Page 2 of The Moment They Can Never Forgive
“I’m tired after that long drive, so no cooking for me tonight. How about you?”
He shook his head.
Stopping before the front door, Leah looked around at the weeds and paint chipping off the siding. It looked pretty much as it had when she’d left.
She tried to hold back the flood of memories and emotion, most of which held her sister, but some leaked into her thoughts.
Leah and Cassie had relied on each other after their mother passed when they were young, and their father cared about no one but himself. Her gentle sister had always been there when Leah needed her. Caring for her when she was sick, listening when she had a problem. Leah had been the same for Cassie.They’d been a team, which was why she’d followed Cassie when she’d left Lyntacky. That, and the fact that Dan Duke had broken her heart, but she wasn’t thinking about that now.
Leah hoped the spare key was where it always was. Otherwise, she’d be breaking in.
Chuck Reynolds had been a man for spare keys because when he came home drunk and couldn’t find his, he’d know there was another one. He had spare keys everywhere, including underneath the chassis of his vehicles.
“Okay, buddy, if there is no key, we’ll break into the house.”
“It’s against the law to break into a house, Aunt Leah,” Hudson said in that serious way he had.
“It’s not against the law if you own the house.”
She got out, and stretched her back, taking in her family home. She knew when she stepped foot inside that door, the memories were going to hit her from all sides. Especially the last one, when her father had been taken away by her lover in handcuffs.
The two-story farmhouse had been old when her parents bought it just after they’d married, and her father had made improvements right up until her mother died when Leah was little. The midday sun revealed the faded red roof, which looked in need of serious repair. But as it wasn’t raining, that didn’t need to concern Leah right then. A covered veranda ran to the left and right, and the steps were in the middle, leading up to the front door, which still had a cracked pane of glass.
“So, what do you think?” Leah asked, looking down at the boy who had slid his little hand into hers.
“It’s ours,” he said quietly. “We own it?”
She nodded. Technically, it was her father’s, but as he was spending the rest of his life in prison, it would come to her eventually.
“What do you know about vegetables, Hudson?”
He looked at her, considering. “I like carrots, but not much else.”
“That’s a start, but I’m thinking more about growing some to make a living out of.”
“I can help.”
“Damn right you can,” she said, smiling at him. This had been the right thing to do. He’d talked to her more on the journey here than in the entire time since Cassie had been gone. “You’ve got to earn your keep, just like me.”
There, she’d said the words out loud, so she couldn’t walk away from them now. Her father hadn’t made a go of anything, but dammit, she would.
“What about your pottery? Mom said you were amazing at it, and I love those mugs you made us.”
“Maybe,” was all Leah said.
She’d stomped down that dream for a while. Later, when Hudson was settled and she’d made sure he had everything he needed—everything her sister wanted him to have—she’d revisit her passion.
She led him to the baseboard behind a small shrub. “Your granddaddy hid spare keys everywhere, Hudson, and the one for the front door is usually here.” She crouched, releasing his fingers, and searched the top of the board until she found the nail. Hanging on it was the key. “Got it.”
“That’s good.”
Glad you think so, buddy. I’m terrified about this next step.But then, she’d been scared ever since receiving that call to come to the hospital. Since realizing her sister was dying and that Leah was all Hudson had left.
She walked up the front step, put the key in the lock, exhaled slowly, and clicked it to the right. She opened the door. Leah’s first impression was the smell, closed-up and musty. Unused.Walking inside, she took Hudson’s hand again, as much for her as for him, and led him into the narrow hallway.
Memories hit her from all sides.
“See that mark there?” She pointed to a black stain on the white wall. “Your mom did that with her wand.”
