25. Chapter 25
Chapter 25
Kora
T he great thing about summer break was I had all day to do whatever I wanted. The bad thing about summer break was I had all summer to do whatever I wanted, and I was already bored. I had hoped Kai would show up at Kaye’s. Bryson told me he talked to him, and he thought he was going to be there, but as the night went on and he never showed his face, I got quieter and quieter.
I couldn’t lie, I was disappointed, and I guessed it showed. Darlene got on to me and told me to stop moping around and insisted I needed to give Kai space, and no matter how hard it was, that’s what I was going to do. If things didn’t start looking up, though, I might need to go visit my dad in Florida earlier than I planned and maybe stay there as long as possible.
But that was this past weekend, and today, Darlene and I had a girls’ day planned. She insisted I needed it to get my mind off Kai, and with James in Mother’s Day Out, she had the free time she usually lacked.
She pulled up my driveway at eleven o’clock sharp just as I walked out my back door.
“You’ve looked better,” she acknowledged as she pulled me in for a hug.
“Gee, thanks.” I pushed away and climbed in her car.
“I guess you haven’t talked to Kai?”
“Or seen him,” I added and bit on the inside of my cheek to hold my feelings in check.
Darlene sat behind the wheel, and I could feel her gaze on me.
“We can talk as you drive.” I gestured for her to start the car, then I shut down any other questions by turning away, snapping on my seatbelt, and staring out the window. God, I was frustrated with myself and how much I wanted to see him, and it wasn’t hard to tell my frustration level had ticked up to that of being plain old pissed. I didn’t think he’d go all weekend and not talk to me. That’s why I shouldn’t have been thinking. It was summer after all.
He said he needed space. Fine. He’ll get his space. “It’s in his court now. I’m giving him what he asked for.”
I didn’t look at Darlene but heard her frustration. “I’m sorry.” She sighed and put the car in drive. “Hopefully everything works out.”
“I don’t know. He’s having issues with his father, and I know things weren’t easy when he was growing up. I can’t act like I understand because I don’t.” I waved my hand in the air like I was erasing the discussion. “It doesn’t matter. Where are we going to eat?”
Darlene pulled out of my driveway and onto the road. “Don’t get mad, but I promised Bryson I’d meet him at the pub. I have to drop his wallet off. He left it at home when he left this morning.”
“What? It’s girls’ day.” What was Darlene thinking? “We can’t hang with guys on girls’ day.”
“I know. He’s helping with something at the pub. I’m not really sure what, but I have to give it to him. Then we can leave. Promise.”
I shook my head and sighed heavily. “Whatever.” We sat in silence for the rest of the drive. I kept my thoughts busy by counting the cows we passed. Busywork to keep from thinking about someone I was over thinking about.
“There were fifty-two cows between my house and here,” I announced to Darlene when we got out of her car and walked into the pub.
She scrunched her face at me. “What?”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not important.” I followed behind her as she walked toward Bryson. He and Trevor were behind the bar in deep conversation about something by the beer taps.
“Hey, handsome. I got something you need.” Darlene slapped Bryson’s wallet on the bar.
He leaned across it toward her. “You ain’t kidding, baby. You got a lot that I need.” He smiled wickedly and kissed her.
“It’s too early in the day to watch you two go at each other,” Trevor said.
“No kidding. And we have places to go. We can’t have a girls’ day here,” I added.
Darlene sat on a bar stool.
Great. Looks like we’re staying a while. I plopped heavily on the stool next to her and listened as Trevor and Bryson told us about how they were planning on adding more taps so they could include some local craft beers.
I was only half listening, as I didn’t drink beer and didn’t really care, when a man exited the kitchen. He looked vaguely familiar, though I couldn’t place him and scrunched my brow in thought. He had gray hair and deep wrinkles under his eyes like someone did when they had a hard life. “Trevor, who’s that?” I tipped my head in the man’s direction.
“That’s Terry. He’s working off some time with Nico.”
“Kai’s father, Terry?” I asked. I watched him hard as he wiped down tables. The first time I saw him was brief and it was dark. Now that I had a clear view of him, the only possible resemblance I could make out between him and Kai could be their height. Nothing else was remotely the same.
