Chapter 40
CHAPTER FORTY
DELANEY
I hadn’t spoken with Trace about me confronting his mother, and as we pulled up in front of his parents’ house, I was starting to realize that it might have been a mistake.
It wasn’t that I was hiding it from him. It just genuinely hadn’t seemed important enough.
I glanced back into the back seat at Cade peering out the window with his mouth hanging open at the sight of the house in front of him. I couldn’t blame him. This was pretty much my reaction the first time I’d seen this house, too. I’d had no idea that people actually lived in houses like this.
But now that I was older, now that I knew all about what life had been like for those who grew up inside, I saw this house for what it really was—cold, empty, and nowhere I’d ever want any child of mine growing up.
“Trace…”
“I know. If anything seems off, if he says anything that we don’t agree with, we can leave.”
I could hear the stress in his voice, and I knew this wasn’t going to be easy for him. Trace didn’t entirely trust his father, and we had no way of knowing if he’d been involved in what had been done to us.
“I was going to ask if you were okay.”
Cade popped his head between the seats. “Yeah, you look a bit like you’re going to puke.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Trace stared at the house through the windshield and then huffed out a breath. “Is it strange that I’m nervous?” he asked.
“You have to feel your feelings, otherwise they make big angry balls of energy inside you,” Cade told him sagely.
I looked at him in surprise. “What? Auntie Blake told me that.”
“She’s a smart lady that Blake,” Trace said, nodding slowly and looking impressed.
“You’re not wrong there.” I laughed. “But maybe let’s not tell her. She’s hard enough to deal with as it is.”
Trace laughed and then reached for the car door, slipping out as he stared up at the house. I had an overwhelming urge to protect him from this. I knew what he was worried about. He was worried this was all an ambush and his mother would be joining us, hoping we’d be far too polite to just walk out. She was greatly overestimating my ability to deal with her bullshit.
I was just about to tell Trace that we could leave if he wanted to when the front door to the Farrington family home opened. Well, let’s just call it what it was. It was a massive mansion.
Trace’s father appeared in the doorway. His face broke into a smile, and then he jogged down the steps.
I’d briefly seen Jasper Farrington at my father’s funeral, but he hadn’t tried to talk to me. This was the first chance I’d had to really get a good look at him. He seemed different from how I remembered. Obviously, he was older, but it was more than that. He’d lost weight, and he just seemed…tired.
“Trace, Delaney!”
Jasper walked over and hugged Trace. Then he turned to me, and I froze. I really hoped this wasn’t a hugging type of situation. There was no way I was going to be comfortable with that.
I felt Cade move behind me, his hand touching my back as he waited to see what was going to happen. I knew he was nervous about this whole thing, even if he was trying not to show it. Part of me just wanted to put him back in the car and drive away. We didn’t need this level of aggravation in our life.
But this was an opportunity that I had to at least consider because it gave Cade a family. Not a family I’d ever thought I’d turn back to. And there was no way I’d ever be prepared to include Regina in that. But if Trace’s father was as innocent in all of this as we were, was it really fair to punish him by keeping his only grandson away?
“Delaney,” Jasper said, holding his hand to shake mine. “I’m so glad that you agreed to come for lunch with Cade. I know how difficult this must be for you, and I want to assure you that I’ve made it clear to my wife that she is not welcome at the house today.”
Now that was surprising.
Had Regina moved out or just left for the day?
“Jasper. It’s been a long time.”
“It has, my dear. My condolences on your father. He will be greatly missed in this town. A lot of people, including myself, had a large amount of respect for your father. He was a good man.”
I felt that familiar twinge behind my eyes at the mention of my father being gone, even if it was now accompanied by an anger I wasn’t prepared to deal with. Not yet, at least. I didn’t have it in me to deal with what my father had been involved in.
Trace wasn’t the only one who needed therapy to deal with this whole mess.
I didn’t want to downplay what he was going through, but in a way, it felt so much worse for me to know that my father had been involved. I’d always known Regina was an awful person. It was easy to believe that she was capable of something like this. I guessed that was why I was having such a hard time with my feelings for my father. It was almost impossible to rectify the person I thought my father had been and the things he’d done.
“And you must be Cade,” Jasper said, looking behind me at Cade.
He smiled widely as he held out his hand for Cade, and he stepped forward to shake.
“It’s nice to meet you, sir,” Cade said quietly.
Jasper’s smile stretched even bigger. “Such a polite kid. You don’t have to call me sir. I’d love for you to call me Grandpa, but if you’re not ready for that yet, Jasper will do just fine.”
My eyes flicked to Trace. Cade had yet to call him Dad, and I didn’t know how he’d feel if he started to call Jasper Grandpa first.
Thankfully, Cade just nodded and didn’t say anything.
“Now, shall we go inside for something to eat? I had the cook make us a fine spread for lunch. Tell me, Cade, what’s your favorite subject in school?” Jasper wrapped an arm around Cade’s shoulders and the two of them walked into the house while Cade launched into a detailed explanation of every subject he took at school, along with the pros and cons of each.
He might wish he hadn’t asked such an open question in about fifteen minutes. It did, however, buy us some time.
I turned to Trace to find him watching his father with a frown on his face.
“Are you okay?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t think I was ever going to come back to this place. Honestly, I’ve tried to stay away as much as I could ever since I moved away for college.” He paused for a moment, but I could tell he wasn’t quite finished. “Do you really think he didn’t know anything about it all?”
I shook my head. I knew the answer he was looking for, but I didn’t have it for him.
“I don’t know, Trace. I think that’s something you need to ask him.”
He sighed sadly and then held out his hand for me. I took it and squeezed gently.
“We can do it together,” I added.
Trace squeezed his eyes closed, and then, when he opened them again, he had his game face on.
“Let’s do this,” he said resolutely, stepping up the front steps to the door. “Time to face the things that happened in this house and finally put them behind me.”
This was going to be an interesting lunch.
There were painfully awkward situations that you had to suffer through in life, and then there was what we were currently going through right now.
I stared at the final piece of hot dog in my hand, wondering if trying to choke on it was justified.
Then Jasper cleared his throat for the ten millionth time, and I braced myself for the next awkward attempt at conversation.
I could do this. It was for Trace. We were trying to salvage what he had left of his family.
“So, your mother…”
The hot dog was really starting to look like the best option. But then Trace’s panicked eyes darted to mine and then over to Cade. I knew exactly what he was thinking. He didn’t want this to happen in front of Cade, and I could have dropped to my knees to thank him for the way out he was giving to me.
“Why don’t you go and show Cade the swimming pool?” Trace interrupted.
I could hear the strain in his voice, and there was a part of me that wanted to say no. That wanted to stay at his side and see him through this.
“Swimming pool!” Cade jumped out of his seat and started to look around the back patio like it was hidden behind the strategically placed hydrangeas Regina had definitely not planted herself.
I slowly stood, still trying to figure out if I should stay despite my earlier need to run at any cost.
“You sure?” I finally asked, giving up all pretense of making a graceful exit from this situation. Not that choking on a hot dog would have been all that ladylike.
Honestly, I didn’t know if a hot dog had ever been allowed in this house before. Either Regina really was gone, or Jasper was doing whatever he could to try to make a connection with his grandson.
Trace nodded, taking my hand and kissing my knuckles before he turned back to his father and hitting him with a glare I’d never seen on his face before.
The message was clear. Don’t speak again until my son has left.
Was it wrong that there was something hot about that?