I just don’t want to think about that.”
“You don’t want to believe it.”
“Okay, fine. I don’t want to believe it. Uncle Mark always seemed so…”
“Nice?” Cat prompted. “A good guy?”
“Yes, a nice guy. He was great with all of us. We loved it when he came to visit.” Tate slumped into the booth seat. “But you’re right. There’s a reason he hasn’t contacted any of us. Although I can’t imagine what that good reason is. I guess I’ve been making excuses for him. I didn’t want to think that he was like Dad.”
“He can be different than your dad and still have reasons for not reaching out.”
“I still need to talk to him,” Tate said. “We have questions, and he might have some answers. I think Mom was working on something before she disappeared. I don’t think these items ended up in storage randomly. She did it to keep Dad’s hands off of them.”
Lily Winslow had been an intelligent woman. Cat wouldn’t have been shocked if Tate’s mother had been hiding things from her husband. Even watching from afar, she hadn’t understood the dynamic between Joel and Lily Winslow. It was a puzzle that few could work out.
Certainly not me.
“Zack’s going to find a forensic accountant?”
Steering the conversation away from Uncle Mark seemed like a good idea. Clearly, Tate had issues about his uncle’s behavior in the last decade.
“He has some connections. I don’t know if finding one is easy or hard. Are they in the Yellow Pages?”
“They might be if anyone still used the Yellow Pages,” Cat joked. “Then you can call them on your flip phone.”
“Don’t make fun of flip phones,” Tate laughed. “Life was a hell of a lot simpler back when I had mine.”
“It wasn’t simple because of what phone you had.”
Life was often simpler when a person was young because they hadn’t yet realized the consequences of their decisions and actions. Only later would they understand.
You reap what you sow.
Cat’s mother had said that statement many times, but it was now that she truly understood what her mom had been trying to say.
“I’m not mad about last night,” Tate said, changing the subject abruptly. “I don’t regret it either. But I have to ask you why you initiated it. Was it for nostalgia? Old times’ sake? You just couldn’t keep your hands off my perfect body? Enquiring minds want to know.”
“I was overcome with lust,” she replied, trying to repress a smile. “You are the pinnacle of manhood, and I simply could not fight my passion one second longer.”
It was good that they could still laugh together. It didn’t all have to be weird and awkward.
“That’s what I figured,” Tate said, a smug smile on his face. “You’d be shocked how often it happens to me. It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to be this hot.”
“A daily occurrence?”
