Page 5 of Between Now & Heartbreak

Her contrition is misplaced. I shrug. “It’s not like you’re lying. We all know who he is. He’s never tried hard to hide it.”

“So, Fiona just…what? Puts up with his cheating?” She asks in a voice that drips with judgment and even though I don’t feel differently, hearing it from her, chafes a little.

I shrug again, but this time with less ease and try to put a definitive end to this conversation.

“Di, I stopped trying to understand their dynamic a long time ago. I know it’s fucked up. But it’s also their real lives. They’re in a miserable marriage. My dad is an asshole. But, no matter what he’s done or what he’ll do, he’s my father. It counts for something so, I don’t want to talk shit about him or my stepmother.”

“I’m sorry, honey.” Her apology comes out swift and sincere and I feel like such a hypocrite for defending my him. But it’s like a reflex, especially after spending months pretending to be a part of his world.

“It’s okay…I know we joked about it all through high school, but now that he’s all I have, I just feel like I’m dishonoring something I shouldn’t take for granted.”

“Wow, you’re so wise all of a sudden,” she says when we pull up at the red light. I look over to find her watching me with a look of appreciation on her face.

“Near death experiences will do that to you.” I mutter and wince at the tug of pain in my chest when I think about James saying that in the hospital.

She frowns. “What doesthatmean? I thought you were visiting your grandmother. What happened?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it literally. It’s just…a lot has happened this year, it feels like I’ve been to hell and back. Everything’s changed. Including me.” I rush to reassure her.

“I canseethat…you have to tell me everything, Liz.” She says and the knowing smile on her face makes stomach clench. I know she’s mainly talking about my new look, but she’ll want to know about things with Duke. That is the very last thing I want to talk about. Ever.

“I will. Just not all tonight, I’m in a good mood. I’d like to stay that way. I want to hear about you. What’s this research project?”

“My senior thesis. It’s a case study on Winsome.”

I snort a surprised laugh. “Winsome? Uh - that’ll be the shortest senior thesis in history. There’s nothing to study here.”

“Are you kidding? Winsome is a legend in economic development circles.”

“What in the world for?” I gape in genuine surprise.

“High unemployment, epidemic level opioid addiction, crime, brain drain. You name it—those things are like a plague in small towns all over the country. Winsome has proven to be the exception.”

“Wolfe Construction being here helps, I think.”

“Yeah. It does. But, that’s not all. Other rural towns can boast huge multinational headquarters.”

“Winsome is not rural.”

She ignores me. “In those otherruraltowns, the work force commutes from a suburban area. Outside working hours, they turn into ghost towns. The diner, the general store all close, too. There are no other customers once the work crowd is gone.”

“So you think that’s it? That they people who work here, live here, too?” I muse.

“Partially. I think Wolfebeingthe town is an even bigger reason.”

“That’s hardly true. I mean, my dad owns the largest business, but it’s not the only one.”

Dina frowns at me.

“I know you know this town’s history already. And so you know that none of the other businesses would exist if Wolfe didn’t want them to.”

Winsome was initially a family compound. At the turn on the twentieth century, the Wolfe brothers were part of the a new generation of German-Americans. Their grandparents settled in Texas during a wave of immigration fifty years before the civil war.

They were the first generation born on these shores, and after a decade of being shunned for their support of Union’s cause in the Civil War, they decided to shed their German identities and make a new beginning.

With nothing but grit, their savings, and each other, Wolfe brothers moved east of New Braunfels and bought the land Winsome sits on now. The original parcel was 600,000 acres – nearly the size of the state of Rhode Island. By the time my great-grandfather started Wolfe construction twenty years later, he and his two younger brothers were the only remaining of the original eight brothers that had settled the area.

They sold off 90% of the land and kept just twenty squares miles for themselves. They all built homes that were miles apart, but that would become the anchors to what would be the borders of Winsome.

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