Page 40 of Between Now and Forever

“Yes… I was here for a party. I came with some people, but I’m sure they left when they couldn’t find me…you know, figuring I would find my way home…" I say, even though I’m sure they didn’t spare me a second thought.

“They’re terrible friends,” Carter says.

“Yeah…well, I really should have stayed home. My brother told me it would be lame.”

“So, have you lived here your whole life?” Carter asks.

I nod. “My great-grandfather's father founded a business here, and it’s what’s kept Winsome from going the way of so many other small towns."

His father slaps the table excitedly and his eyes bug out of his head.

“Wait, your last name is Wolfe? Is your fatherDrewWolfe?” he asks and I nod, my hopes for anonymity disappearing like a candle flame in the wind.

“How do you know him?” I ask, reluctant to talk about it, but even more reluctant to be rude to any of these people.

“Yeah, I grew up around here. He was a little younger than me, I think, but everyone knew who he was. He was a hell-raiser until he got shipped off to the army.”

“Really?" I ask and raise my eyebrows in surprise.My austere, strict conservative father was a hell-raiser?

Color me shocked.

His father laughs at my expression. “Oh yeah. I know he’s Mr. Bossman now, but back then, he was known for stirring shit up. I left for college while he was still away in the service, but I remember hearing when his father and brother died. I don’t have any family left here, but we lived in Texas for the first ten years of our marriage. Then we moved to Ithaca, New York, with the kids. And then, pretty soon after we got C-- “

“Dad, I don’t want to tell our whole life story,” Carter cuts in sharply, and while his tone is jovial, his eyes are deadly serious.

His father gives him an apologetic smile and nods.

“Sorry, I talk too much.”

I pretend I didn’t notice their strange exchange and smile at his father.

“Tell me more about my dad. I can’t imagine him ever being anything other than who he is now.”

His father makes a show of peering at me. I instinctively turn my left side away.

“Sorry, it’s just that you don’t look a thing like him. Who's your mother? Is she from here, too?” he asks.

“No. They met when he was stationed in France. They got married and moved here when his father died.”

“Parle-toi Francaise?” Nadia says excitedly, and I hate having to disappoint her.

I shake my head no.

“Your mother didn’t teach you?” Penn says reproachfully.

“My parents are divorced. My mother has lived in France since I was little.”Not that if she lived here, my father would have let her teach us. He thought it would give us ideas about seeing the world. And he didn’t want us doing what Phil did and pulling a runner.

”So you live with your father?” Carter asks, and I realize that I’d tensed in preparation for their judgment or pity at my revelation.

None of that comes, and I relax.

“Yeah, he remarried. I have two older brothers. But only one lives here. He’s eight years older than me, and we're really close. He's the one I'm staying with. My other brother is three years older than me."

I don’t want to tell them that I have no idea where my brother is. They’d probably think I came from a family of monsters, given how much they value each other.

“So, are you a student?” his sister asks, her eyes bright with genuine interest. She’s looking at me like we’ve known each other our whole lives, and I wish she was my sister. I smile, for once, not self-conscious about my lack of formal education.

“No, I work for my dad. It’s a family business.”

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