Southern Heart (Southern 5)

"Absolutely fucking not," he says and my mother goes to his side and calls his name in a whisper. "Don’t start with me, Savannah. This is not happening."

"Um, with all due respect, Dad,” I say, "I’m twenty-three."

"I don’t care if you’re sixty," he says now. "This is not happening." He uses his finger to go between Mayson and me. "Chelsea, think about your future," he says, and I just look at him, shocked. "This is about what’s at stake right now. Just last month, he was fighting for his life."

I’m about to grab my stuff and walk out of the house. "You can’t just be in a relationship with him. He…" he starts. "He…" But he doesn’t have a chance to finish because Mayson speaks.

"I know I’m not your first choice," Mayson says, and we both look over at him. "Trust me, if I had a daughter, I would not want her with someone like me. I can’t give her what she needs, but I know that I will protect her and love her. I have nothing. I am nothing."

"You are everything,” I say.

"Listen, I know that you have a lot going on right now." My father looks at Mayson.

"He’s me," my mother says, and my father looks over at her. "Right now in that spot." She wipes the tears from her face. "He was me all those years ago."

"No, he’s not," my father says.

"You are judging him because of who his family is," my mother says to my father, the tears just rolling off her cheeks. "You are doing to him what everyone did to me. We are a product of our environment. He is not his father, just as I am not my mother." She shakes her head.

"That is what everyone whispered about me every single time. That is what some of them still say about me." She looks at my father. "How many times did people tell you to walk away from me?" My father doesn’t say anything. "I loved you from afar all those years because I always felt I was nothing."

"Mom," Ethan says, and she looks over at him.

"I feel what he just said." She looks at the whole room. "I felt it deep down to my bones. Knowing that you love this person, yet everyone thinks you aren’t good enough for him. That I wasn’t good enough for you." She looks at my father. "Would you have walked away from me?"

"You know that I wouldn’t," he says, walking to her.

"Then don’t expect your daughter to," she says and bends her head. My father takes her in his arms and kisses her head. She turns and looks over at me, and I have my own tears running down my face. I look over at Emily, who just stands next to Ethan as she kisses his arm.

I look up at Mayson, who just wraps his arm around me and kisses my head as I wrap my arms around his waist. "I’m sorry," my mother says, looking at Mayson. "We taught our kids to accept everyone no matter who they are or where they come from." She looks at my father. "My husband tends to forget sometimes."

"I just don’t want her to get hurt," my father says.

"We are on the same side," Mayson says. "I tried to fight it."

"The heart wants what the heart wants," my mother says, and Ethan and my father both groan. "Excuse me?" she says, putting her hands on her hips. "Did you guys just groan at me?"

"Here we go," Emily says, and Mayson looks at me now.

Ethan and my father start trying to talk to my mother, who ignores them and walks out of the room. "You." My father points at Ethan. "This is your fault."

"You groaned with me," he tells him. "I think your groan was even louder than mine."

My father shakes his head as we hear cupboards in the kitchen slam shut. "She’s pissed," Emily says, grabbing Aubrey from Ethan. "Which means you guys go in that kitchen and say you're sorry."

"Fuck," my father says, running his hands through his hair. “Baby," he says, calling to my mother as he walks out of the room. "I’m sorry."

"I don’t have much experience in this," Mayson says low. "But what the fuck just happened?"

"You just experienced your first family talk," Emily says, "and then a family fight." She smiles at him. "You got a twofer." She kisses her daughter’s head. "Welcome to the family."

The front door opens again, and this time, Gabriel comes running in. "Mom, Dad," he says, ignoring us. "Uncle Toby and Uncle Keith taught me how to shoot a gun."

"Oh, here we go," I say, and Mayson just looks at me. "Family fight number two coming in three, two, one," I say, and we hear the front door slam again.