Chapter 29: Olive
I hate telling this story. Truthfully, I’ve only told a handful of people everything. It’s depressing and I hate it when people feel sorry for me. I’ll have to tell him sometime though and we’re already here so I might as well push through.
“My dad married my mom expecting to work for my Grandpa. He just wanted to ride his coattails, really. He had no work ethic, no higher education, and he drank too much. He used to get pissed that Grandpa didn’t do more for us, when in reality, Grandpa bought their house and paid most of the bills.”
Brooks has a stormy expression on his face, but he’s holding my hand and stroking the back of my knuckles soothingly.
“Once Mom got pregnant with me and Asher, she had to quit her job. They had all five of us in less than seven years. My mom always wanted a big family and Dad knew Grandpa would pay for anything we needed so he went along with it. He was always a bit of a jerk but we didn’t spend much time with him so it wasn’t that bad.”
“When I was six, Mom went to lunch with Grandpa. She left us with the next-door neighbors. She was driving, and another driver ran a red light. Mom and Grandpa both died at the scene. A couple weeks later, Dad dropped us off with Gran. He told us he would be back in a couple hours and sent us inside.”
“He argued with Gran outside and then drove off and we never saw him again. For years, she told us he went to work on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and couldn’t take us with him. But he never called and never came back to visit. I was a teenager when she finally admitted he abandoned us and never intended to come back. It was all because he didn’t feel like he got his share of the money.”
“Grandpa left almost all of his money to Gran and to his grandchildren in trust funds. He left $50,000 to my dad as a show of goodwill. He set the trusts up so that our father could never touch a dime of our money unless we chose to give it to him, which we could only do after we turned twenty-three and had pursued higher education.”
“Dad tried to convince Gran to change the terms of the trust funds and even demanded she give him a portion of the money Grandpa left for her. When she refused, he told her that if she wouldn’t give him access to our money, then we were her problem. She gladly invited him to fuck off and leave us with her. And he did.”
Brooks is shaking with anger. His lips are a tight line in his handsome face. “What kind of man could do that?”
I shrug. “He wasn’t much of a man. We were better off though. I’m honestly glad he left. Without Mom to love us, we would have grown up miserable with him. In the weeks after Mom died, he turned into a monster. I don’t know if she had been protecting us or if he was just really messed up about her death, but once she was gone he started yelling, calling us mistakes and accidents. He even hit Asher once.”
Brooks sucks in a breath, and he’s clenching his fists on the table. Prying his fingers with mine, I get him to relax his hands. Looking down at our intertwined fingers, I smile. His hands are huge, and they swallow mine up.
“I didn’t tell you this to make you upset. I just want you to understand how much better things were with Gran. The first night at her house was the first peaceful night we had since we lost Mom. Asher and I remember Gran putting on cartoons and giving us hot cocoa while she held Julia and made us dinner. Baked chicken with green beans and crinkle fries.”
Taking a deep breath, I go on. “The other reason I’m telling you this is so you understand why I’m sensitive about certain things. Like feeling unwanted or a mistake.”
Brooks scrubs a hand over his jaw. He almost looks shell shocked. He doesn’t say anything for a second and I can just see the wheels turning in his head. I give him some time. He probably needs it because I just unloaded a pile of personal shit on him.
Finally he looks at me. “I swear, if I ever get my hands on him he will be sorry for what he put you through. And I’m sorry if I ever made you feel unwanted. Jesus. I came really close to completely fucking this up, didn’t I?”
I hold my fingers up to say “a little.”
Brooks lets out a rueful laugh before leaning in to kiss me gently. “In that case, thank you for giving me a second chance.” He winces. “And a third. I promise you I won’t need another one.” Brooks hauls me into his lap, circling his arms around my waist before pulling my plate closer.
“What are you doing?” I ask him with a giggle.
“You were too far away, and you looked too sad. I can’t stand it when you look sad,” he says as he nuzzles my neck. The soft bristles of his beard brush along my collar bone. “Thank you,” he says in a gruff voice.
“For what?” I ask him, stroking my hand over his chest.
Brooks places a hand on the side of my neck and strokes my cheek with his thumb. “For trusting me. For letting me in like this. You have a beautiful heart and I’m grateful I get to see it.”