“Yeah. He’s been working here to pay back the damage he caused during his drunken rage. Honestly, he and Nico get along great, and he’s been working hard.”
I pursed my lips and watched Terry as Trevor tapped in a table’s order. Trevor said something to him, and Terry glanced up.
Our gazes locked. Recognition flashed in his eyes before he tore his gaze from mine and said something to Trevor. “Darlene, I’ll be right back.” I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I felt compelled to acknowledge him and see what he was like.
“Terry?” I caught him right before he entered the kitchen.
He stopped and turned. “Yes? What can I do for you?” His eyes raked up and down my body quickly and then the same recognition I noticed earlier dawned in his eyes. “Aren’t you Kora?”
I nodded.
“I’m Kai’s father. We sort of met once.” He wiped his hands with the rag he was holding repeatedly like he was nervous.
I nodded. “I remember.” As I looked at the man in front of me, heat grew in my gut. I don’t know why. Maybe it was because he was the reason Kai walked away from me. I didn’t know if I could say anything without being rude.
Luckily, I didn’t have to say a word. “Look. I surprised Kai by showing up here, and I sure haven’t made it easy on him. Getting arrested, buying beer and getting drunk at his property. I’m sure he told you all about me and nothing was good.”
I wasn’t going to lie or make things easy for him, so I just shrugged.
“I want you to know that Nico took me to an AA meeting with him. I know I have a drinking problem. I’ve always had a drinking problem, and I’m going to try harder than ever to fix it and get sober for good. I’ve told Kai, but he doesn’t believe me. I didn't expect him to. But he’s being Kai, as always—nice to a fault—and is willing to let me stay with him as long as I stay sober.”
Terry chuckled and relaxed a little. “He’s always been a caring person. Sometimes a little too caring. When he was young, I teased him relentlessly and called him a wuss. He has so much of his mother in him. That was her downside. She cared too much. I’d tell him that heart of his would get him in trouble one day, and eventually it did. His need to care for his siblings at all costs got him three years behind bars. I laughed at the time. I was glad that my goody-goody of a son was more like his old man than he wanted to admit. I can see him now, though, for what he really was. A strong man who cared so much about others he was willing to do whatever was necessary to take care of the ones he loved.”
Hold on. I reeled back a bit and cocked my head to the side. I was trying to register what Terry just said, but it was hard because he didn’t stop talking.
“The truth is, what I thought made him like me really made him so much better than me. I spent my time in jail when I was young but didn’t care at all, and it made me harsher. It didn’t do that to Kai.”
“Stop. Just stop.” I held my palm up and shook my head. I had to have time to register what I’d just heard.
I turned and took a few steps away . Kai spent time in jail? Why? What did he do? Why did he not say anything to me? My head was spinning. I rubbed my temples to relax the pressure that was building.
“I guess he never mentioned anything about that.” Terry’s voice was kind.
I turned toward him, my emotions everywhere. “No. He didn’t. He told me he left Georgia as soon as his sister graduated, and his brother got stationed in Alaska.”
Terry’s shoulders lifted. “Technically not wrong.”
My mouth dropped. “Technically not wrong ?” My voice went up a bit.
Terry shook his head. “Look, I shouldn’t have said anything. I just thought he had.” He hesitated. “No, that’s wrong. I didn’t think he did, and if I really thought about it, I should have known he hadn’t mentioned a thing. He . . .” Again, he stopped and put his hands out. “Look, this isn’t my story to tell. But it’s true. He did what he did for his brother and sister, and he didn’t leave until they were both gone and settled.”
I was speechless. “I don’t know how to react to this. The Kai I know is an amazing person. He wants everyone to be happy. It’s too bad he’s not willing to see that he deserves to be happy also.” Terry pissed me off, and anger churned deep in my gut. What if what he said was true? Had Terry treated Kai and his brother and sister so badly that Kai had to break the law to keep food on the table? It was possible, and I totally believed Kai would put himself in harm’s way for those he loved. That, I knew.
“Look, I don’t know what happened between you two. He doesn’t talk to me,” Terry said.
I raised my brow and stood straighter.
