Page 21 of Below the Far Horizon
He’d wanted to be able to talk to Grace about it, but he’d left without getting a moment alone with her, and he hadn’t heard from her yesterday at all or at all this morning yet.
She was taking care of her mother, who had just had hip replacement surgery, even though she seemed to be doing really well.
He didn’t want to bother her, and maybe he had misread her expressions. But he had gotten the impression that she had just as many reservations as he did, if not more.
“I’m happy for you. I truly am. And I think Mrs. Honea is a really wonderful woman. If you two end up together, it will make me very happy.”
“But?” his dad prompted, as though he knew there was more to the story. His dad seemed like he was a little bit hazy and bubbly, but sometimes he could be very astute. This would seem to be one of those times, since Trevor had a hard time hiding the fact that there were issues on his mind.
“It just seems like there’s something off. Not in a bad way, necessarily, and not in a way that I don’t want you two to be together.”
“You think there’s a problem with Gita Baby?” his dad asked.
Trevor tried not to flinch. What a nickname. If he called Grace “Gracie Baby,” would she slap him across the face as hard as she could or just really, really want to?
Anyway, Gita had more patience than any other woman he knew, but that really wasn’t any of his business.
Except… Maybe that was part of the problem. No woman in their right mind would put up with a nickname like that.
Of course, a woman in love wasn’t necessarily in her right mind.
“No. I think Mrs. Honea is a superb woman. I think that the two of you will be very happy together.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I’m not sure. It just feels a little off. Like there’s something that isn’t quite right. And I can’t explain exactly what it is.” And he was probably just going to make his dad upset and concerned if he continued along these lines. He wasn’t trying to break them up.
“So you want us to stop seeing each other?” His dad seemed to be grasping at straws, truly trying to find out what the problem was.
“No. Not at all. I think that the two of you will be very good for each other. And since I can’t really put a finger on what the issue is, I hate to even say anything. I don’t want you to get the idea that I’magainst it. Because I’m not. I could possibly be your biggest cheerleader, although I think Grace would give me a run for my money there.” An idea occurred to him, one that he hadn’t thought about before. “Do my siblings know about this?” he asked, wondering if he had been the last to know, even though he was the one who was here.
“No. I hadn’t told anyone. We… It was like we said last night. We didn’t want to tell people until we knew for sure that we were moving ahead.”
There was just something in his dad’s answer that felt a little…not right. But he couldn’t figure out what it was. He didn’t want to say he thought his dad was lying, because that wasn’t true.
“Are you upset?” his dad asked again.
He knew he shouldn’t have said anything. Now his dad was afraid that he wasn’t all on board. And that wasn’t it at all.
“Maybe it’s just the idea of seeing you with someone other than my mom. It just feels…weird.” He really didn’t think that was what the problem was, but it was the only thing he could think of that his dad would accept, since he couldn’t really say for sure what the issue was, and being vague and unhelpful just upset his dad. “I think I’ll get used to it eventually.”
“Maybe you need to see us together some more. How about we invite them over tonight?”
“Is she able to come this far already?”
“Oh. I forgot about her hip. Maybe we can see if we can go over. We’ll make a meal and take it to them. Yeah. People do that when people are sick.”
“All right.” It seemed like his dad was desperate to be able to go see Gita.
“You know you don’t need to have me along in order for you to go visit, right?”
“We told you last night, we want to make sure that we do everything aboveboard. We want to set a good example. So we need a chaperone.”
Trevor nodded his head and blew the fine sawdust off the birdhouse, lifting it up and holding it away so he could look at it. It was almost perfect.
“All right. You set it up, and we’ll figure out something to cook. Let me know if I need to make a trip to the grocery store.”
“Do you have more of that cauliflower? It was really good.”
