Page 158 of Will Bark for Pizza
“Which you knew, of course.”
“I didn’t send her.”
Madeline let out a laugh. “I thought you did at first. I was so pissed at you, too. You could have warned me she was coming, you know.”
We both knew I couldn’t. “You bought a house?”
The server brought Madeline her beer, me a glass of iced tea, and an order of fried pickles for us to share. My sister waited until we were alone again to explain.
“I bought it for a dollar.”
“A dollar?”
“It was one of those auction houses.”
“A foreclosure?”
“I thought if Dad had a project, he’d stay out of trouble. For a while, it worked. The house was a complete pit. Barely above condemnable.”
It made sense why my sister went radio silent for so long. She considered the problem handled. I didn’t have to ask what happened. I was too intimately familiar with the pattern Madeline seemed dead set on ignoring.
“You and Kyle okay?”
“Yeah. He was pissed, of course. But I sold the house.”
“Already?”
“I sold it to Mom for a dollar.”
“Why Mom?”
“Dad’s in jail again.”
The casual tone killed me every time. This was not fucking normal. I understood that well before moving to Bluebell Springs and being absorbed into the Mason/Weston clan. How did Madeline not know this?
“You don’t want to know what for?” she asked.
I somehow managed to swallow a sigh that swelled from the basement of my soul. “Don’t care.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s fair.”
I shot her a look, surprised by her reaction. This conversation usually took a different route. Was it too much to hope that Madeline had finally come around about how shitty our parents were? Maybe Nana got through to her after all.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but why are youhere?”
It wasn’t like my sister to show up anywhere unannounced. What made her a good attorney was her calculated and planned approach to life.
“Kyle and I agreed we need a fresh start. One far, far away from Mom and Dad.”
Excitement and dread warred for the top spot. I would love nothing more than to have my family close. To see the twins all the time. To take Kyle fishing. For Madeline to experience what a healthy family dynamic was like. But if our parents followed them here, I didn’t know if I could forgive Madeline.
“You look like you swallowed something sour,” she said. “You don’t want me to come.”
“I do.”
“Relax. I’m just here scoping it out as an option.”
“But you came alone.”
