Home Again by Shirlee McCoy

Author:Shirlee McCoy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-08-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

She hoped if she ignored him long enough, he’d get the hint and go away.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want him around.

Having him there was a lot better than lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, imagining she smelled cologne and cigarettes.

But this was Porter she was dealing with. Not Sim.

He’d probably stand in the kitchen for the rest of his life, waiting for her to turn and face him.

She sighed, shifting the contents of the freezer around one more time.

No coffee, but then, she’d already known that.

“Eventually,” Porter said, “you’re going to have to turn around and face me.”

“Actually, there are other possibilities. I could face this direction until you leave—”

“I’m not planning to leave.”

“Or I could walk out the back door.”

“But you won’t.”

“No,” she said, finally turning around and meeting his eyes. “I won’t, but I’m not going to talk about Matt and Sunday, either.”

“I can think of a lot of reasons why not. None of them are pleasant.”

“He wasn’t abusive, if that’s what you’re thinking,” she said.

“It was one of the things I wondered.”

“What were the others?” she asked, curious despite herself.

“If he was trying to hurt her by destroying something she loved.”

“In my mind, that would be the same as abuse.”

“So, he wasn’t abusive, he didn’t want to hurt her. What does that leave, Clementine?” he asked as he crossed the room, stopped just inches from where she stood.

“I told you, I’m not going to talk about it.” Because the things that Sunday had told her were private, shared in moments of stress and heartache, spoken in the darkest hours of the night when it had just been the two of them wandering the farm sleepless.

Clementine because of bills and Sim and a dozen regrets.

Sunday because Matt had been finding excitement away from the house and the kids she loved so much. Late nights at bars far enough away from town that no one but Sunday knew, business trips that were mostly pleasure. A midlife crisis in his late twenties, and Sunday had been terrified she’d lost him for good.

But that was her story to tell. Not Clementine’s, and tarnishing Matt’s image without a really good reason for it wasn’t something she planned to do.

“He was my brother. I have a right to know.”

“He was your brother. Maybe you should have asked before he died,” she responded, the words sharper and colder than she’d intended.

“I’m sorry. That didn’t come out the way I meant it,” she offered hurriedly.

“What way did you mean it?” he responded, his expression hard, his eyes deep pewter. Not a hint of blue in them. “Because from where I’m standing, it sounded like a pretty harsh recrimination of my relationship with Matt.”

“No recrimination or judgment. I have no idea what your relationship was like, and even if I did, I’d have no right to speak about it.”

“He bought a Corvette,” he said, ignoring her comment, his expression still hard and cold. “Did you know that?”

“Yes,” she replied, her mouth cottony, her

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.