Page 33 of Something More

Chapter 17

Dakota

When Hank left this morning, I tried everything in my arsenal to convince him to stay. It was Saturday, so he had the day off from farm work. At one point when I got up to go to the bathroom, I walked in front of him completely naked. He’d groaned and told me I wasn’t playing fair, but in my defense, I wasn’t playing at all. I’d returned to the warm bed, slithered up beside him, and then started rubbing. He sighed, gave me a kiss, and then got up. He’d promised he’d make it up to me and left.

I kept myself busy today with cookout preparations, and Jack has been shooting hoops for the last hour or so. Lou texted me earlier to let me know they were running late, and now I’m just waiting for Hank to come and fire up the grill. I made a bunch of cold salads to go with the steaks since it’s been so hot lately, and I’ve got a giant pitcher of lemonade, too.

“Hey, Mom! They’re here!” Jack burst through the door so hard it bounced where it hit the wall. “Sorry.” He cringed when he realized what he did.

“Why don’t you go wash up?” I motioned toward the bathroom. I dried my hands on a towel as I went over to see if my sister needed any help. She was bent over with her top half in the back seat. Charlie was standing there watching, and Amy looked as if she was upset about something. Her eyes were downcast, and she had her hand knotted in front of her.

“Go say hi.” Charlie motioned gruffly toward me.

“Do you need any help?” I asked, but Lou didn’t look up.

“She’s fine. Cooked way too much, if you ask me.” He came over and walked past me into the living room.

“Hi, Aunt Codie.” Amy waved.

“Hey, sweetie. Jack is in there watching TV if you wanna go find him.” She smiled softly and went inside, leaving Lou and meout by the car alone. “Lou, do you need me to grab anything?” I touched the back of her shoulder, and she jumped at the contact. I recoiled and waited.

“I’m fine.” She stood and when she faced me, I could see she’d been crying.

“What’s wrong?” I attempted to comfort her, but she shook her head.

“I’m fine. I forgot to mention that we were doing this, and Charlie had already made plans. It was just a misunderstanding that I could have prevented. We got in a bit of a disagreement on the way here.” She brushed it off as if it were nothing, but I sensed there was more to it.

“Ok, well we can do this another time if you guys want to?”

“No, we’re here now. He can reschedule his plans.” She gave a half smile as she carried the casserole dish inside. “I made Mom’s beans, and I have a cake in the back.” She motioned as I looked in the back seat. I grabbed the cake and followed her inside.

After setting the cake on the counter, I offered everyone a drink, then noticed that Hank was out back lighting the grill. He must have just walked over from the bunkhouse. “Got anything stronger?” Charlie smirked when he sipped the lemonade.

“I have some wine I opened the other night,” I offered.

“I was thinking a man’s drink, like whiskey.” He chuckled as he set the lemonade on the counter.

“Sorry, no, but Hank might have some at the bunkhouse. I can ask him,” I offered.

“No, you don’t need to do that,” Lou tossed out and Charlie glared at her. “You can have a drink when we get home.” She tried to placate him. He shook his head and rolled his eyes before going outside. I stood there in disbelief as he went from cold to friendly when talking to Hank. As soon as the back door closed, Iwatched him strike up a friendly conversation as if he didn’t just snap at his wife over a drink.

“It’s been a rough day for him.” Lou brushed it off. “Can I help with anything?”

“I think we’re good. Once the steaks are finished, we can serve our plates and eat.” I smiled. I could hear laughter coming from down the hall, and it made my heart happy. Amy was just a year younger than Jack, and it’s the first time he’s really had to time to play with kids his age. He didn’t really unwind when we had a big family dinner.

“I hope things go this smoothly when school starts back up. He really doesn’t have any friends yet,” I lamented.

“I think he’ll be fine.” Lou smiled. “Kids can handle more than we give them credit for.”

Dinner conversation was filled with talk of school starting in a few days, and how I was settling in now that Dad finally let me start helping. I was surprised when Lou mentioned that she doesn’t make it out here that often. She only lives one town over, but Charlie really didn’t say much. He mentioned that they were busy a lot and they didn’t really have time to come out.

After we finished, Lou helped me clean up, and then Charlie mentioned that they needed to leave. He had some big meeting in the morning that Lou didn’t seem to know about. We hugged and promised to set another day to meet up, and they all left.

“That was odd.” I brushed it off as I sat down beside Hank on the couch. Jack had gone back in his room to play. “She usually seems so happy, but tonight was just… tense.”

“Maybe there’s something going on that we don’t know about,” Hank suggested as I leaned over against him. He wrapped his arms around me and ran his fingers through my hair. “Sometimes family doesn’t share everything. Maybe they just have to work it out.”

“I guess. We were just always so close growing up. Part of me knows something isn’t right.” I chewed on my lip. “Maybe I’ll stop by her place this week just to say hi. Amy will be in school, and Charlie will be at work. I’ll convince her to open up to me.”

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