Page 16 of Something Stronger
“I am happy.” He glanced over at me with a forced smile. “I’m always happy. I have so much to be happy about.”
“Don’t be like that.” I sighed as I glanced at Amy in the back seat. She was watching out the window pretending to ignore us, but I knew she was counting the minutes until she could escape.
When we pulled into the driveway of the farm, we made our way back to where the guesthouse was seated among the trees. My dad had given the guesthouse to Codie when she’d moved home. A basketball hoop was in a clearing in front of the house, and Codie’s car was parked just to the side of the front door. Charlie parked the car and climbed out and just stood there as Amy and I climbed out. The tension was thick on the ride over and seemed to be growing thicker by the second.
Amy stood there staring at the ground, twisting her hands together as my sister opened the door. “Go say hi.” Charlie motioned toward Codie.
“Do you need any help?” My sister seemed to notice that something was wrong, but didn’t say anything.
“She’s fine. Cooked way too much, if you ask me. “Charlie walked past Codie and into the living room, leaving Amy and me outside.
“Hey, sweetie. Jack is in there watching TV if you wanna go find him.” She smiled and Amy darted inside. “Do you need me to grab anything?” She touched my shoulder and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
“I’m fine.” I sucked in a breath and attempted to control the tears that were beginning to fill my eyes. One began to leak from the corner, and I angrily wiped at it before blinking the others away.
“What’s wrong?” My sister attempted to hug me, but I shook my head and backed away. I didn’t want to lose it, and right now that’s exactly what would happen if I let her hug me.
“I’m fine. I forgot to mention that we were doing this, and Charlie had already made plans. I was just a misunderstanding that I could have prevented. We got in a bit of a disagreement on the way here.” I brushed her off. I didn’t have the heart to tell her how I’d been questioning how much longer I could do this for the past several months.
“Ok, well, we can do this another time if you guys want to?”
“No, we’re here now. He can reschedule his plans.” I forced a smile and grabbed the dish of beans from the back seat. She grabbed the cake, and followed me in.
After setting the cake down, she offered us drinks. There was a pitcher of lemonade sitting on the counter. Hank was out back lighting the grill; he must have just walked over from the bunkhouse.
“Got anything stronger?” Charlie smirked as he sipped his lemonade.
“I have some wine I opened the other night.” Codie opened the fridge and grabbed the bottle of wine.
“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,” she offered.
“No, you don’t need to do that.” I shot Charlie a look and he glared at me. “You can have a drink when we get home.” I tried to placate him. He shook his head and rolled his eyes before going outside. Codie stood there in disbelief as he went from cold to friendly when he started talking to Hank. As soon as the back door closed, he struck up a friendly conversation as if he didn’t just snap at me over a drink.
“It’s been a rough day for him,” I lied. It seemed so easy to make excuses for his behavior. I’d been doing it for so long that it was second nature now. “Can I help with anything?” I changed the subject.
“I think we’re good. Once the steaks are finished, we can serve our plates and eat.” Codie smiled. There was laughter coming from down the hall, and it was so nice for Amy to have someone to play with. She was just a year younger than Jack.
“I hope things go this smoothly when school starts back up. He doesn’t have any friends yet.” Codie sighed.
“I think he’ll be fine. Kids can handle more than we give them credit for.” The words fell from my lips so easily and I wondered how much I actually believed them. Amy had been dealing with a lot lately and I secretly hoped it wasn’t affecting her in a negative way.
Dinner conversation was filled with talk of Codie settling in and our father finally allowing her to help. She’d moved back home to take over the financial side of things, and our dad was fighting her tooth and nail for control. It seemed like things were finally moving in her direction, though.
“Maybe we can make this a weekly thing. I’m sure over the years Amy’s been out her quite a bit,” Codie suggested.
“Actually, we don’t come here much.” I looked away. It hurt that the only time I saw my sisters and parents were when they came out to our place.
“It’s an hour drive,” Charlie grumbled as he pushed food around on his plate. “We have a lot going on and just don’t have the time.”
After we finished, I helped clean up. Charlie began pacing as if we had somewhere else to be before gruffly demanding that we leave.
“It’s getting late. We need to go,” he snapped. “Amy, get your things.” He motioned in the direction of where the kids were chatting away with Hank.
“I guess we’re heading out.” I shrugged. I leaned over and hugged my sister before grabbing my purse. “Come on, Amy,” I called. We went outside and climbed into the car.
Charlie peeled out of the driveway and rushed home. “What was that all about?” I touched his arm.