“I know. Surprising, isn’t it?” Terry laughed again, but it was uneasy. “But he hasn’t been happy lately, not that I’ve seen him happy much in his life, but he’s been doing work like crazy around the property. It’s like when he was a teenager, and he would get lost in deep cleaning when I was drunk.” He leaned on the counter.
My gaze met his, and I hoped he could feel how irritated I was. “Do you realize how you affect him?" I asked. "He was different before you arrived. You being here throws the weight of the world back on his shoulders. He’s stressed and irritated.” I gazed at the ceiling and took a deep breath. “Now you tell me all this.”
“I know. You’re right. That’s why I’m going to try hard this time. I’m going to AA and will see the program through. I’ve already stopped drinking.” A smile filled his face, but when I didn’t give a congratulatory smile in return, it melted. “I’m going to my court date tomorrow and will do whatever I’m told. I hope to be able to stay here and continue working. It’s not a great job, but Nico’s a good man to work for, and I’m busy and being busy is good.”
Nico called for him.
“Right there.” Terry looked back at me. “Look. I’m sorry I spilled Kai’s secret. I’m sure he was going to tell you, then with me showing up . . . just try and give him some time. I know he cares for you. He’s worth the trouble. Not that I’m one to listen to. He’s my son, and I barely know anything about him. That’s no one’s fault but my own. But what I know about him, I can tell you, it’s worth knowing.” Terry nodded and went back to the kitchen.
I plopped onto a stool. That was unexpected. Shocking. I rubbed my forehead and sighed. “Trev, send a couple margaritas to Darlene, please.”
“Thought you weren’t staying.”
I shot him a hard death glare.
He gave me a thumbs-up, and I walked back to the bar and fell heavily onto the stool by Darlene.
“That looked like an intense conversation,” Darlene said. She was eating chips and queso.
“Yeah, you could say that.”
Trevor set the margaritas down. “Here ya go. Is everything okay, Kora?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I was ready to give him a piece of my mind for how rude he’s been to Kai since he showed up, but I couldn’t.” I sipped the margarita in a daze over the news I was trying to digest.
“Yeah. One AA meeting with Nico, and he’s been a different person. Quieter and more focused. His attitude and the chip that he had superglued on his shoulder are both gone.”
I nodded. That wasn’t what I meant, but I wasn’t going to let them in on the news I just received.
“Maybe things will work out. They say that sometimes age changes a person," Trevor said.
“Really?” I already had half my margarita drank and was feeling it. “Who is this all- knowing they ? They always have all the perfect answers.” I sloshed the ice around in my glass.
“Right!” Darlene agreed. “Too bad it wasn’t me. I’d be mom of the year.”
“I thought you already were.” Trevor chuckled as he walked away.
We sat quietly for a bit. I sipped my margarita, and Darlene nibbled at the chips.
“You know, you could go see Kai. Give him the benefit of the doubt.”
I glanced at Darlene and held her gaze. I could. But what would I say to him? Should I let him know I knew his secret or wait to see if he ever got around to telling me? Was I mad that he hadn’t told me, or did I feel like he lied about it? Should I give him the benefit of the doubt as Darlene just suggested? “Benefit of the doubt is yet another overused saying, which makes no sense.”
Darlene glanced up at the ceiling; her lips pursed in thought. “True. It really doesn’t.”
“He knows where I am. I’m sure he has a lot going on. I don’t want to get in his way. Once he decides what he wants to do about us, what he wants to let me know, he can find me.”
“What do you mean?”
I shrugged off that comment. “Nothing.”
Darlene watched me as she took a long sip of her drink.
I tried hard to ignore her. She could always tell when something bothered me, and if she questioned me too much, she knew I’d break. But I didn’t want to say anything until I heard it from Kai.
“What are you going to do all week then to pass your time?” Darlene asked as she relaxed her gaze.
“Well, right now, we need to go shop, and in the next couple days I have plenty of work to do around the farm to keep me occupied. Friday night is a barbecue at my wonderful aunt’s house.”
“Friday night barbecues are back.” Darlene lifted her margarita glass.
“To summertime,” I said as I clinked my glass to hers.
I could act happy. All I had to do was keep busy and keep Kai far from my mind. The ball was in his court—yet another stupid cliché.