Chapter 17
Dakota
When Hank left this morning, I tried everything in my arsenal to convince him to stay. It was Saturday, so he had the day off from farm work. At one point when I got up to go to the bathroom, I walked in front of him completely naked. He’d groaned and told me I wasn’t playing fair, but in my defense, I wasn’t playing at all. I’d returned to the warm bed, slithered up beside him, and then started rubbing. He sighed, gave me a kiss, and then got up. He’d promised he’d make it up to me and left.
I kept myself busy today with cookout preparations, and Jack has been shooting hoops for the last hour or so. Lou texted me earlier to let me know they were running late, and now I’m just waiting for Hank to come and fire up the grill. I made a bunch of cold salads to go with the steaks since it’s been so hot lately, and I’ve got a giant pitcher of lemonade, too.
“Hey, Mom! They’re here!” Jack burst through the door so hard it bounced where it hit the wall. “Sorry.” He cringed when he realized what he did.
“Why don’t you go wash up?” I motioned toward the bathroom. I dried my hands on a towel as I went over to see if my sister needed any help. She was bent over with her top half in the back seat. Charlie was standing there watching, and Amy looked as if she was upset about something. Her eyes were downcast, and she had her hand knotted in front of her.
“Go say hi.” Charlie motioned gruffly toward me.
“Do you need any help?” I asked, but Lou didn’t look up.
“She’s fine. Cooked way too much, if you ask me.” He came over and walked past me into the living room.
“Hi, Aunt Codie.” Amy waved.
“Hey, sweetie. Jack is in there watching TV if you wanna go find him.” She smiled softly and went inside, leaving Lou and me out by the car alone. “Lou, do you need me to grab anything?” I touched the back of her shoulder, and she jumped at the contact. I recoiled and waited.
“I’m fine.” She stood and when she faced me, I could see she’d been crying.
“What’s wrong?” I attempted to comfort her, but she shook her head.
“I’m fine. I forgot to mention that we were doing this, and Charlie had already made plans. It was just a misunderstanding that I could have prevented. We got in a bit of a disagreement on the way here.” She brushed it off as if it were nothing, but I sensed there was more to it.
“Ok, well we can do this another time if you guys want to?”
“No, we’re here now. He can reschedule his plans.” She gave a half smile as she carried the casserole dish inside. “I made Mom’s beans, and I have a cake in the back.” She motioned as I looked in the back seat. I grabbed the cake and followed her inside.
After setting the cake on the counter, I offered everyone a drink, then noticed that Hank was out back lighting the grill. He must have just walked over from the bunkhouse. “Got anything stronger?” Charlie smirked when he sipped the lemonade.
“I have some wine I opened the other night,” I offered.
“I was thinking a man’s drink, like whiskey.” He chuckled as he set the lemonade on the counter.
“Sorry, no, but Hank might have some at the bunkhouse. I can ask him,” I offered.
“No, you don’t need to do that,” Lou tossed out and Charlie glared at her. “You can have a drink when we get home.” She tried to placate him. He shook his head and rolled his eyes before going outside. I stood there in disbelief as he went from cold to friendly when talking to Hank. As soon as the back door closed, I watched him strike up a friendly conversation as if he didn’t just snap at his wife over a drink.
“It’s been a rough day for him.” Lou brushed it off. “Can I help with anything?”
“I think we’re good. Once the steaks are finished, we can serve our plates and eat.” I smiled. I could hear laughter coming from down the hall, and it made my heart happy. Amy was just a year younger than Jack, and it’s the first time he’s really had to time to play with kids his age. He didn’t really unwind when we had a big family dinner.
“I hope things go this smoothly when school starts back up. He really doesn’t have any friends yet,” I lamented.
“I think he’ll be fine.” Lou smiled. “Kids can handle more than we give them credit for.”
Dinner conversation was filled with talk of school starting in a few days, and how I was settling in now that Dad finally let me start helping. I was surprised when Lou mentioned that she doesn’t make it out here that often. She only lives one town over, but Charlie really didn’t say much. He mentioned that they were busy a lot and they didn’t really have time to come out.
After we finished, Lou helped me clean up, and then Charlie mentioned that they needed to leave. He had some big meeting in the morning that Lou didn’t seem to know about. We hugged and promised to set another day to meet up, and they all left.
