"Coming!" I called as I stood up and looked around the room one more time. No matter how far I'd gone away from the farm, whenever I came home, I felt like a child again. Today my childhood was officially over. I nodded, smoothed my dress, wiped my eyes, and steeled myself for what was about to come.
"Gracie, it's good to see you," Hope said as she signed to Danny to get the glasses out and fill them up. "How was your trip down?"
"Good, it was good," I said as we exchanged silent looks of pain.
"It's good to have you home for a bit," Faith said as she stirred the vegetables cooking on the stove. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Verity bite her lip as she mixed peas into the salad she had fixed.
"It's good to be home," I said trying to keep things from going south before we ate. "Where are Jacob and Samuel?"
"Oh, they're taking care of some farm business," Hope said in a tone that was a little too bright. "We thought it would be nice to have a family dinner here with all of you."
A small sob escaped Verity's lips and I walked over and put my arm around her whispering encouraging words. Danny looked up from his place at the table and signed, "What's wrong with all of you? You seem very sad."
Hope and Faith shot me looks that told me it was time to break the news. I knew the task was going to fall to me, so I slid in next to Danny on the bench at the table and put my arm around him.
"Where's Honor?" I asked.
"Right here," Honor said as she opened the back door and walked into the kitchen, covered in straw and dirt.
"Okay, well, Danny, we are sad because we have to share some very sad news with you," I began. I had no plan for breaking this news to my fifteen-year-old brother, so I just plowed ahead hoping that my sisters would jump in when necessary. "Danny, Mamm and Dat were in an accident this morning."
"Are they okay?" he frantically signed. "Where are they?"
"No, Danny, they're not okay," I said as I felt the tears welling up again. "Danny, Mamm and Dat were badly hurt and they didn't make it."
"Didn't make it home?" he signed hopefully.
"No, they didn't survive," I said quietly. "Mamm and Dat are gone, Danny."
My brother dropped his head and sat silently staring at the table for a long time, while the rest of us stood utterly still. Suddenly, Danny brought his hands up to cover his face and then let loose a long, thin howl. My sisters and I looked at each other stunned. I squeezed his shoulder tightly as he turned and buried his face in my neck. He held out one hand and signed a single word over and over: "No."
Chapter Eight
Adam
The next morning, I woke up ready to do battle with my best friend, but as usual, Bugsy had found a way to try and disperse the tension to make the problem seem to go away. When I went into the kitchen, I found him making breakfast for us as he sang show tunes.
"Morning," I grunted as I pulled a mug from the cupboard and poured myself a cup of coffee.
"Good morning, my friend," Bugsy said cheerfully. He turned around and I nearly dropped the mug I was holding when I saw he was wearing an apron with the words, "Domesticated bitch" over a picture of a dog holding a spatula.
"You are warped," I said grumpily as I recalled the night before. "And gay."
"I own the first, but reject the second," he replied. "Not that there's anything wrong with it."
"God, you are such an asshole," I said shaking my head as he turned back to the stove and carefully flipped what looked like an omelet.
"And you take life entirely too seriously," he replied as he added cheese and ground pepper to the fluffy, golden mixture in the pan. "Why can't you just let go and have fun for a change?"
"Because my best friend is paying hookers to seduce me!" I shouted as I slammed my fist on the counter. "Goddamnit, Bugsy, do you not see how completely fucked up that is?"
"I only did it to—" he began.
"I know, I know! You only did it for the business!" I shouted. "I'm not the business! I'm a person, Bugsy! Do you have any idea what it's like to have spent my life growing up with parents who hate each other but will band together to hate me more? And on top of that, I have followed in your genetically blessed footsteps and wondered if the girls like me because of me, my father's money, or if they simply want to use me to get closer to you?"
"I had no idea that bothered you so much," he said flipping a perfectly folded omelet onto the plate in front of me and adding a slice of buttered toast on the side.
"Oh bullshit, you've always known," I said as my ego-driven brain tried to convince my rumbling stomach to reject the peace offering. "You just choose to ignore it."