Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 36691 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36691 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
After the kids get home and we have dinner, I go out. I need to be alone. I need space to think and process my failed marriage. I had hoped that with me suggesting I go with her, she’d change her mind about taking Amelie, and give up on the notion that our daughter needs this life experience. I know Amelie probably better than she knows herself. She’s not going to be happy once the newness of the adventure wears off. She doesn’t like dirt or being overly hot. Sharing isn’t her idea of fun either and I’m fairly certain Aubrey hasn’t told her that she doesn’t get to bring any of her electronic devices or any of her things when they go out on a mission. Which, knowing the agency, will be right away. Then what’s Aubrey going to do with a bored ten-year-old who isn’t accustomed to the lifestyle Aubrey grew up with? Should we have introduced the kids to the work their grandparents do? Absolutely. Did we? No, we failed in that department of parenting.
I drive around for hours until I find myself in the parking lot of the liquor store. The red sign hums from the electricity surging through the neon bulbs. The Q is out and has been for at least ten, if not fifteen years. My phone rings and Josie’s name shows on the screen in my car. I press the button.
“Hey.”
“Hi, just checking to make sure Mack is still coming with us?”
“Yeah, he is.”
“Great. I’ll let Noah and Paige know. Just pack him whatever warm clothes he has. I’ll order him a ski suit thingy or whatever they’re called.”
“Thanks. I can pay you.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it.”
“Does he need to bring anything?”
“No, I think between Jenna, Katelyn, and myself we’ll have it all covered.”
I nod and look out the window. “Thanks, Josie. You don’t know how much this means to him. And to me.”
“It’s our pleasure.”
We hang up and I sit there, contemplating if I want to go into the store or just go home. I hate that I left Mack there without a buffer. He doesn’t deserve what’s going on. Neither does Amelie. Siblings pitted against each other because parents can’t figure their shit out can’t be fun. He wants to stay. She wants to go. The Ashford men want one thing, while the women in our lives want something that tears our family apart.
It's now or never. I go inside and grab a six pack of bottles. Always bottles. And I pay in cash because that’s the only thing they take. I suppose that’s why the Q is still out on the sign. The books are cooked. Mind you, this is also the place in town that never looks twice at an ID, so I guess it’s no surprise. It doesn’t matter if the name on it says Santa Claus, they’ll let you buy beer. None of the cops in town have ever busted them because they’d all have to admit they bought beer illegally when they were minors. There isn’t a single person in town that’ll rat this place out.
In Beaumont, when you have a six pack of bottles, there’s only one place you go to drink it—the water tower—and hopefully Liam wins his legal battle against the city to keep it up. Otherwise, where will we go? Or rather, where will the kids go . . . because this place is for them. At least, that’s what us old asses keep telling ourselves.
I’m not surprised to see Liam’s truck when I pull in. In fact, I’m happy he’s here. I have to talk to him, man-to-man, something we’ve never been able to do. Honestly, I think he still wants to pound my head into the ground because Josie and I were together, and Noah calls me Dad. Thank God for Noah or I’d be dead.
“Liam!” I don’t yell his name but say it loud enough he should hear me. If I know him at all, he’s rolling his eyes and cursing under his breath. He hates me. I get it.
“What do you want, Ashford?”
Yep, totally hates me. But he likes my son and that’s what is important.
I climb the ladder and sit down next to him.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” he asks.
Instead of answering, I pop the top on a bottle and hand it to him, and then after opening one for myself, I take a long pull off mine. I have no idea where to start. “Josie called. She said Mack is welcome to come to Vermont after Christmas.”
“He is.”
I don’t think Liam knows how much that means to me. Or how much it means that I’ve had a relationship with Noah for all these years. Losing Josie was one thing, but losing Noah . . . I don’t think I would’ve been able to handle it.