“I did what now?” I snapped even though his tone convinced me I was guilty and in trouble, and it was so serious that perhaps I’d killed our pet dog, except we didn’t have any pets.
It’d been a long time since I saw him this angry, like literally years. I think that was when Sam and I almost tore up our mother’s wedding gown when we were moving it into storage. We didn’t think it was a big deal. Hey, it was going to storage, so it couldn’t have been all that important. But for our dad, since her passing, it had become one of his most sacred treasures.
I hadn’t even gotten to close the door when Sam entered behind me, and Dad immediately bellowed at him too.
“Right, the two of you. You are eighteen now. What the hell am I supposed to do with you?”
Sam and I looked at one another and then at Dad. We didn’t know what the hell we did, but whatever I’d done, it was bad. Big-time bad.
And straight away, my mind went to Grace. Did it have something to do with her? Was she all right?
Sam closed the door behind us. “Uh, Dad, we realize you’re very angry at us right now for whatever reason, but I would greatly appreciate it if you explained why.”
He grumbled.
I noticed that he had his hands balled into tight fists. His knuckles were white.
Really, Dad? No. That was not happening. There was nothing we could have done that was that bad.
Dad was never a physically abusive type. He was a high-ranking man in education, after all.
As a single parent, he was wise enough to take notes elsewhere and knew outright beating the shit out of us was not on. The fists? Just a sign of his pent up anger. And I had no idea why.
“You damn well know how you’ve been toward Grace. Nancy has told me about how her daughter is so terrified of you that she won’t come home. God help me if you ruin this for me, boys. Grace and Nancy are our family now, and you will treat them both that way, or I will... I will...” His face became redder with anger, and his fists shook.
I had never seen him so angry, and doubted whether there was any way of calming this situation down.
But what the hell had Gracey so terrified?
“Dad, we didn’t do anything bad to Gray, Grace, I swear it,” Sam pleaded. “We’ve treated her with nothing but respect always, man.”
“Yeah, Dad, there must be a mistake. A misunderstanding. We love her, er, like family. I mean, she was a good friend long before we ever knew about you and Nancy.”
“Last we saw her was this morning when I made her breakfast. She seemed happy. At least it wasn’t Ry doing the cooking. That might be another story.”
That was a loaded, under-the-radar way of expressing ourselves. But it seemed to work—I sensed Dad calmed down, just a little, as he heard reason and sincerity in our words.
“I’m sorry,” I said, suddenly deciding to try a different tack. “Whatever we may have done, if we did something cruel, it’s from miscommunication, and we’ll go and apologize to Grace as soon as we can.”
He grumbled, and his face’s color faded back to a much more natural shade. “I know you boys mean well. I’ve raised you to respect women and not be like that. But please. Be careful. Nancy means the world to me, and that means her daughter matters deeply to me too. And women are sensitive.”
Sam nodded, seeing my ‘not-denying’ strategy working. “I’m sorry. I really want your marriage to work out.”
“You two still matter greatly to me too. Please, if you two would do me a favor, she’s home tonight. Please go to her, apologize, and try to work everything out. Nancy and I would greatly appreciate it.”
I nodded. “Sure, Dad.” Of course, hearing she was home filled me with nefarious schemes to make her happy, which were completely unrelated to what Dad had in mind. I glanced toward Sam once again, getting that twin-telepathy sense; I knew what he was thinking. It was dirty.
An opportunity to apologize to her created an opportunity to spend some time with her. To enjoy her. To have her. To figure out why she continued to spurn us, as well as what might be going on between her and Noah and Brandon. AKA, the competition.
“Thank you, boys. There should be plates in the fridge if you’re still looking for dinner. Now you two behave.”
“We’ll go see Gray first. Right, bro? Clear this mess up.”
“Right.”
“She’s in her room.” Dad looked as if he breathed easier while he directed us to go to the bedroom of a teenage woman. If only he knew it was like directing piranhas to their favorite meal.