Mom pinned me with one of her patented stares. “You stay clear, Beckett. I don’t want you mixed up with him.”
“I’m trying, but he keeps showing up.”
“Likely trying to scare Addie back into her old life.”
“I think you’re right. He keeps threatening that he won’t take her back into the fold, but it’s exactly what he wants. He needs someone to take his rage out on.”
Mom shook her head as she leaned a hip against the counter. “I don’t know how that family’s cruelty created two of the kindest women I’ve ever met.”
She had a good point. Everly and Addie were amazing, and neither had let what they’d lived through in childhood skew how they treated others today. “Sometimes, I think that kind of thing shows you who you don’t want to be.”
Mom patted my cheek. “How’d you get to be so wise?”
“I’ve always been the wise one. The handsome one, too.”
She chuckled. “You are certainly both of those things.”
I shifted, leaning against the counter next to my mom. “I was talking to Addie about her mother today. About needing to allow the good and the bad to coexist. I realized I haven’t done enough of that myself.”
“In what way?”
“Addie said something about shoving away the good memories. That’s what I did when I took off and rarely came home. I couldn’t handle feeling all the good we’d had as a family. It only reminded me of all the ways I thought I’d let you down.”
“Beckett—”
I held up a hand to silence her. “When I blocked out the good, I blocked out all the times I’d come through for our family. The times when I was a brother and son that I could be proud of.”
“And there are a million examples of that.”
“Maybe not a million.” My lips twitched. “I was a bit of a hellraiser growing up.”
Mom laughed. “That you were.” She took my hand and held it. “But you were also so kind. You think I don’t know you snuck over to the elementary school when you were in middle school to threaten the boy who was picking on Hadley? How about when you stayed up all night with Shiloh, cramming for her Spanish final? Or when you taught Hayes how to fight so he could defend himself? I could go on and on. You are the best brother and son. We just wanted more time to experience that.”
I squeezed her hand. “You’ve got it now.”
“Yes, I do. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to have all my chicks home to roost.”
“Just maybe not all in the same house.”
Mom’s eyes twinkled. “Folding your underwear was a step too far, wasn’t it?”
“Just maybe.”
My phone rang, and I pulled it out of my pocket. Holt’s name flashed across the screen. “I need to take this.”
She waved me off. “Go right ahead. I’ll be here chopping.”
I slid my finger across the screen. “Hey, man.”
“Hey. How are you?”
“Good, just hanging around while my mom bakes an apple pie.”
Holt groaned. “That’s mean. Your mom makes the best pie.”
“Move to Wolf Gap, and you can get it on the regular.”
“Wish I could.”