Page 96 of Whiskey Chase
“My mother was unhappy that I came back. She felt it was too early.”
Scarlett rolled her eyes. “A mother who doesn’t want to see her son. Nice.”
“There areappearancesto be maintained,” I said in a falsetto.
Scarlett laughed in appreciation. “Let me guess, she wasn’t happy with you parading your redneck girlfriend all over the place.”
“She may have mentioned something along those lines,” I hedged.
Scarlett laid her hand on my wrist. “It’s okay. Because I probably won’t like her either.”
I choked on my wine laughing. It made my nose burn.
We ate in silence for a few minutes. “What are you and Gibson fighting about?” I asked.
“Devlin McCallister! You are tenacious!”
“It’s the attorney side of me.”
She sighed heavily, and I felt a sliver of guilt for pushing her. “Cleaning out our father’s house brought up a lot of... history,” she explained. “Gibson has always hated Daddy. And the one thing he hates more than that is my loyalty to him.”
“He saw you caring for your dad as a slap in the face?”
She nodded, sipping her wine slowly. “It’s an issue we’ve kept buried for a long time. He never understood why I kept forgiving our dad and kept trying. Gibson didn’t have a healthy relationship with my father. He got the worst of it, and he’s hurt that I chose to forgive rather than hold grudges alongside him.”
“And this all just came to a head?” I asked.
“We finally said all the words we’d been holdin’ in. It wasn’t pretty, and now we have to wait for the dust to settle.”
“So why shut me out?” I asked.
She gave a little one-shouldered shrug and stared straight ahead into the night. “I don’t know. I guess I’m just used to handling things on my own.”
“When your mother was upset with your father or one of you, what would she do?”
“Ugh. It was the worst. She’d give us the silent treatment for days. Just freeze everyone out.”
I lifted an eyebrow and waited.
“Wait... you’re not saying—”
“Maybe you’re seeing the other side of that?” I suggested mildly. “You were angry and overwhelmed and froze me out.”
She opened her mouth and shut it again. “I don’t like this conversation. Not one bit.”
“We all carry pieces of our parents,” I reminded her.
“Your mama just called to yell at you for showing your face in town. What part of her are you carrying around like a cross to bear?” Scarlett demanded.
She was angry at the implication, but at least she was still talking to me.
“From my mother?” I mused. Suddenly I wasn’t liking this conversation either.
“Yeah, not so much fun now, is it buddy?” Scarlett said smugly.
“Let’s just boil it down to this. It hurt me when you froze me out, Scarlett. I’ve already had one relationship end because someone was keeping secrets and holding things back from me. I’m not interested in a repeat.”
She swallowed hard, keeping her gaze straight ahead into the darkness. I couldn’t read her thoughts and felt unsettled.
