Maybe this was the universe telling me I couldn’t run away forever no matter how hard I tried. And I definitely tried.
8
Andy
“Andrew, honey.” My mother intoned in that mom voice of hers indicating she was on to me. I was a grown adult but the censure of a beloved parent still stung.
I pinched the bridge of my nose wondering if I had David to thank for this. “How’s the weather?” I attempted to divert her questions to safer topics. Florida weather had two options between hurricane season or blistering hot and torrential rain.
“Don’t you weather me, son. I know that girl is back.” Mom was not having it and as much as I wanted to avoid this conversation for say the next eternity, I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Not with everything we’d been through in our family.
I exhaled a breath. “And how is it that you know Sierra is back?”
“I heard it from Harriet, who heard it from Mrs. Rooney when they saw her slither in to the diner during their Bible Study meeting.” She snapped her lips over the phone. Those women needed a hobby beside their religious incriminations of everyone not in Sunday church.
“Slither, mom? Really? I think you need to read less Harry Potter and get a grip on the situation here.” As much as my mother was reacting from the hip, continuing to treat Sierra as unhuman wasn’t going to help anything regarding the pain of the past. Sure, I had as much as my parents to be upset about but she also wasn’t the devil incarnate.
“She’s no good for you baby.”
“Alcohol is no good for me and I run a successful bar. We make do with what we have.” If mom was launching into her lecture I would fire right back. Sierra wasn’t slithering anywhere, especially not away from me unless I was over her which was another conversation for another day.
“Why is she back?” Mom sighed heavily like she’d suddenly taken on a fifty-pound burden which wasn’t hers to bear. I supposed that was a mom thing I’d never get used to and I explained how this had all come about.
“Because I had the lawyer forward the keys to the cottage and the money from the winery trust.”
“She’ll want to stick her claws back into you.”
“Mom, please have faith I can handle this situation.”
I waited and her silence was telling. Mom reserved judgment, for now. Juggling my family’s wants and expectations with this desire I hadn’t resolved was exhausting.
“Let the boy handle things on his own, Junebug.” Dad must have been in the room with mom listening in.
“I am, but that doesn’t mean I stop worrying about him. This girl wrecked him. Wrecked us. Almost wrecked this family with her…”
Dad didn’t let mom finish. Instead, he grabbed the phone speaking to me.
“Andrew.” His one-word comment said close to a dozen things I’d already felt and heard.
“I know, dad.” We both held the phone quiet and unsure perhaps of what to say next. I wouldn’t deny all the mistakes of the past. Lord knew I wasn’t perfect myself and the damaged of what happened gutted us all.
“Does it look like she’s staying?” Dad asked.
“I’m honestly not sure how that’s going to work out. I couldn’t let her leave with nothing though. I owed her that much. I made the clause sixty days. I think that’s about all I can handle.”
“You’re a good man, Andrew, and I hope I raised you right. I know your mother is angry right now, but she’ll come around. Her soft heart for that girl couldn’t stay buried all these years. She’s hurt and needs to work it out.” I got was dad was saying. Sierra had been the daughter my mother had always wanted and her departure fractured that relationship. I hoped it wasn’t irreparable, but only time would tell.
9
Sierra
“One of these days you’re going to find yourself alone.” David said with venom in his voice that made me gulp. His anger was palpable and tension hung heavy and thick between us. He stood over me as I sat inside the coffee shop debating between a cappuccino or a regular coffee without all the frills. I never understood steamed milk when my grandmother raised me on Greek coffee.
“I already am.” I whispered back. David didn’t give second chances. Not that I expected him too. We’d had a rough beginning and an even worse ending. A literal honest to God crash and burn. There was no surprise how Mr. and Mrs. Easton felt about me and it was better that they had retired to Florida so they wouldn’t have to see me return and cause their son chaos.
“Why are you even back?”
I shrugged unsure what answer I could give him that would satisfy a decade’s worth of wounds.