Maddy’s questions stayed with me, and so I brought up the topic a few weeks later on a Sunday afternoon. I was with my dad on his patio, sipping a glass of cabernet while he grilled steaks for us.
“Do you ever think about Mom?” I said, apropos of nothing.
He dropped the grill tongs he was holding. They clattered on the stone patio tiles. He bent over to pick them up, and when he stood, he looked like a confused old man instead of a confident trial lawyer. His face was slack.
“Of course,” he said quietly, his gaze asking me how I could ask such a question.
But still I pushed. “Really?” I said. “Do you really?”
“Yes, Hailey. I think about your mother all the time.” He blinked.
“Well, you never talk about her. You never talk about when she died.”
A strange, garbled sound erupted from inside my father’s throat, making me stop my words. I could have sworn he was about to cry, something I had never seen, and I bailed.
“I’m sorry,” I said. I stood and took the tongs from him. “Let me do that.”
And, like an old man, he feebly handed them to me, wiping the grease from his hands on his immaculate khaki pants before he went into the house.
I had never brought up the issue again. If I could find my own answers, without confronting the parent who raised me on his own, I wanted to do that.
Which brought me back to Della’s.
“Sweetie!” Della said when she opened the front door now, a dish towel thrown over one shoulder. “Come in, come in.”
“Thanks.” I accepted a quick hug. “I hope I’m not bothering you.”
“Not at all.” Della led me into the kitchen, a large, green-painted room smelling of garlic and crowded with plants, knickknacks and crocheted pot holders. It was the type of warm, homey kitchen I’d always hoped my father and I would have, one that was lived in, that was used to cook for a large family. My dad wasn’t much of a chef, though, and so although our homes were lovely and expensive, the kitchens always had cold tiles and stainless-steel appliances, and I never spent much time there.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