“That was odd.” I brushed it off as I sat down beside Hank on the couch. Jack had gone back in his room to play. “She usually seems so happy, but tonight was just… tense.”
“Maybe there’s something going on that we don’t know about,” Hank suggested as I leaned over against him. He wrapped his arms around me and ran his fingers through my hair. “Sometimes family doesn’t share everything. Maybe they just have to work it out.”
“I guess. We were just always so close growing up. Part of me knows something isn’t right.” I chewed on my lip. “Maybe I’ll stop by her place this week just to say hi. Amy will be in school, and Charlie will be at work. I’ll convince her to open up to me.”
“Well, don’t get upset if that doesn’t work. I know you, and I know you aren’t going to give up here.” He pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
“What do you mean? She’s my sister.” I sat up and stared at him.
“I’m just sayin’, she’s not the teenager she was when you moved away. You came home what, like two times, one of those for her wedding? People change as they grow, and she might have grown more than you realize.”
“She’s still my sister though, and I know that something is off.” I shook my head.
We spent the remainder of the night aimlessly flipping through the stations, trying to find something to watch. Hank went back to the bunkhouse late. I’d wanted him to stay, but we also agreed that we’d just talked to Jack about this and didn’t want to rush things. Hank would be able to spend more time with us soon. The Harvest Festival was next month, and then things would slow down around here until spring planting. “I’ll come over in the morning and we can have breakfast together,” he murmured as he pressed a kiss to my cheek. “I love you.” He stepped outside and into the darkness. I watched as he turned toward the bunkhouse and followed his dark figure until he slipped inside. When I came back in, I turned the lights off and made my way to bed. I was tired and the thought of slipping between the cool sheets sounded heavenly.
After changing into my PJs, I laid down and closed my eyes. It took no time for sleep to claim me, and the sounds of the crickets were a welcomed lullaby.
I was deep in sleep when I heard a banging on what sounded like the door. My eyes flew open and it took me a moment to get my bearings. The banging sounded again, and I sat up and rushed down the hall. I rubbed my eyes to clear the sleep when the banging started back up. “I’m coming!” I called, hoping not to wake Jack. When I flipped the porch light on, my sister was standing there. “What’s going on?” I flung the door open. Amy was clinging to Lou and a suitcase was on the ground beside them.
“I didn’t know where else I could go.” She looked at me, wide-eyed. A bruise was starting to form on her cheek. “Can we come in?”
“Of course.” I stepped back and let them in. I stuck my head out to see if anyone else was out there before closing and locking the door.
Lou stood in the kitchen; Amy had gone to lay on the couch. “What happened?” I looked around. “Where’s Charlie?”
“Charlie is at home. We can’t go back there tonight. Do you think we could sleep here?” She wrapped her arms around herself as if giving herself a hug.
“Sure. There’s more room in the big house, though.” I rushed down the hall to grab some pillows.
“I can’t tell Mom and Dad about this yet. I just need a place for tonight. I’ll go home tomorrow. He’ll be better by then.” She tried to smile.
“This is a pull-out.” I pointed to the couch. Amy got up, and we opened the sofa into a bed.
“Thanks. Really, I’ll be gone tomorrow.” Lou hugged me.
“You wanna talk about this?” I offered. “Did Charlie hit you?”
“It’s nothing. I just want to go to bed. I’m really tired.” She sat down on the pull-out.
“I’m just down the hall if you need me.” I waved as I turned to attempt to go back to sleep. I knew I’d be thinking about this the remainder of the night, but Lou made it clear that she didn’t want to talk about it. I could hear soft whispers coming from the two of them as they settled in, and then it was quiet again.
*****
When I woke the next morning, Lou and Amy were gone. The couch was made back up and ‘Thank you’ was written on a small scrap of paper on the counter. Other than the note, there was no sign that they’d even been there. I tapped out a quick text to Lou.
Are you ok?
She responded that she was fine and not to worry. I don’t know how she thought I wouldn’t worry. When Jack woke up later that morning, I asked him if Amy said anything to him about her dad. He said no, and I didn’t push. I wondered if this was a one-time thing, or if Lou had just been hiding it and if so, for how long?