Page 23 of Sing Me Home
I turned to face him. He must’ve been fixing fences because he was in jeans, a work shirt, and boots like ours, holding a roll of barbed wire with his gloved hands.
I grinned. “Nah. She might pop me in the back of the head though.”
“No,” Charlie said. “She’d pop Uncle Ford in the back of the head. The grandkids? We get a purse of the lips and a candy bar.”
Uncle Holden chuckled. “So true. You guys don’t know how good you have it.” He smiled. “Hey, Charlie girl. Good to have you home.”
She ducked her head and her cheeks bloomed as if she didn’t know what to do with all the love aimed her way. “Thanks.”
Holden caught my eye. “I was summoned?” I texted ten minutes ago, not realizing he’d show up almost immediately.
I tipped my head toward Charlie. “She needs some legal help. Pro bono.”
“Cash,” she whispered.
“Don’t you?” I asked simply.
She shrank back, unsure. What had happened to the feisty, confident girl I once knew? But then she nodded. “Yeah.”
Holden set the wire on the concrete floor and crossed his arms, concern etched in the lines of his face. “What’s going on?”
Charlie’s lips pressed into a thin line and she gave me a look that said she wasn’t talking with me in the room.
I tipped my head toward the barn door. “Y’all go talk outside and I’ll keep working.”
Charlie and Holden slipped off their gloves.
He reached for her hand and led her out of the stall. “Tell Uncle Holden all about it.”
Just before they were out of earshot, I heard her say, “If you’re my lawyer, you can’t tell anyone what I tell you, right?”
“Right. It’s called attorney-client privilege.”
eight
Charlie
Uncle Holden laced his hands behind his head, doing a terrible job of masking his emotions. After what I’d just told him, I should’ve been a wreck. But finally getting it off my chest lifted some of the weight from my shoulders.
I rubbed my earlobe. “Can you say something, please?”
My blond uncle was normally chill, the one who put us all at ease. As the District Attorney of Seddledowne, he’d witnessed such atrocities that hardly anything ruffled him.
His eyes glazed over as he looked through me, his jaw clenched. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
I stared at the ground and hugged myself. “I dunno…Pride, I guess. I left Hawaii with Lorne after you all told me not to, and tried to make that terrible marriage work. I didn’t want you to say I told you so.” I ran a hand over my forehead. “If you think I don’t regret it every single day, you’re wrong. I was about to call…one of you…see if I could get a loan to come home…whenithappened. Everything just compounded after that and I felt like maybe I deserved what went down.” I tucked my bangs behind my ears. “Like maybe God was punishing me?—”
He squeezed my shoulder so hard, I had to look up. “God doesn’t work that way and neither do we. You didn’t deserve that. Goodgrief, girl.” He jerked me against him and hugged me so tight it was hard to breathe. In the past twenty-four hours, I’d been hugged more than I had in the last three years.
I’d told myself I didn’t need affection, but now that there was a plethora of it, I knew that was a lie. I needed to be held and to hold them all right back, the same way I needed oxygen. I’d been stupid to stay away from my family. I’d imagined the worst-case scenario, playing out their reactions when they finally saw me again. Not one of them had proved me right.
It was way more than I deserved.
Uncle Holden squatted down to look me in the eye. “If we can’t find your douchebag ex, this might take a while. It would be better if we could get his signature on the divorce papers. That would make quick work of the whole thing. But Charlie?” One of his eyebrows was halfway to his hairline. “You should sue him for damages. I don’t tell people to sue very often. But you should.”
I shook my head. “No. I want to be done with him. I never want to see his face again.”
“He shouldn’t get away with that. He owes you money, at the very least. An apology, to make restitution, to own up to his mistakes.”
