Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
“So? Quit. Simple.”
“Dad --”
“I’m serious, Knox. I have no idea what you’ve been doing the last fourteen years, but you’re back now. We’re all your family, Evie included. A man --”
“-- takes care of his family.” I repeated the words with him. It was something Dad had drilled into me and Danny growing up. I’d taken it to heart. My brother… hadn’t. “I get it, Dad. But there are things you don’t know that I can’t explain. I’m back now. But I’m not exactly in a position to quit. When I disappeared, when I died, that put me in the lifer category with what I do. I’m only here now because we’ve had some changes recently in our… dynamics. I had to cut ties with you and Danny, but I did my best to make sure you had everything you needed.”
“Did you know about Evelyn?”
I winced and shrugged. “I knew of her. Knew she was living with Danny and that they had two kids. Didn’t want to look too closely at anyone because it only made me want to come home that much more.” I turned to meet my dad’s gaze head-on. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when Mom died.”
“I basically lost you and Elinor at the same time.” I’d never seen my dad show strong emotion before. Now, I’d seen it twice. Anger at my brother when he backhanded the younger man at the hospital. Now, a deep, abiding sorrow. His eyes glistened, but he didn’t let the tears fall, blinking them back. “We both knew why you went into the military. You sent us most of your pay every month. You knew Danny was bleeding us dry, and you fixed the problem the best way you knew how.”
“No, I didn’t. Shoulda killed him. That might have pissed off Mom, but it would have kept him from taking advantage of you guys.”
“Your mother would never have forgiven you if you had.” He gave me a steady look. Mom might not have, but he would’ve.
I snorted. “Yeah, she would’ve. Maybe not for a long time, but she would’ve.”
“After she turned you into the authorities herself? Sure.” Dad grinned. “She’d have even come to visit you in prison every weekend and Thanksgiving, Christmas, and maybe even Easter.”
“Easter is always on a weekend.”
Dad shrugged. “Easter too, then.”
We held each other’s gaze for several seconds before we both broke down and chuckled. Yeah. Mom would have forgiven me, but she’d have seen to it I paid for my crimes. And never looked at me the same way again. Just like with Danny. We might do things she morally objected to with everything in her being, but we were still her sons.
“Elinor would be proud of the man you’ve become, Knox.” He grinned. “She’d call you Denver, though. Not Knox.”
“Why the fuck did she name me after a fuckin’ city in Colorado?”
Dad really did laugh then. “She didn’t and you know it.”
“I never liked her brother, you know.”
“She didn’t either.”
“Then why --”
“Because he was her baby brother. She’d promised him when she and I got married that she’d name her firstborn after him.”
“And Mom never went back on her word.”
“Exactly.”
I turned back to the yard. And Evelyn. She was so beautiful and caring I couldn’t wrap my mind around how my brother had treated her so badly. Or why she’d put up with him treating her that way.
Dad and I stood in companionable silence for a long time. Finally, I spoke, not looking at my father. “She’d have called me Knox.”
“She’d have called you Knox.”
Chapter Five
Evelyn
“Guys, time for school.” I’d fixed breakfast and the kids had eaten, but now they were dragging their feet getting out the door to the bus stop. It was at the end of the road, so I usually walked with them.
“Coming, Mom.” Aneshya was always the one ready to go, but she showed solidarity with her brother by not coming out to leave before he did. Luke was on a mission to home school, so he could stay here and take care of me and his grandfather. Which wasn’t happening.
“Lunches are on the counter.”
Five minutes later, both Luke and Aneshya came down the hall. Luke looked disgruntled, but Aneshya was all smiles. Just like always.
“I got my book report done.” She beamed. “I bet I get an A.”
“I’m sure you will, sweetie.”
“She always gets an A.” Luke said, ruffling his sister’s hair as he passed. Aneshya squawked at him and smoothed her hair but grinned, soaking up the praise.
There was a knock at the door. I glanced out the front window as I made my way to the door, surprised to see Knox. He’d been here almost every day since we’d moved in but kept his distance from me for the most part, though I’d seen him speaking with Luke and Aneshya once or twice. Which was understandable. He had a niece and nephew he’d never met. I was sure he’d want to get to know them.