Page 81 of Breaking Emily's Rules
I prepared to go in for the kill. This had to be done, this had to be said and apparently I would be the only one to say it. “Maybe you need to stop worrying aboutmeso much and start thinking about what you’re doing withyourlife.”
I thought Molly might have gasped, and Dad put a hand to his chest. “What I’m—whatI’mdoing with my life?”
“That’s what I said. You forget that you have a family here, a ranch, too. Okay, so maybe it’s not a cattle ranch anymore, like in its glory days, but it’s home. Your home. Texas isnothome.”
Man, I’d wanted to say that for a long time.
Molly nodded in agreement. “She’s right.”
“What has come over all of you? I work, and I work, and I slave for this family. And this is the thanks I get. Do you think it’s easy running a cattle ranch?”
I crossed my arms. “No, but it’s also not easy running this business without you. Grammy and I have been doing it for a while without your help.”
“I never thought it was a good idea in the first place.”
“Whether you think so or not, last year the revenue for all the events we did increased the net worth of Parker Inc. by thirty-five percent.” Dang it, I was proud of the fact Grammy had found a different way to use the land. Our ranching days were long behind us, but that didn’t mean we weren’t still relevant.
“What do you want me to do? Everywhere you look, these vegans are trying to convince people that red meat is gonna kill ’em. And we’re still trying to recover from the Mad Cow days. It was one cow!” Dad rubbed the back of his neck.
“So, we’ll keep doing weddings as long as it makes sense. And another thing, too. I’ve been saving up for a long time. As much as I love that Grammy wanted me to have the loft, I’m moving out.”
“Moving out? Again? Emily, that didn’t work out last time. Don’t tell me you’re going back to that bozo, because I won’t hear of it.” He took his hat off and fanned himself with it.
“No, I’m not going back to Idiot Greg. But it’s time to move on from here.” I’d looked at the one bedroom apartments in town, and there was a development in my price range.
“What about your grandmother? She needs your help,” he continued.
“I’ll be fine,” Grammy said from the doorway to the kitchen. “It’s time Emily did something for herself.”
“I can help around here more, too, Daddy,” Molly said quietly from next to him. “I can do a lot more than you think I can.”
Dad ruffled her hair. “Of course you can, sugar.”
“I’m still going to work, it’s just that I’m going to have regular work hours and the rest of the time when I’m not at work, I’m going to go home and do—other stuff,” I said.
“Well, Mother, as long as this is all right with you,” He said, sliding his arm around Molly.
Grammy put her arm around me. “It’s more than all right.”
CHAPTER20
Molly
Molly sucked ina breath as she stared at the one-story gray house on Sycamore Lane. The house where Dylan and Sierra lived. Dylan’s battered old green Ford Ranger sat in the driveway. She didn’t even want to think about what they’d done in the backseat of that truck, because it might as well have been a thousand years ago.
Dylan wouldn’t be expecting Molly. That would be because she hadn’t called ahead. Why bother giving him a chance to say no? This way, she’d have the advantage. Shock and awe.
Pretty much what Emily had done two nights ago with Daddy. Molly still couldn’t believe that, of all people, her perfect big sister had been the one to tell Daddy what no one else dared. He had to stop acting like his home was in Texas. Home had to be with his family, with his mother and his daughters. With his granddaughter.
Daddy had still left the next morning. But maybe, with any luck, all the things Emily said would make him think.
Before Sierra, Molly had believed her Daddy was by far the best father in the entire world, or at least this continent. But in the end it was Dylan who had earned the title in Molly’s book. He’d never walked away like she had, or pawned off the raising of his daughter to his mother, as Daddy had to Grammy.
Emily always said that Daddy had made life too easy for Molly, and therefore never realized how much she could really do. Maybe that was a little bit true. At the park, she’d seen that Dylan hadn’t picked Sierra up every time she fell.
Daddy had always rescued Molly, like she couldn’t handle anything on her own. Eventually she’d believed him. Only Emily had thought she could do better. And Dylan.
Or at least, he used to believe in her.
